One of my all-time favorite stories as a child was Aesop's fable of "The Tortoise and the Hare." I think we all remember that story, correct? If not, here goes:
One day a hare saw a tortoise walking slowly along and began to laugh and mock him. The hare challenged the tortoise to a race and the tortoise accepted. They agreed on a route and started off the race. The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he'd sit under a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race.
He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep. The tortoise, plodding on, overtook him and finished the race. The hare woke up and realized that he had lost the race.
Well, I don't have to go into detail of who is who because EVERYONE should figure this out. After the primary, Ms. Coakley coasted and assumed that being a Democrat and living in Massachusetts she could just walk into Ted Kennedy's shoes and win; however, she shut down and let a smooth talking, good looking, Republican hiding candidate who drove a pickup truck and made smooth commercials hiding his political beliefs and simply outhustled her to the finish, just like the tortoise did to the hare.
Democrats never learn that the hustling populists always win. Remember Fred Thompson in 1994? He drove a pickup truck which he didn't drive 24/7 and his folksy populism won him the senate seat. Brown did exactly the same thing while Ms. Coakley assumed that the senate seat was hers. And in the immortal words of one Benny Hill, remember about people who assume.........
Will this be a lesson for the Democrats come November? Well, if they can come together with a positive message and perhaps stop fighting over trivial things, perhaps they can save themselves. Yes, Obama should stay blameless. He'll come up with a plan for the economy come the State of the Union and dare those who'll cross him. But it's up to the Democrats themselves about whether they want a repeat of 1994 or they truly want to see a better outcome.