Nice work, Martha

Well, she didn't get caught burning a Tom Brady jersey in Faneuil Hall, but short of that Martha Coakley did everything possible to lose this election. Here are some of the greatest hits:

1. According to Marc Ambinder, from the primary until the Sunday before the election, Brown had 66 events compared to Coakley's 19. Three times as many events!Even if you think you have the election in the bag (and Coakley obviously didn't), it is just good form to pretend  you are taking the race seriously. Brown just flat outworked Coakley post-primary.

2. Coakley attacks Curt Schilling, he of bloody sock and eternal glory for helping the Red Sox win the 2004 World Series, for being a Yankees fan. Feel free to say Curt has terrible taste in politicians, sure, but accuse him of being a Yankees fan?

3. In case she didn't alienate enough Red Sox fans with her diatribe about Schilling, Martha also had this gem in the Boston Globe in response to accusations that she wasn't doing enough retail politicking:

Coakley bristles at the suggestion that, with so little time left, in an election with such high stakes, she is being too passive.

“As opposed to standing outside Fenway Park? In the cold? Shaking hands?’’ she fires back, in an apparent reference to a Brown online video of him doing just that.

Heaven forbid she get out there and shake hands in the cold.


4. At a Washington DC fundraiser a week  before the election, one of Coakley's campaign workers knocked over a reporter who asked impertinent questions. First, a week before the election, shouldn't you be campaigning in the state where the election will be held? Second, is beating up reporters the way to improve media relations? A halfway decent candidate would have managed to reach out the reporter afterwards and try to turn it around.

Here's the video:



5. Coakley also kept touting how she didn't pay attention to polls. Yeah, maybe that was a mistake.

6. If this election had been closer, Coakley's campaign would probably have blown it just with the finger pointing and bickering that occurred before the election was even over. Certainly fired up Brown supporters and depressed the Dems.

And that's how you can lose Ted Kennedy's seat to a former male centerfold.