A new InsiderAdvantage poll conducted exclusively for POLITICO shows Republican Scott Brown holding a 9-point advantage over Martha Coakley a day before Massachusetts voters trek to the ballot box to choose a new senator.
According to the survey conducted Sunday evening by the non-partisan firm, Brown leads the Democratic attorney general 52 percent to 43 percent.
"I actually think the bottom is falling out," said InsiderAdvantage CEO Matt Towery, referring to Coakley’s fall in the polls over the last ten days. "I think that this candidate is in freefall. Clearly this race is imploding for her."
"Men are not going to vote for Coakley at all. You have a very angry male voter who’s repudiating whatever is being said in Washington and they’re taking it out on this woman. And independents are clearly going to the Republican in droves. What’s left are the Democratic voters," said Towery, who is a former aide to Newt Gingrich.
And the survey shows almost a quarter of Democratic voters lining up with Brown.
"When there’s a nine-point difference, it’s awfully hard to shave off enough
Massachusetts Senate Race Update: Youth Rail Against Obamacare
by ilene - January 18th, 2010 9:41 pm
Massachusetts Senate Race Update: Youth Rail Against Obamacare
Courtesy of Mish
Here is a list of the most Recent Massachusetts Senate Polls from Right Pundits.
Given polling trends, it is reasonable to completely discount all polls prior to 1-14-2010. Moreover it would be reasonable to overweight the most recent polls, taken in the last two days.
The average of the last two days is:
Coakley 44.25
Brown 50.50
The average of the previous three days is:
Coakley 44.75
Brown 48.25
Two of the polls are arguably outliers, the PJM poll on the 15th (heavily skewed to Brown and the R2000 poll skewed to Coakley on the 14th.
Tossing those results out and averaging the six polls looks like this:
Coakley 44.66
Brown 50.00
No matter how you play with the results, Coakley does not exceed 45% of the vote. Kennedy, a Libertarian (no relation to Ted Kennedy) is expected to get 2-3%.
New Sunday Evening Poll
By the way, that table of results does not include still one more recent poll. Please consider New poll: Brown up 9.
Joyce Carol Oates on Teddy Kennedy
by ilene - August 28th, 2009 5:31 pm
Joyce Carol Oates on Teddy Kennedy
Courtesy of Christopher Fountain’s For What It’s Worth
The Norwichj Millionaire sends along this link. Oates is kinder to the man than I would be, or at least she leaves open a question that I would answer in a manner different from the man’s present mourners.
At Chappaquiddick, having been drinking and partying with young women aides of his brother Robert Kennedy, Senator Kennedy, at this time a married man and a father, slipped away with 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, who was trapped in his car after he took a wrong turn off the Chappaquiddick bridge, lost control of his car which was submerged in just eight feet of water.
Kennedy chose to flee the scene , leaving the young woman to die an agonising death not of drowning but of suffocation over a period of hours. Incredibly, it was 10 hours before Kennedy reported the accident, by which time he’d consulted a family lawyer. The senator’s explanation for this unconscionable, despicable, unmanly and inexplicable behaviour was never convincing: he claimed that he’d struck his head and was “confused” and “exhausted” from diving and trying to rescue the young woman and had gone home to bed.
There followed a media circus, as all of the world rushed to Chappaquiddick to expose Kennedy’s behaviour and to speculate on his future. Yet, appealing to his lawyer and not rather seeking emergency help for the trapped Mary Jo Kopechne would seem, in retrospect, to have been a felicitous move.
If Kennedy had summoned aid, he would very likely have given police officers self-incriminating evidence, which might have involved charges of vehicular manslaughter or homicide. The local prosecutor was not nearly so outraged by Kennedy’s behaviour as other prosecutors might have been: the charges were “failing to report an accident” and “leaving the scene of an accident.” The punishment: two months’ probation.
That the Kennedys had always been a family operating outside the perimeters of the sort of legal restrictions that bind other citizens to “moral” behaviour publicly, is well known; no occasion so exemplifies this than Chappaquiddick and the subsequent cooperative silence of the Kopechne family who agreed never to speak of the tragedy.
One is led to think of Tom and Daisy Buchanan of Fitzgerald’s the Great Gatsby, rich individuals accustomed to behaving carelessly and allowing others to
Edward Moore Kennedy: 1932-2009
by ilene - August 26th, 2009 1:37 pm
Powerful, brief, tribute to Ted Kennedy, might evoke a few tears.
Edward Moore Kennedy: 1932-2009
Courtesy of Edward Harrison at Credit Writedowns
Senator Ted Kennedy died last night after a year’s battle with cancer. However one might feel about his politics, one must admit that Ted Kennedy had a remarkable life, one that is celebrated in the video clip below.
TED KENNEDY DIES AT AGE 77
by ilene - August 26th, 2009 10:45 am
RIP Ted Kennedy, you will be missed.
TED KENNEDY DIES AT AGE 77
Courtesy of Joe Weisenthal at Clusterstock