Wanna know how a Democrat loses a Senate election in Massachusetts?

By not turning out the base. Period.

Any Democratic candidate that can't turn out the Bay State base enough to beat a teabagger like Scott Brown doesn't deserve a Senate seat anyway.

Republicans can take their victory lap today, but to turn this into a referendum on Barack Obama is stupid.

Martha Coakley lost because of one person: Martha Coakley. She thought she could sleepwalk her way into a Senate seat, and that is NEVER the case. She won't be missed.

On a side note, the U.S. Senate is truly a bizarre place, where holding 59% of the seats does not a majority make.

I hope this colossal failure can serve as a wake-up call to the Democratic party. If you don't deliver on the promises you've made to your base, don't expect them to show up at the polls in November.

In the meantime, enjoy yourselves all you armchair patriots who didn't know who Scott Brown was until about four days ago!

UPDATE: A couple of interesting points from the Mass. post-mortem...

From Kos:

Yeah, it sucks that we lost our 60th vote, but really, what did 60 get us last year? It empowered Joe Lieberman, gave cover to Blanche Lincoln, provided excuses to Harry Reid, and gave a free pass to Max Baucus.

Now we don't have 60. And like the Republican Senate of the 2000s, if Democrats want to get anything done, they'll have to do it via reconciliation.

Given last year's track record in the Senate, it certainly can't make the Senate any less effective.

...and from Marc Ambinder:

Coakley had 19 events after the primary through Sunday; Scott Brown had 66.

That pretty much wraps it up!
- posted by Brian @ 8:41 AM