sisu

Scott Brown rally "feels like the clubhouse on the morning of Game Seven"

Like the tea partiers who sprang to life under ideal growing conditions afforded by big-government overreach last year, Fenway Park's lush green turf is the real thing. In a tribute to America, head groundskeeper David Mellor — author of The Lawn Bible — mowed an American flag into centerfield a few years back. Above, Google Maps image of Fenway Park 2009. Click here to help send Mr. Brown to Washington.

“This to me feels like the clubhouse on the morning of Game Seven,” Yankee fan Red Sox ace pitcher Curt Schilling told ecstatic Scott Brown supporters at yesterday's "electric rally" overflowing Mechanics Hall in Worcester. Be sure to read the Boston Herald's full report for the sheer joy of it. With all bases loaded, Schilling hit the ball out of the park:

We know we’re going to win, but we have to play the game anyway … Rarely do we feel like we get a chance to make a difference. This is one of those times, and we cannot miss this opportunity.

How 'bout those Sox?

A taste of Brown's remarks, and then treat yourself to the whole thing:

What a privilege it is to share the stage with John Ratzenberger, Lenny Clarke, Doug Flutie, Curt Schilling, Fred Smerlas, Steve DeOssie, and many, many others - and my favorite singer, Ayla Brown.

As you know, Curt Schilling made the news just a couple of days ago when my opponent didn’t recognize his name. Of all the many false accusations she’s made in this campaign, one of the strangest was to call Curt Schilling a Yankees fan. Let me properly identify the guy she’s been smearing on the radio: His name is Curt Schilling, formerly of the World Champion Red Sox - you know, a baseball team that plays at Fenway Park …

The voters are doing their own thinking, and the machine politicians don’t quite know how to react.  So they put in a distress call to Washington, and the next thing you know, Air Force One is landing at Logan.

Now who's astroturfing, Attorney General Coakley?

Why Democrats will vote for Scott Brown: "I mean, he is handsome"

"That's change we can believe in," the boys at HillBuzz famously captioned this image of Scott Brown, posing au natural to finance his Boston College Law School student career.

"The Dems are officially delusional now. Time to invest in straight-jackets!" writes Jim Tower, one of 681 commenters at Hotline's "After Obama Rally, Dems Pin Blame On Bush." The comments alone are worth the price of admission. From the original post:

More [Patrick] Kennedy: "One thing the Democrats have done wrong? We haven't kept the focus on this disaster on the Republicans who brought it upon us. We've tried too hard to do the right thing, and that's to fix it, as opposed to spend more of our time and energy pointing the finger at who got us [here] in the first place.

Blaming their problems on Bush does carry a risk for Dems, however — with their sights so firmly focused on the past, Brown's campaign has managed to wrest the "change" mantle from them.

Meanwhile, even as Kennedy took on both Bush and Brown head-on, some attendees were more muted in their criticism of Brown."I mean, he is handsome," Christine DiPitro, 61, of Malden, said of Brown.

Since we started composing this post a coupla minutes ago, the comments have jumped from 681 to 740 and counting! So much wit and wisdom, so little time. We'll go ahead and publish now and then highlight some of the best in updates. No wonder we aren't getting any sleep these days. Ted Kennedy's seat never looked so good.

Update: You are not alone. An election-eve message from Scott Brown:

It’s crunch time.This is it; the moment when the Massachusetts Miracle morphs from an impossible dream into reality. Tell Scott Brown how many voters you will personally ensure show up and vote on Tuesday. This means you are saying you will be responsible for verifying that your network ACTUALLY VOTED.

GOTV. It's all about the numbers now. If it's not close, they can't cheat.

Update II: Woo hoo! Top item at Memeorandum. It's the Zeitgeist, stupid! Not actively looking to be atop Memeorandum, we stumbled onto the story via a new follower on Twitter — Fight the Smears — yet another example of Glenn Reynolds's disintermediation of the old-boy networks via the internet.

Update III: Back on top in Michelle Malkin's Buzzworthy.

Update IV: See also "Brown Win Tuesday Causes Huge Stock Rally As Investors Celebrate Pelosi Politburo Emasculation."

Update V: Instalanche! THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING HANDSOME.

Update VI: Missed this link at the time, too good to ignore, from Dan Riehl:

Let's hope it's champagne tomorrow night. If it is, I'm thinking they had better keep Sissy out of the locker room given the previous link. heh!

Scott Brown Democrat: "Somebody's going to have to pay for this"

Screenshot of Scott Brown's social-networking-savvy web site. Even were we not to win the special election on Tuesday, the site itself should win top awards for "disintermediating the old-boy networks via the Internet." Contribute, volunteer, join Scott for The People's Rally at Mechanics Hall in Worcester today. Doors open 3 p.m. Details at Brown for US Senate website and Facebook.

