WHILE THE DEMOCRATS SLEPT

Forgive my foray into American history. I barely knew America before I passed into my present state: eternal satirist. I always thought America had great potential. Still believe that.

But, somewhere in my memory I remember a conversation with my American friend Ben Franklin. He spoke of some brilliant courageous move by George Washington leading the American troops in some ships across the Delaware River at night. The British troops were sleeping. The Americans surprised them with the night time attack and won a big victory.

That appears to have been what happened this Tuesday when Republican Senatorial candidate Scott Brown upset the Democratic candidate Martha Coakley in a special election for a U.S. Senate seat from Massachusetts, a Democratic stronghold.

I just finished the New York Times article on the election. It appears that all the top Democrats were sleeping, vacationing, inept or some combination thereof. Coakley, who probably would have made a fine Senator, was an inept and arrogant campaigner. In a sports crazy state she knew little or nothing about Boston Red Sox history. She found the gritty work of politics distasteful.

The Dems in the White House, who are some of the finest political organizers around, took Massachusetts for granted until it was too late.

I was having coffee this morning with Harry and Bess Truman, who had just finished one of their brisk walks. We were talking about the Massachusetts Senatorial election. Harry and Bess told me that Harry and his team had upset Tom Dewey in the 1948 Presidential race in a similar way. Dewey had been so far ahead in the polls in the summer of 1948 that he and his team stopped campaigning for quite some time. Until it was too late.

Repeating the mistakes of the past. That what the Democrats did on this one.

That is it for today. I am going running.


Voltaire


Voltaire