Our favorite trollers at CNN have issued a report that quotes 'multiple advisors' to the President who believe Martha Coakley will lose on Tuesday.
Washington (CNN) - Multiple advisers to President Obama have privately told party officials that they believe Democrat Martha Coakley is going to lose Tuesday’s special election to fill the Massachusetts Senate seat held by the late Ted Kennedy for more than 40 years, several Democratic sources told CNN Sunday.
The sources added that the advisers are still hopeful that Obama's visit to Massachusetts on Sunday - coupled with a late push by Democratic activists - could help Coakley pull out a narrow victory in an increasingly tight race against Republican state Sen. Scott Brown.
However, the presidential advisers have grown increasingly pessimistic in the last three days about Coakley's chances after a series of missteps by the candidate, sources said.
Before you hide under the bed in fear, juxtapose this report w/ another CNN story:
"I talked to people on the ground in Massachusetts this morning. I talked to people in the White House this morning. And, yes, it’s a very serious situation. I think more people think we’re going to lose than win but there’s some – there’s a slight bit of sense that maybe this thing could come together right at the end."
The first CNN report is unattributed. The second quotes James Carville, basically covering the same ground as the first report. Indeed, one might surmise that Carville IS the source of the first report.
The Carville report comes at the end of a CNN report from this morning's roundtable discussion with Mary Maitlin, the soul-less political wife of the hack/flack Carville. Maitlin's take on the MA. election is: a Brown victory would be a tsunami, but even a narrow Coakley victory would be a game-changer for Dems.
Essentially, she is implying that [ala Evan Bayh] a poor showing by Coakley--even a narrow victory--should roll back any Democratic plans for a progressive agenda and make the Dems fall in line with joke lieberman and Ben Nelson.
My take on all this is, the WH is positioning itself to receive maximum political gain if/when Coakley wins on Tuesday. They are probably using Carville to air their Tuesday/Wednesday spin, either distancing themselves from a loss, or giving Obama credit for the save, thus propelling his agenda forward.
As a solid progressive, who has had to swallow a lot of disappointment in the last 6 months, I'm ok w/ these machinations. If the WH can use this to their advantage, good for them, good for all Democrats everywhere.
One thing though: Note to Rahm Emannuel--Coakley doesn't have a tough race because she is a lousy candidate, but because she can't campaign on a tough, solid progressive Democratic agenda of REALLY taking on banks, insurers and Wall Street. Get that right and Dems will be celebrating the first Wednesday morning in November.