The Media is in its own World

When it comes to politics and the news, two interrelated but entirely different things, there are really two worlds: the world everyday people and most public officials live in, and the world where the mainstream news exists. So, when the NY Times says Warren survived the state convention despite "flailing" over the past week, it's important to note that the NY Times is only describing the news as it exists within the very small bubble of the Main Stream Media.

The reality that the rest of us live in is a different story. A "flailing campaign" is not one that's evening up the polls and winning statewide conventions by record numbers. A "flailing campaign" is a candidate like Marisa DeFranco's, who lost 96% of the statewide delegate votes and had to pay her way through a signature drive.

What Elizabeth Warren has done in this campaign is truly record breaking. She went from a no-name candidate to someone who's amassed thousands and thousands of volunteers and enthusiastic supporters in the case of a few months. She's raising gazillions of dollars from mostly small donors, eschewing the typical Wall Street folks that dominate many statewide campaigns.

She's doing all of this against an incumbent with the thin but unmistakable veneer of popularity and likability. 

There is simply no precedent for what she's doing. Only in the world of the media could one of the single greatest primary campaign in this state's history be deemed as 'flailing,' simply because of media-contrived stories that the public -- in poll after poll -- states they don't give a damn about. It's amazing what they're doing, but not surprising.

Eventually, they'll be forced by the strength of the Warren campaign to actually report the race, just like Deval Patrick's campaign forced them to do... and when that happens, when those two worlds combined, Scott Brown's thin veneer will not only wear off, but his whole campaign will fall apart. At least, that's Ryan's Take. 

Never let a crisis go to waste

Paul Krugman gets at what "austerity" is really about: dismantling government.

NYT: The Austerity Agenda

A Call to Convention

Elizabeth Warren didn't need to spend tens of thousands of dollars to buy her way onto the ballot. Doing so, in fact, would have been much easier than organizing the tens of thousands of supporters and volunteers who have been electrified by the Warren campaign.

We haven't seen this kind of engagement by the activist base of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts since 2006, when Deval Patrick did something no one has since the Dukakis era: created a massive volunteer army.

In fact, with all due respect to the Governor, what Warren's been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time is even more impressive -- and I don't say that lightly. No one's attracted so many people, so quickly, as Warren has in Massachusetts. It's unprecedented and it's our best weapon against Scott Brown.

So, the question is, where does Marisa DeFranco fit in with all of this?

I'd like to say this primary is useful, like in 2006. Back then, the Governor benefited from being able to build up steam in the primary, igniting something that fascinated the media and enraptured hundreds of thousands of voters who were "checked out" for decades of voting before.

All of that happened, in part, because of the primary. Yet, Marisa DeFranco is no Tom Reilly or Chris Gabrieli. She isn't even a Christy Mihos. She's a comical sideshow that's raging behind the scenes, for anyone aware of the show. She's spouting Scott Brown lines, one after another, hoping one will stick and bring her act to Broadway. That dog ain't hunting.

The ultimate embarrassment is her continual campaign spiel about how she's the real grassroots candidate, but admits she only has 40 volunteers and has only raised only $40,000, the vast majority of which would have been needed to buy her way onto the ballot via paid signature collecting.

Years ago, I decided a barometer I'd use for any campaign in the state would be paid signature collecting. It's simply a disrespectful act toward democracy to go out and buy some private company to pay people a dollar a signature (or more) to put someone or something on the ballot. It's led to extreme abuse and has been the constant tool by bigoted or corporate groups to get things on the ballot.

DeFranco may be shocked to learn this, but she isn't entitled to be on the ballot. Buying signatures alone isn't enough. Thankfully, we -- the activist base of this party -- have an opportunity to do what party leaders can't and tell DeFranco she's toast, by denying her access at the convention.

If any of your delegate-friends waver, feeling guilty about dropping someone from the ballot for the first time in a long time, remember to tell them just what kind of a campaign DeFracno's run. Remember to tell them just what's at stake in November. Only one candidate at the convention can take on Wall Street and actually act as a force of nature to give everyday American families a fair shot. Any other vote is a vote for Scott Brown.

The Joe Mullin 3rd Middlesex Podcast

Mike and I had Joe Mullin on for State Representative, thus completing all the candidate interviews for democrats running in the race.

