Obama: ‘Understand What’s At Stake Here, Massachusetts’

By Monica Brady-Myerov
Jan 17, 2010, 9:18 PM
6 Comments

President Obama campaigned for the Democratic Senate candidate, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, at Northeastern University on Sunday. (AP)

BOSTON — Democrats have watched Attorney General Martha Coakley’s lead in the polls evaporate in the last few weeks and on Sunday they pulled out all the stops, as President Obama attended a rally for Coakley’s U.S. Senate campaign at Northeastern University’s Cabot Center.

The rally featured a “who’s who” of Massachusetts Democrats. Gov. Deval Patrick, Sen. John Kerry and the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s widow, Vicki, all spoke. But it was Mr. Obama who showed that he can still rile up a crowd like it’s the final week of the New Hampshire primary.

“Understand what’s at stake here, Massachusetts,” Obama said. “It’s whether we are going forward or going backwards. It’s whether we are going to have a future where everybody gets a shot in this society or just the privileged few. If you were fired up in the last election, I need you even more fired up in this election.”

Throughout the rally, the recurring symbol Democrats used to blast Republican Scott Brown was his truck, which is featured in one of his television ads. In the ad, Brown says his old truck has brought him closer to the people of Massachusetts. But Obama said that because Brown opposes a bank bailout tax, he’s parked his truck with Wall Street bankers.

“Despite the rhetoric, despite the television ads, despite the truck, Martha’s going to make sure you get your money back,” Obama said. “She’s got your back. Her opponent’s got Wall Street’s back.”

Obama said that he needs Coakley in the Senate, where one vote can make the difference on some of his major agenda items, including banking regulations, climate change and his health care reform plan.

“I would think long and hard about getting into that truck with Martha’s opponent,” Obama continued. “It might not take you where you want to go. And where we don’t want to go right now is backwards to the same policies that got us into this mess in the first place, when we just started to make progress cleaning it up.”

Speaking to the crowd, Obama cited Coakley’s track record in taking on bankers, predatory lenders, insurance companies and protecting children as a prosecutor and then as the state’s attorney general.

As the president spoke, Coakley stood on the side of the stage, smiling. When she addressed the crowd, she said she was on the side of taxpayers. But she got the biggest reaction from the crowd when she directly attacked Brown.

Other Democratic voices also spoke for Coakley at the Sunday rally. Rep. Michael Capuano, Coakley’s rival in the Democratic primary for this special general election, praised her record. He chided Brown for saying that he’s an independent Republican when he voted with the Republican leadership on Beacon Hill 96 percent of the time.

Kennedy indicated what she thought her late husband would say about the race, while Kerry also poked fun at Brown’s truck, adding that it probably had a “Bush/Cheney” bumper sticker on it.

After the rally, several people said they felt excited to work hard for a Democratic victory on Tuesday.

Attendee Ron Larrivee said that Mr. Obama’s visit made a difference to him. “I think he really did indicate or lay out some points that were really important for us to think about,” Larrivee said. “I think he did a great job supporting her and thank God it happened.”

State Sen. Brown held a concurrent rally in Worcester that featured sports stars Curt Schilling and Doug Flutie. He later issued a statement that went back to his truck, saying that, in this economy, not everybody can buy a truck. The statement said that Brown’s goal is to change that economy by cutting spending, lowering taxes and letting people keep more of their own money.

On Sunday, Coakley also made campaign stops in Pittsfield, Springfield and Framingham.

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Debbie

Reaganomics once again: The statement said that Brown’s goal is to change that economy by cutting spending, lowering taxes and letting people keep more of their own money. The idea is that if you help big business and cut taxes the money will trickle down. Big business out of their big hearts will begin to hire people for more jobs and spend more money…. except it never works. Sort of like the big banks getting breaks and then giving big bonuses but no trickel down to small business loans…
Anna

These words below are not my own. I wish I could articulate my sentiments as well as this writer. But they are applicable in this crucial election tomorrow and I hope they are taken to heart by every Massachusetts voter as they enter the voting booth tomorrow.

This will sound harsh and over the top, but in light of the current circumstances facing our nation and the accompanying actions of the conservative movement, whose ideology not only caused many of the problems we face but have continuously exacerbated them, is completely appropriate: The American right-wing is a cancer on our nation.

This is not a new development. One needs only look back at the history of the conservative movement since the New Deal. They steadfastly opposed the most needed reforms. They blocked anti-lynching legislation in the 1930s. In the ’50s and ’60s the right-wing stood squarely in the way of our nation moving to make the promise of the American Dream a reality for not only people of color but also people who had been mired in poverty and the elderly who could not afford even the simplest health care. In the 1980s the right-wing war on the middle- and working-class continued and was in fact ramped up. This war for economic oligarchy continues today, and the foot soldiers are the tea party nuts.

