memeorandum: Enthusiasm gap in Mass. Senate race (Jonathan Martin/The Politico)

9:45 AM ET, January 17, 2010

Top Items:

Jonathan Martin / The Politico:

Enthusiasm gap in Mass. Senate race — HYANNIS, Mass. - As the two candidates running in the special Senate election here barnstormed across the state Saturday, the enthusiasm gap between the two parties was on vivid display. — Democrat Martha Coakley, Massachusetts' attorney general …

Discussion: Public Policy Polling, The Strata-Sphere, Jules Crittenden, Commentary, Political Punch, The Lonely Conservative, Real Clear Politics, Althouse, theblogprof, Orange County Register, The Hill and The Corner on National …

David / Blue Mass. Group:

BMG Exclusive: Scott Brown thought maybe Obama was born out of wedlock — Born out of wedlock? Really?? — Well, yes. During (or maybe shortly after) the 2008 Republican convention, Brown was on a panel discussion (aired on the now-defunct CN8 cable news channel) about Sarah Palin.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Taylor Marsh, TPMDC, The Washington Independent, NO QUARTER, Hullabaloo, The Reality-Based Community, The Confluence, DaTechguy's Blog, The New Republic, The Political Carnival, Talking Points Memo, The Caucus and Boston Globe

Steve Kornacki:

Latest Coakley Internal: Brown +2 — I've been told reliably that Martha Coakley's internal poll for Friday night showed Republican Scott Brown leading by two points, 47 to 45 percent. Her campaign's three-night average for Friday, Thursday and Wednesday is the same — a 47 to 45 lead for Brown.

Discussion: Politics Daily, The Politico, Taegan Goddard's …, The Lonely Conservative, National Review Online and Betsy's Page

Adam Nagourney / New York Times:

Massachusetts Race Tests Staying Power of Democrats — BOSTON — There may be no better place to measure the shifting fortunes of President Obama and the Democratic Party than in the race being fought here this weekend for the Senate seat that had been held by Edward M. Kennedy.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Politico, Connecting.the.Dots, New York Times, TalkLeft, The Corner on National … and AMERICAblog News

Dan Roem / Hotline On Call:

MA SEN Shows Similarities To '09 VA GOV — No matter how you look at it, MA is simply not VA when it comes to politics. But don't tell that to state Sen. Scott Brown (R) and AG Martha Coakley (D), who seem to be mirroring their Old Dominion counterparts in multiple ways.

Jon Keller / Wall Street Journal:
The Backlash Is Coming! The Backlash Is Coming!

Discussion: Jules Crittenden, Hot Air, Boston Globe, neo-neocon, Christian Science Monitor, SCSUScholars and The Moderate Voice

Robert Cruickshank / Firedoglake: MA-Sen: We've Seen This Movie Before

Times of London:

World misled over Himalayan glacier meltdown — A WARNING that climate change will melt most of the Himalayan glaciers by 2035 is likely to be retracted after a series of scientific blunders by the United Nations body that issued it. — Two years ago the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change …

Discussion: Fausta's Blog, JustOneMinute, Bishop Hill and Biased BBC

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

Over the top in Mass. — Via Sargent, an extremely sweeping charge from Massachusetts Democratic Party. — The basis is a provision Brown voted for that would allow religious hospital staffers not to inform victims of the availability of the morning after pill. — The NRSC invoked Felix Grucci in response.

Discussion: Real Clear Politics, Gateway Pundit, The Corner on National …, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and The Lonely Conservative

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Dem Mail: Scott Brown Wants Hospitals To Turn Away All Rape Victims

Dr. Melissa Clouthier:

BREAKING: Tea Party Nation's Judson Phillips: “I Want To Make A Million From This Movement” — Embattled Tea Party Nation, Inc. owner Judson Phillips has been making the media rounds to defend his up-coming, February 4-6 conference at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee.

Discussion: New York Times, The Mahablog, The Lonely Conservative, Political Byline, Erick's blog and Riehl World View

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

Krugman, Gruber and non-disclosure issues — In the midst of my lengthy discussion yesterday of Cass Sunstein's proposal to “cognitively inflitrate extremist groups” by employing covert agents and secretly paying so-called “independent” analysts to tout the government line …

Discussion: Emptywheel, Grasping Reality … and The Sideshow

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

Brown's pushback — America...only three (3) more days left to the start of the 2nd Revolution in America...the Voter Revolution of 2010! And this additional attack is why the “real” American people are fed up with these Chicago mafia style politics! They are dirty, sleazy and so Democratzi!

Democracy Now:

“Bush Was Responsible for Destroying Haitian Democracy"-Randall Robinson on Obama Tapping Bush to Co-Chair US Relief Efforts — We speak with TransAfrica founder Randall Robinson, author of An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, from Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and Open Left

Richard Johnson / New York Post:

Palin gets 100G for mag cover — Bristol, earned an eye-popping $100,000 for their new In Touch Weekly cover, sources say. For just eight hours' work at her own home, Palin pocketed nearly as much as her $125,000-a-year salary as Alaska governor. It seems her decision to quit her political role is making big financial sense.

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, Gawker, The Political Carnival and American Power