True-Blue Massachusetts Is Red Alert to Obama: Margaret Carlson

If Massachusetts, that bluest of blue states, goes Republican, say goodbye (or good riddance) to health-care reform and any chance that the Democrats will be able to pass much of anything in the Senate. Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold will struggle to overcome a filibuster just to get National Cheese Week proclaimed.

The special election to fill Ted Kennedy’s seat should have been a day at the beach for Democrat Martha Coakley in a state so overwhelmingly Democratic that no Republican has won a Senate election since 1972. Until a month ago, Coakley, the state’s attorney general, led Republican state senator Scott Brown by 30 percentage points, though not because of a good campaign or a gripping profile.