Miracle in Massachusetts
Byron York is reporting that the bottom is dropping out of Martha Coakley's support in the Mass Senate race. It's not just the Democratic scare of a lifetime: Scott Brown might actually win.
If so, this is an earthquake in American politics: Massachusetts returning a Republican senator for the first time since 1972, sending to Washington the 41st vote on health care.
A Brown victory will rejoice Republicans nationwide. We will revel in it, triumph in it, deploy it, argue from it. Question: will we learn from it?
The Scott Brown who may rescue the country from Obamacare is not a talk radio conservative.
Strong on defense and school choice, opposed to the Obama administration's signature initiatives, Brown voted in favor of Mitt Romney's health plan in Massachusetts. He describes himself as pro-choice (subject to reasonable limitations), accepts gay marriage in Massachusetts as a settled fact, and told the Boston Herald editorial board he would have voted to confirm Sonia Sotomayor. He calls himself "fiscally conservative and socially conscious." He's got an environmental record too: In the state senate he voted in favor of a regional initiative to curb greenhouse gas initiatives.
Most important: Unlike his arrogant, brittle opponent, Brown has shown himself an open and accessible candidate, optimistic and without rancor. In short - he's running exactly the kind of campaign that we alleged RINOs have been urging on the GOP for months now.
It would be a travesty if Brown's victory is seized upon as a victory for anger, paranoia, and ideological extremism.
Some will try - but with a third New England Republican in the Senate, the time for a pushback may have come.