Days before the election, Democratic leaders such as Bill Clinton, John Kerry, President Obama, and even our newest Democrat Sen. Arlen Specter sent emails encouraging folks to help Martha Coakley, who I thought was a wonderful candidate. I liked her because she would be one tough cookie on Wall Street and was an advocate for a national consumer protection agency. Now, Massachusetts and the country is stuck with Scott Brown... the clown, who will probably vote to kill healthcare reform amongst other things in President Obama's agenda.
However, there were those who did not help as much as they could... or did not help at all. It deserves pointing out because in order to win elections, to save healthcare, or to accomplish anything as Democrats we need to come together, work together, and we need leaders that lead by example. I know we had the tide against us, but even some of those asking democratic voters to come out and support them in the future seemed to abdicate leading by example in not lending a hand to support Martha as the GOP attacked.
For example, Rep. Joe Sestak (D-7) from Pennsylvania with his eyes on the US Senate seat in Pennsylvania did not send an email encouraging supporters to volunteer to help Martha Coakley for a day or two by making calls with the Obama for America list. Did everyone know about this list and that it exists?
If so, I think choosing to stand down sends a strong message going forward that we need to come together and focus on teamwork going into November 2010 instead of sitting on the sidelines while another fellow democrat needs help. Missouri... Ohio, Pennsylvania, and on... we need to really team up to make sure we stay on our true focus of getting results for the folks counting on us at the Federal and local levels. Lets hope healthcare was not killed by this election loss.
As for Martha Coakley... if she ran again for something, Id definitely be glad to help her make calls as I was proud to make hundreds of calls for her for a few days. I was glad to see her run true to her ideals, advocating for strong Wall Street reform, passing Healthcare Reform, withdrawing from Afghanistan, and creating a consumer protection agency. Let's work together in everything from Federal, State and local levels to make sure we bring our "A" game.