Bill Weld endorses Scott Brown

But as you can see from this photo, Weld did it in a dangerous state of sobriety, so I don't think it counts.
Pretty gutsy for Brown to collect the endorsement of a real republican, normally he is hot for stray and disgruntled democrats to support his candidacy...

7.8 percent unemployment rate?

Hell, I'll take it....any port in a storm as they say down on Drydock Avenue in South Boston.
I think the economy may be reviving somewhat out there, however I have but anecdotal evidence to support this contention.
I know an colleague  who is my age living in recession-wracked Ohio, left one job and was in training for another gig in but three weeks time...fifty somethings like Humble Elias usually have a hellish time changing jobs especially when blessed with advanced degrees in the Humanities.  And there just seems to be more...money floating around out there looking for something to git started...
What the President must needs be doing is flog this sumbitch remind all that any progress on unemployment is exceptional in an election year and grind away on the achievements to date...after all what is Romney's plan? Do to Big Bird what Obama did to Bin Laden....

THAT

How Romney "prevailed" last night? By lying, machining gunning thru his talking points and threatening to stomp Sesame Street?  Talk about punishing success!!
Gut check time kids....gut check time....

Debate Prep....

Tonight's debate will not be any species of a cakewalk for the President, let us hope he takes the whole thing very seriously.
As a debater Mitt Romney has certain skills regardless of his chronic charisma deficit and drone on at high speed.
For one thing he knows how to make smarm work for him.
For another, for another he generally gets a pass (for a lot of very complicated reasons too numerous to eructate herein) when starts in with the unctuous father-knows-best condescension.
And based on long experience, he is willing to say anything in order to win...nothing else accounts for the monumental collection of lies, distortions, evasions and flip flops he has acculmulated in pursuit of the US Presidency in the past sixth months alone.
Taken as a whole, Romney is good at colonizing discussion in weird but effective ways a debate about public spending becomes a subtle demonstration of who is better daddy-figure.
Moreover, Mitt has had a bad month, he is pretty much deep into underdog territory, he hasn't said a single common sensical thing for over two months...and as such, he is primed for some sort of a comeback.
Just walking out on stage without lapsing into a berserk fury extolling the spiritual benefits of crystal meth will be enough to score it a win for Romney...The National Media thirsts to tell these kinds of narratives.
Just remember the very gods were againsAt Fritz Mondale in 1984 and he SCHOOLED Ronald Reagan in that first debate.
Anyhow the balloon goes up in a few short hours

The Wareham Kid and the Hanging Judge

In last night's appallingly moderated US Senate debate, that two fisted indian fighter from out the bloodcurdling pages of Playgirl Magazine, Hopalong Brown, opined that Antonin Scalia is his favorite Supreme Court Justice.
Well, Scalia is a vengeful tea partier's wet dream, nasty, rigid, authoritarian, puritanical and paranoid thanks to years of prayerful contemplation.
In short a hanging judge, the perfect counterpart to Scott Brown's increasingly inane Lonesome Cowpoke persona.
That is one way to look at it, another way is to see it as a coded signal to paranoid authoritarian catholic intellectuals that Scott Brown is their own personal Man on Horseback. It is gonna be a close election for the US Senate in the Commonwealth this year and every fringe cohort can potential play kingmaker.
Besides with his BC law degree (something he shares with John Kerry BTW), Scott never fails to play at being a lifelong Eagle.
BTW I think it is time for a moratorium on Big Name National TV Journalists moderating debates concerning statewide office in Massachusetts, David Gregory basically disgraced himself last coming off with all the charisma of a jungle missionary trying to teach the Kalahari Bushmen the intricacies of the Council of Trent.

And More Polling

Per the latest poll, Richard Tisei (GOP) is up five points over incumbent democratic congressman John Tierney in the sixth congressional district.
Albeit with thirty percent undecided.
Geez if Brown loses and Tisei wins next month, that means the marquee name in the Massachusetts State GOP will be a gay guy from the South Shore.
The state republicans are likely fine with it overall, they'd nominate a dead dog to office if it polled well, but I wonder how well a gay GOP congressman from the Bay State will go over in the tea partei?
Likely not so well, case in point Barney Frank.
But it'll be an interesting process to watch if it happens.
On the other hand, Tisei might wanna use this eminence as a stepping stone to the Governorship in 2014, although that is an awfully short simmering time in DC before trying to run statewide back home.
Might be something to think about if Tisei can't do any business in Washington, which in turn would put him on a collision course with his former running mate Charlie Baker and who knows maybe even Scott Brown!
Ah but the local GOP doesn't go in for contested primaries if they can avoid it in the big ticket races, still there is a first time for everything.
Ghod Almighty I love politics, I do love it so, it has never lined my pockets but it has never ever failed to amuse and fascinate me.

Professor Maurice Cunningham...

has a very nice blog here....

I like his work, he knows the difference between politics and political science, ideas and idealogy.  And it's good to get a straight political science take on the current round of elections....