NP: The Who, Join Together

I posted about the numbers surrounding the Coakley-Brown race in Massachusetts, but as you may have guessed, I've got some thoughts about the politics, too.

First, I'm not entirely convinced that pointing to Scott Brown as an early bandwagon-jumper on the "birther" movement really helps that much. My gut is that this won't make a lick of difference to the tea party folks, to the extent that they're providing a lot of the momentum for the GOP candidate. The bigger question is how much it matters to the political middle, and I'm not sure that this rises above inconsequential political theater. Again, just a hunch.

Second, Obama's late appearance to support Martha Coakley reminds me just a little bit too much of his late and limited involvement in the Chicago Olympic bid, and we know how that turned out.

Finally, I haven't seen much talk of Netroots activism in the election. This makes me wonder if they're still in a snit over health care, and are so convinced that the current bill should be scuttled and a more progressive bill be passed through reconciliation -- which doesn't need this 60th vote -- that they're deliberately sitting out. If that were the case, I would think I would have heard of that strategy by now, though, as every single person in the online progressive movement has about twelve blogs.