This gets give this a try, but with the town hellers in place of Barney Frank:
Disdainful, selfish and stupid crybabies who think they are better than citizens trying to implement a much needed overhaul of the healthcare system.
It amazes me how little attention many folks like Blitzer, who cover politics for a living, pay to what’s actually going on in politics and with politicians.
The Senate’s a place where, to get anything done, you’ve got to work and play well with others, and know the institutional levers and choke points and all. Ted Kennedy, to his everlasting credit, learned how the Senate worked, and worked and played well even with his ideological adversaries, and as a result, he accomplished a tremendous amount over time.
John McCain’s **never **been that sort of person. There was a time when he was a genuinely thoughtful guy, back in the late 1990s and the early part of this decade, but even then, when his name was frequently on bills as a cosponsor, he was never the guy who figured out how to get those bills through the Senate.
And then in mid-2004, after flirting with the idea of being Kerry’s VP candidate, he endorsed Bush, spent the next few years totally sucking up to him, and adopted pretty much the entire GOP party line.
Some thought that, after losing the election last year, the old, thoughtful McCain of a decade ago would reappear, but if anything, he’s been crankier and more ridiculous than ever, repeating GOP talking points about Dem legislation that have been anywhere from serious distortions of the truth to outright lies - even to the point of speaking out against facets of Dem bills that he agreed with during his Presidential campaign last year.
Why anyone paying attention in 2009 would think that McCain could be the next Ted Kennedy is beyond me. My best guess is that Blitzer doesn’t pay that much attention, and the image of the McCain he shot the breeze with on the plane during the 2000 primary campaign is fixed in his mind as the ‘real’ McCain.
I expect the purpose of Blitzer’s remarks was more to sow discord amongst his enemies ane glee amongst Republicans than anything to do with actual political realities.
I may have been whooshed, but Sarah wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning a position of assistant dogcatcher in Massachusetts. Republicans do win elections here, especially for governor, but that’s more because party hacks usually get the Democratic nomination. And Sarah is NOTHING like our recent Republican governors.
One amusing stunt candidacy I heard of this morning is Curt Schilling.
My gut feeling - Joe Kennedy’s got it if he wants it. The name and parentage are all he needs. Patrick would have a much harder time of it - he’d have to resign his seat in the House and move up here to run, which would smack too much of carpetbagging.
My money’s on former Congressman Joe, too.
As for McCain becoming the next lion of the Senate… I don’t think so. The only thing he and Ted have in common is that they both returned to the Senate after losing a presidential campaign. John Kerry did, too, and no one’s calling him a lion (insert your own long-face horse-jaw joke here). Ditto Joe Lieberman and Dick Lugar. As RTFirefly said, McCain has neither the temperament nor the institutional savvy to become a great legislator now.
Every state needs a senator (and a governor, etc.) who is better than (the average of) its citizens.
[OT] To paraphrase Ron Bennington: “Everyone knows that the worst thing that Hitler ever did was trying to give healthcare to Jews.”