"I think [President] Obama is scaring a lot of people with this health reform. Somebody's going to have to pay for this. It's not going to be a small bill," a Northshore working man told LA Times/Chicago Tribune Congressional Correspondent James Oliphant Friday. That's the reporter who called us from Gloucester the same day for a blogger's take on the historic political battle between good and evil that is playing out right here in our own Bay State backyard. Driving back to Boston, he stopped off in some of the cities and towns along the way and "met with some dems who say negative ads from coakley pushed them to Brown," we learned on Twitter. A few telling excerpts from the LATimes piece, out this morning.

One person who could end up paying for it is Coakley, Massachusetts' Democratic attorney general and once the overwhelming favorite to keep the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's seat in the party's hands. Just days from the special election, most political experts rate the race a toss-up, an almost unimaginable development in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 3 to 1 …

If he wins on Tuesday and is seated in time to vote on health care, he has pledged to help filibuster and kill the bill.

Several factors have been cited to explain Brown's surge: He's affable and telegenic, and has run an aggressive campaign, compared with Coakley's more reserved effort [That's a polite way of putting it!].

Oliphant has a storyteller's ear for the telling quotation:

But interviews with potential voters also revealed a persistent feeling that Obama and his allies in Congress have misread the public mood and have failed to concentrate on priorities such as the economy …

"People are tired of what's going on with the Democratic Party," Tebo said. "The health-care bill, what is it — 1,000 pages? Who can read that?"

"Some of them haven't read it, you know that," added the barber …  they viewed Democrats as elitist and tone-deaf -- citing Coakley's reference to the Senate post she would occupy as the "Kennedy seat."

"Like he owned the seat," Xerras said. "It's the people's seat" — a line often used by Brown.

Actually, it's a little more than "a line often used by Brown," as our friend neo discovered in researching her own latest blogpost on the biggest story in town:

But by far the most interesting part of the article about Brown’s candidacy announcement back in September of 2009 was that Brown seemed to take his own campaign very seriously from the start, plotting out the precise course that would put him in the spot he’s in now, and even using some of the same lines [including] "This Senate seat doesn’t belong to any one person or political party. It belongs to you, the people."

Back to Oliphant, who gets the quote of the day from another working man in Lynn — a 15-minute drive from here in Chelsea-by-the-Sea — "worried that the health-care bill will mean scaled-back union benefits"

North of Boston in industrial Lynn, Tom Pedersen and two co-workers from the Stanley Elevator Co. ate lunch at the Atlantic Coast Seafood Market. They are worried that the health-care bill will mean scaled-back union benefits.

"It's a big issue for us," said Pedersen, 50, over a carton of fried fish. "Do you bring everyone in America up to our level? Or bring our level down?"

Elevator man Pederson gets it. Obamacare will "bring our level down." That's exactly what every socialist-lite [or maybe not so light], we-know-better-than-you-what's-best-for-you program President Obama and the Democrats are trying to ram down our throats would do to the All-American spirit of rugged individualism.

More Oliphant: "It isn't just conservative and working-class voters who are moving to Brown." Listen to what two women dining in Boston's financial district had to say:

"You've got no one voting based on what the people want," said Rogers, 26, of Brookline.

Her friend Alycia Torres, 31, added: "I never thought we'd be this divided as a country so soon into his presidency."

Rogers and Torres said they would vote for Brown, casting him as the sort of independent-minded politician Obama once appeared to be.

'Course we knew Obama was a divider, not a uniter, way back in December of 2006 when he virtually called us a racist. How sweet it is to see so many of our fellow Americans finally seeing the light and putting their time and money into the effort to send Mr Brown to Washington.

Special note: For Sissy Willis fans who've been following our own heady ride to fame and fortune [Just kidding about the fortune!] we are, indeed, part of Oliphant's story:

"It has everything to do with this feeling that the elites in Washington think they know better," said Sissy Willis, a conservative activist and blogger from Chelsea who has been tracking Brown's rise. The "tea party" movement, Willis said, has finally "found a specific race where it has made a difference" -- partly by reaching out to alienated Democrats and independents.

And special thanks to blogging friends/fellow fight-the-good-fight types Amy Kane and Dan Riehl for their totally awesome words of support. Here's Amy:

Brown supporters are organized not by unions or a funding behemoth like Organizing for America. Rather they are "organized" by information flowing rapidly online. [It's that  disintermediation thing again] They are sharing the facts and opinions that mean something to them, that persuade them. They are finding common cause, and finding each other, online.

