Sorry for the lack of new postings, faithful Readers, all three of you, but the afterbuzz of the election that sent Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate carried on to flow into the preparations for our annual Florida migration. Busy times, indeed. But while our geographical orientation has shifted, know that our commitment to truth, justice and the American way endures.
Amid the jubilation at Brown's victory was a bit of jealousy perhaps as the MSM took our own candidate and thrust him onto the national stage. But we were proud of our lad from Wrentham. There were even a few feeble attempts to minimize the event by downplaying Scott and the significance of his win. Patrick Kennedy's comments come to mind. But this event was bigger than Kennedy's eloquence, even as the chattering class tried to understand it. The following two vignettes now, in 20-20 hindsight, turned out to be key indicators of the Brown vote surge:
On the Saturday prior to the election, the Brown Campaign bus made a stop at at the Plymouth campaign office. The candidate, shaking hands and posing for pictures waded through the large and enthusiastic crowd that included more than a few union representatives. But it was one one large hand-made sign that was a real eye opener. Written in white letters on a blue background the sign proclaimed: "Local 103 IBEW for Brown." I'm not sure anyone outside of greater Boston understands the significance of such a statement but if the Democrats had lost the support of Local 103, all bets were off. We will probably be discussing for years who was dumber: The guy who advised Obama to go after the unions' "Cadillac" health plans in his quest for socialized medicine, or Martha Coakley who went down the line for Obama's health care fiasco.
Standing outside the Precinct 5 polls with our signs on election day, we watched, and waved, as a steady stream of voters suggested a strong turnout that was officially clocked at 65%. Prominent among the throng was a significant contingent of seniors who, through the seriousness of their expressions, and an occasional jaw jut, telegraphed the concern they were bringing with them. Tip O'Neill knew what he was talking about when he called Social Security the third rail of politics. Someone should have pointed out to Obama and his water carrier that there is a certain linkage between SS and Medicare before he allowed a major cut in Medicare to be a prominent feature of his "reform" of American health care..
In Plymouth we had an extra reason to celebrate on election night. In addition to the senate race, voters had a chance to make a binding vote on a proposed increase to the meals tax. It went down by a four to one margin. Power to the People!
All in all, it was an election night for the ages.
