Read Write Speak

The Democratic Party was turned upside down when the “People’s Seat” was taken in an election by Republican Scott Brown.

The Democratic Party had been strutting around Washington DC for the past year considering what they were doing something for the people. The people, on the other hand, had a different idea.

The campaign of Martha Coakley, the democratic nominee in the Massachusetts election, was pasted together at the last minute and showed her in a different light than new-comer Republican Scott Brown. It was not a good light to be standing in.

“Steve Rothenberg a friend and a political handicapper said,” explains Chris Cilizza of TheFix in The Washington Post, “ that it is the biggest upset of his lifetime..so that spans about 50 odd years.”

“It is never just one thing,” comments Cilizza.

The myriad of problems with in Martha Coakley’s campaign, from her leaving to go on a ten day vacation during the campaign to meeting with lobbyists in Washington DC, were not helped by a great ad campaign run by Scott Brown.

“What he did,” said Cilizza, “effectively cast him as both a different kind of Republican and someone who understood the average concerns of the people of Massachusetts.”

Scott Brown portrayed himself as the outsider, and he effectively cast Martha Coakley as an insider who met with lobbyists and would do what the Democratic Party wanted her to do, instead of what the Massachusetts people wanted her to do.

This point was reinforced when President Obama went to Massachusetts to stir up support for Martha Coakley.

“So I hear her opponent is calling himself an Independent,” says President Obama, “well you’ve gotta look under the hood because what you learn makes you wonder.”

“It was in some ways a recognition by the president of how effective the ad has been” argued Cilizza, “The fact that the President of the United States 48 hours before voters were going to vote had to feel as though he had to rebut the image Scott Brown had set in the ad from the podium, shows the impact that it had in the race.”

In order for a political campaign to be successful the nominee needs to carry a continuous message from the time they start to the time the election comes around. It is necessary so the public will trust the nominee and understand his or her views.

Chris Cilizza is a blogger for The Washington Post and he joined students participating from the George Mason University Video Studio along with Steve Scully, the political editor for the C-SPAN networks, and students from the University of Denver and Pace University.

This is a distance learning course, which is produced by C-SPAN, is a unique opportunity for students to interview guests via video conference. The course airs on C-SPAN3 on Fridays at 5 p.m. and also streams online (http://www.c-span.org/distance_learning/).