The right-wing base is comprised of middle and working class people who are motivated by fear and abject hatred of anyone not like themselves. They also crow about “freedom” and “capitalism” and hate “socialism.” Their insanity knows no bounds. I would like to ask them: “What freedoms have you lost under President Obama? What has unfettered, laissez-faire capitalism ever done for you or people like you? So you make $60K a year, do you really think you’re rich? You hate taxes so much, what is an appropriate level of taxation in your mind? None? There’s a place called Somalia that has no federal taxes. You probably wouldn’t like it there. And in your struggle against taxes you’re doing the leg work for the oligarchs of this nation whose only – only – political goal is keeping more of the wealth they manage to pilfer from the middle- and working-classes. In sum, you think you’re ‘rich’ with your $60K? The economic royalty and the braintrust of the Republican Party are literally laughing at your stupidity. As for socialism, did you attend public schools? Do you drive on the interstate? Do you buy food at the supermarket? Do you drink tapwater? Do you or any relative live on Social Security or have Medicare? If so, you’re a hypocrite of epic proportions.”

The thought that the right-wing could seize power again should terrify everyone who is not engaged in upper-class worship and anyone who enjoys being middle class. How is it possible that these right-wing kooks can just forget the lost decade that their policies just created? The ZERO job creation under a far-right president? The DECLINE in median family income under a far-right president? The DOUBLING of health care premiums under a far-right president? It’s not like this stuff happened forty years ago; it was only two years ago!

Seeing these same people who made the economic disaster a reality foaming at the mouth over a very, very minimal tax increase on the richest Americans and, more ominously, raging against any change (both socially and politically) shows exactly what the true nature of the American right-wing is: An aging, fear-ridden, out-of-touch with reality, racist, hate-filled, rage motivated, economic-royalist-yet-solidly-middle-class band of lunatics. This group has inflicted so much harm on the United States that it could fill thousands of volumes, and we are all living in the crummy fruition of their economic policies. They must not be allowed to even sniff federal power at any time in the near future. The lives and prosperity of ourselves, our children, and our children’s children are on the line. The right must be dealt another crushing defeat in the fall. Anything else could be a potentially fatal disaster.

Drew
Wichita, Kansas
January 9th, 2010
mike

Anna, that’s the type of garbage that makes an independent voter like me vote for Scott Brown. And you have the audacity to call other people hateful and extreme!
In fact, unless you stop this type of vitriol, that nonsense below is what will cause the country’s next Civil War. You left wingers against the rest of us.
Mason

The entire point of this election is change or status-quo. Mr. Brown has concentrated his efforts on destroying the health care bill that is now working it’s way through a reconciliation process in the House and Senate. This has become a make or break issue with the conservative Republican’s. Much of the legislation is involved in curbing the tremendous amount of corruption that is in the health care community in general.

Here are the facts, as published in the CIA fact book under country comparisons (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/).

Of the top 10 industrial countries, the United States ranks dead last in comparison in most medical related items. Infant mortality is 6.26 per thousand in the United States (Japan is 2.79 per 1000). Life expectancy is 78.11 years in the United States (Japan is 82.12 years). The cost of an MRI neck-region scan in the United States is around $1,500.00 compared to $98.00 in Japan.

Americans should take the time to research and verify all information presented to them. This information to be verified could come from a politician, a radio host or just a friend over a beer at a bar. The future of America is far to important to risk decisions based on rumor and hearsay. The United States has been perpetually going backwards for around 30 years now. It’s up to every American to start this country in a forward direction and keep it moving forward. I would hate to climb into Mr. Brown’s truck and be driven back to the dark ages.
James

If asked, Martha Coakley would understand why big problems cannot be left to little solutions.
Should it be the case that collective resources are ONLY put to use to help others after unfathomable natural disaster (like Haiti)? No amount of self-reliance is going to get anyone out from under a ton of rubble. And nothing but the scale of resources a national government can muster is going to get the job done. If you can, imagine making a choice of PREVENTIVE measures to avert disaster – and if you can, recognize that disasters come in different forms. Social security and later Medicare preventing masses of elderly from living in poverty without basic healthcare, access to public education preventing masses from being ruled over by an educated few (and enabling economic progress), civil rights preventing unequal treatment under law and more… Trying to pretend you don’t have a stake in accessability to healthcare for all , for example, is like living in the city and trying to opt out of the sewer system. It can’t be done. We are more bound to one another by these matters, and in more profound ways, than is acknowledged by Brown or his supporters. He is the wrong choice.
Rudolf

The reason I, and I suspect many others in Massachusetts, voted for Brown in the U.S. Senate race was not because of Brown’s policies but because of the arrogance of the Coakley campaign and the Democratic machine in Massachusetts. They kept referring to filling Kennedy’s seat in the Senate. Well, the seat wasn’t Kennedy’s or that of the Democrats. It is the Massachusetts people’s seat. The Democrats thought because there are three enrolled in their party for every Republican in the state, they can do whatever they wanted to do. The same attitude seems to be extent in Washington too. Because of their majority, they think they or the President need not meet with the Republicans to address their concerns on the Health Care Bill and other matters. The vote indicated the American people in general abhor an arrogance of power.