Matt cuts through the noise

"The Presidency is at stake. If they lose this, this is a catastrophe for them."
-Glen (cry like a little girl) Beck

"This is a revolution"
-Sean Hannity

"This has sent shock waves around the world"
-Let Freedom Ring blogger

I love hyperbole as much as the next guy, heck, I was an English major for God's sake, but I do find the hyperventilation regarding Scott Brown to be very amusing. The media is in business to get us to watch television, listen to the radio and buy their newspapers. The more they can ratchet up the stakes and heighten the drama only serves to increases their viewership and thus, the bottom line. All media pundits are there to be entertaining. They are not there because they are patriots, or real Americans, or love their country. They are there to get paid. Sarah Palin quit her job as governor because she wanted to get paid. It is a simple as that. So, let us leave the hyperbole behind and look at the numbers in this election.

In the 2010 election Scott Brown received 63,823 more votes than John McCain did as a Presidential candidate in 2008. Only 63,823 votes?

This is a state that in 2010 had a 51% of the voters registered as independents.

Brown was able to beat Coakley by the following numbers:
1,168,107 Scott Brown
1,058,682 Martha Coakley
22,237 Joe Kennedy

Wait a second, I thought this was a revolution! How could Brown only win by such a small margin? He only beat Coakley by 109, 425 votes! That is it! Hmmnnnn........that does not sound to me like an earth shattering win. But I know he got more votes than Obama did, right? The Presidency is on the line, glen beck said so!

In 2008 Obama picked up 1,891,083 votes for President in the state of Massachusetts. That means that he received 722,976 more votes than Scott Brown did in 2010.

So what we have was a victory due to low voter turnout, a motivated base, and an attractive candidate that was able to pull across independents. It would actually go against the grain for a Democrat to win the Senate seat in Massachusetts. The right paints the state as a liberal heaven due to Kennedy's long service but the facts do not support this at all. Again, how was a moderate Republican governor elected overwhelmingly in this state? Mitt Romney served as governor from 2002-2007. Romney also pulled even with Teddy when he ran as a senate candidate and almost beat Teddy in 1994. Clearly, the voters want a moderate Republican to serve the state.

So, it is not a revolution, it is simply a blip in history that will soon be forgotten. I predict that Obama will carry Massachusetts in 2012 and will be re-elected. As fun as it is to make outrageous statements it is always useful to look at the facts. Numbers don't lie (but talk-show hosts do!)