The elephant in the room
The dialogue from this belated strip was my Facebook update the morning after the Massachusetts election to fill Senator Kennedy’s Senate seat. Republican Scott Brown defeated Democrat Martha Coakley. The pundits were in overdrive explaining how this happened and what lessons could be learned. After every election, the winning side calls it a referendum on all controversial issues of the day and the losing side blames the losing campaign and candidate. Maybe it’s a total coincidence that – barring a charisma-related scandal – the more charismatic nominee has won every major contest and general election in my lifetime. Just looking at the presidenital races…
Reagan > Carter
Reagan > Mondale – not even close
George H.W. Bush > Dukakis
Clinton > Bush > Perot
Clinton > Dole – not even close
G. W. Bush > Gore – to be fair these two were so equally unlikeable that it fell upon the Supreme Court to select the least repellent. I disagreed with their choice.
G. W. Bush > Kerry – we’re at war, if you don’t think Bush is Abraham Lincoln, you hate America
Obama > McCain – not even close
And Virginia’s recent example: McDonnell > Deeds
And Massachusetts has exemplified this with the Kennedy family and crossing party lines for Mitt Romney.
This doesn’t explain every election. Just nearly every. 
– Steve
Stumble it!
January 29th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
[...] (Thanks congress! Your rotting fruit basket is on the way!) and we’re coming back with a look at the Massachusetts Senate race. In the works: the Supreme Court’s decision to lift restriction on corporate and union [...]
January 29th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
Hey Steve,
I think you are dead-on with this analysis. I have frequently tried to summarize this as the “best celebrity” theory of elections. I am not sure this works in all elections, but I think that it is a dominant variable in any election involving mass media.
Later,
Brad