“At My Signal, Unleash Hell”
October 8, 2006
The similarities between the 2006 Massachusetts gubernatorial race between Kerry Healey and Deval Patrick and the 2000 US Presidential race between George W. Bush and Al Gore extend far beyond the sharp differences between the respective Republican and Democratic candidates and the intense partisanship of the respective races. Just as Bush was savagely pilloried by the left in the wake of the 2000 election, so too will Kerry Healey be pummeled by progressives in the event of her victory.
Even if Bush never went into Iraq, he would still be the most hated Republican politician in modern times, largely because his victory over Al Gore "wasn’t supposed to happen." In 2000, the mainstream press declared Gore the smarter, smoother, better candidate; Bush was depicted as a religious zealot, an ex-drunk ready to fall off the wagon at any second, a Vietnam War dodger, and a possible former cocaine addict.
The notion that Gore would lose to Bush was simply beyond consideration. The pundit class was convinced that Bush was just a country bumpkin with a famous name–and thus was convinced that Gore would trounce him on November 7, 2000.
Of course, it didn’t turn out that way. Bush defeated Gore–and in doing so, earned the undying ire of the left. Progressives didn’t like Ronald Reagan, but many of them realized (or should have realized) that Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale had no chance of beating him in 1980 and 1984, respectively. Bush, however, was supposed to be a patsy, an easy mark, someone ripe for the pickings. Instead, he picked off the supposedly superior Gore.
Like Bush in 2000, Kerry Healey has been similarly trashed as a lightweight, a no-hoper, an "uninspiring" choice. The pundit class has already declared Deval Patrick the winner, just as they prematurely declared Gore the winner of the 2000 election. Like Gore, Patrick has been declared smoother, smarter, more charismatic, more equipped, more congenial, more "gubernatorial."
What will happen if, on November 7, 2006, the "conventional wisdom" gets refuted, just as it was six years earlier?
Like Bush, Healey will be smeared as a racist and a practitioner of "underhanded" political tactics. Like Bush, Healey will be incorrectly blamed for all of the state’s ills. Like Bush, Healey will be relentlessly demonized by the press.
Those of us who believe that Kerry Healey is the best choice for governor of Massachusetts should not only work to ensure her victory on November 7, but also be prepared to defend her aggressively when the Patrick partisans launch their post-election attacks. Already, figures such as Ted Kennedy are on the warpath; yesterday, the liberal lion loathsomely labeled Healey’s ads a "Swift-Boating" of Patrick. We’ll see more of this crap if she wins–and it will be up to us to force them to cut it.
October 9th, 2006 at 5:09 am
That’s an odd accusation by Uncle Ted. Since none of Healy’s ads about Deval’s strange record of defending these convicts had been found to be untrue, does that now mean that we can say that the Swift Boaters were really telling the truth about the Long-Faced Junior Senator? But considering the usual brilliance of the Commonwealth electorate, it might sway a few geniuses.