Massachusetts Senate Election Today

One year minus one day since Barack Obama was inaugurated as President, the media is all a"twitter" about a special election being held in Massachusetts to fill that state's Senate seat, formerly occupied by recently deceased Edward Kennedy and temporary appointee Paul Kirk, both Democrats. But Martha Coakley, who easily won the Democratic primary, has run a particularly inept campaign while the Republican contender, Scott Brown, has captured the state's imagination as a likable underdog. The opinion polls have the race, which will be decided today, as a dead heat. Obama visited Massachusetts Sunday to campaign on behalf of Coakley.

There is more than the usual interest in one special Senate election. The Democrats, along with two Independents caucusing with them, have a 60-40 advantage in that body, usually enough to withstand Republican filibusters and other delaying tactics. This would end if a seat switched from the Dems to the GOP. Furthermore, the health care reform bill currently in conference needs those 60 votes for final approval, and a Brown victory would deny that possibility.

Not that I want the Democrats to lose the election, but I am not all that enthusiastic about the health care reform bill in its current form. It legally coerces citizens to purchase health insurance from private companies, which are already exempt from the Federal Anti-Trust Act and can charge whatever they choose to charge for their "protection". As a matter of fact, this whole thing sounds like a sort of seedy protection racket, and the people at large are the ones getting shaken down. So it won't exactly hurt my feelings if this extremely flawed legislation goes down in flames.

Although the media has made a big deal about Martha Coakley's incompetence as a campaigner, there is also a large segment of the Massachusetts electorate who, like me (and Howard Dean), have serious concerns about what would happen if health care reform in its present form becomes the law of the land. I think Coakley will squeak out a victory today, but I also thought that Texas would beat Alabama for the college football championship!