 Click for the LeftAhead blog on it, including links to all the candidate interviews.

 It's an impressive bunch of people and Mullin was no exception. The Mullin show below:

 

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The Hazards of Family Lore, 2012 Style

I doubt there's a family in existence which doesn't have some kind of lore to it, often going back generations. Some of it may be true, some of it may be a certain kind of true (as Obiwan would put it) and some of it may be tall tales from old grandmothers and aunts. You never know. 

According to my family lore, my great grandfather and great grandmother on my mother's side were both Irish citizens. They fled Ireland and moved to America for a better future. 

This is what my mother believed and, thus, it's what I was taught growing up. I had dreams of my mother getting a tiny, rural Irish cottage, now that she's on the road to retiring. I figured it would be no sweat, since gaining her gaining Irish citizenship seemed like no sweat -- because that's where her grandfather was born. I  even had dreams of visiting it and connecting with my Irish roots.

Yet, if I were running for US Senate today and I said that was my background, Scott Brown would be calling me a liar. 

My mother's been doing genealogy research lately and, low and behold, she pinned down the fact that my great grandfather was actually born in Newfoundland, Canada. It was his family that was descended from Ireland, but even then, he was a generation or two removed. We were both shocked.

The point is that we all have very little knowledge of what came before us, even if we had that aunt or uncle we were told knew all about the family history and they "could trace it back 500 years!"  That aunt or uncle's genealogical prowess could quite likely be greatly exaggerated, or they could have passed without passing that knowledge on or keeping good records of it -- so only the lore remain. 

None of this is to say Elizabeth Warren's family history is wrong. Elizabeth Warren's great-great grandfather could very well be Cherokee, but we'll probably never know. 

Documentation of that kind, from that era, is almost impossible to find for anyone, never mind someone who would been around the freaking Trail of Tears, one of the worst and sorriest incidents in American history. Very little was left of the Cherokee nation after that, and a lot of records were lost -- to say nothing of land or culture.

That's why I get really PO'd about these Elizabeth Warren stories about her Native American background.

We'll probably never know just how Cherokee her great-great grandfather was, but what does it matter? She was told a bit of family lore, family lore that made her proud, and now it's being twisted and warped.

At the end of the day, this is a complete non-issue. Judging by the polls, the people get it, too. 

Just look at latest Suffolk News poll, which showed Elizabeth Warren gaining 8 points and tying the race up. That's saying something in and of itself, but things become even clearer when looking at the other questions. 72% of those polled knew of the story and 69% didn't think it was a big deal. That's not 69% of the 72%, but 69% of the entire poll. 

In other words, this is a total non-issue. It's time the media figure that out and actually get to the stuff that matters. Otherwise, it's giving a free pass to the incumbent, who dearly wants to talk about anything -- except the stuff that matters. The reason is simple: as soon as people realize he's for oil tax subsidies, zero accountability on Wall Street and doubling the interest rates on student loans, his campaign is sunk.

Schilling's getting millions from from Rhode Island

Was there ever any question?

Curt Schilling, Mr. Conservative... the hypocrisy astounds.

Happy Anniversary, Massachusetts

Marriage Equality has been the laws of the land in Massachusetts for 8 years, today. Congrats!

Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics... and more Lies

So, if there's lies, damned lies and statistics... what do we call it when the statistics are baloney?

The state of the Tierney-Tisei campaign, from the Salem News, reveals this tidbit on the two campaigns' dueling polls:

Tierney's camp, however, said the GOP poll "has a double-digit Republican bias," noting that the same poll showed U.S. Sen. Scott Brown with "an implausible 24-point lead" over Democratic rival Elizabeth Warren. Statewide, the two are virtually tied. 

In fact, the GOP poll does have elevated Republican representation, GOP poll author John McLaughlin said in an email to The Salem News.

Now, I have no idea who is 'winning' this race, but when a campaign releases a poll that shows it's 'up' by doubling the size of Republicans in the poll, that's just making shit up.

Given how expensive polls are, there aren't likely to be many good polls in this race going forward, but it's always a good bet to take what the candidates have to say on the horse-race stuff with a grain of salt. Especially the media.