Consider Massachusetts blogger Sissy Willis. She is a friend; I've met her once in person, at a tea party in Newburyport. She writes for free, on her own idiosyncratic weblog full of passion, personality and persuasion.

And here's Dan:

While bloggers like William Jacobson (see his latest) and Sissy Willis (see her latest) continue to go above and beyond the call of duty for Scott Brown, I've generally viewed the Army of Davids concept to be about a large number of people doing relatively small things to prevail, as opposed to some few doing exceptional work.

With the polls being so close and turn-out generally low in special elections, this is about getting out the vote.

Speaking of which, we just got a robo call from the big guy himself inviting us to come on down to Mechanics Hall in Worcester for The People's Rally this afternoon. "Let's show them that even a presidential visit cannot slow down our momentum!" says the man of the hour. Doors open at 3 p.m. If you're in the area, you know what to do!

Update: In good company on Michelle Malkin's Buzzworthy.

Update II: We'll drink to that! Vodkapundit Stephen Green welcomes us into the charmed circle of "The Week in Blogs — The Links!" Thank you, sir!

Update III: Patterico links, which is cool: "Plus, Sissy Willis is quoted. Which is cool."

Just a gal sitting in our living room in our virtual pajamas

Who are we that Jim Oliphant of the LA Times/Tribune Papers would cold call us for a phone interview this afternoon on what the heck is really going on here in Massachusetts below the radar? Well, he tells us he did a google search for "scott brown," and there we were above the fold, right below Scott Brown's own campaign site. We've been blogging our tea-partying heart out about Hottie McAwesome since December 9, the day after our native son won the primary. Oliphant's article comes out Sunday. Watch this space.

"For Democrats, it's a nightmarish scenario: A Republican appears to be within striking distance of capturing the Senate seat of the late Edward Kennedy," writes LA Times correspondent James Oliphant, at sea somewhere in the wilds of Gloucester, Massachusetts — the magical landscape of our childhood summers — when he called us out of the blue this afternoon. Just a gal sitting in our living room in our virtual pajamas, we were swept off our slippered feet, of course.

Caption from our September 2004 post "To sleep perchance to blog": Classic pajama in silky satin charmeuse with a subtle luster. An everyday luxury, for sleeping or blogging, from Victoria's Secret.

Oliphant's looking for some local color, perhaps, in this story of a lifetime. We gave him all we've got, and who knows how it will play out in his column Sunday morning? Portrayed by astroturfing leftists as phony baloney, we New England tea partiers are the real thing, grassroots seekers of wisdom and truth horrified at how the international progressivists inside the corridors of power are trying to turn the lights out on this Shining City Upon a Hill. As we told Jim — may we call you Jim? — when he mentioned the hope-and-change optimism of so many of our clueless fellow Americans a year ago, the hope and change are here, but not quite in the way Barack Obama imagined. We owe him for reawakening this sleeping giant just in time to bring the nation back to its senses, starting with electing Scott Brown to the people's seat on Tuesday, January 19. If you're with us, click here to contribute and/or volunteer in the final countdown. Even if we win, there's no guarantee the vox populi will be heard, of course:

Even if Democrats lose the special election to pick a new Massachusetts senator Tuesday, Congress may still pass health-care overhaul through a process called reconciliation, a top House Democrat said.

That procedure requires 51 votes rather than the 60 needed to prevent Republicans from blocking votes on President Barack Obama’s top legislative priorities. That supermajority is at risk as the Massachusetts race has tightened.

“Even before Massachusetts and that race was on the radar screen, we prepared for the process of using reconciliation,” Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said.

Maybe we've never been tempted, but we just don't get how these people can face themselves in the morning light.

Update: Instalanche! Sweet dreams, professor.

Update II: "For now we are the revolution," writes Dan Riehl with a link and a bit of savory philosophizing:

From my earliest days blogging, what excited me most was the ability of the medium to democratize news and information, as well as politics. Just imagine how many more people are getting politically active today - in groups and through relationships that couldn't have existed not long ago.

Update III: Lots more hits and intelligent eyeballs from Michelle Malkin's Buzzworthy!

Update IV: "My 30 years in Democratic politics tells me that Brown is surging because he now has the support of a lot of Democrats — and that will be the biggest surprise from the exit polls Tuesday night," writes John Burke at The Purple Center with a link. Thank you, and welcome aboard!

Update V: Just stumbled on this wicked fun update at Instapundit: Reader EMB Whitton writes: “Sissy Willis for president!” I think she’s much too sane to want the job.

Chelsea Democrat for Scott Brown: "This one-party thing isn't working out"

"Did you know that the horse Paul Revere rode on his famous midnight ride was named Brown Beauty?" asks Amy of Amy Kane Online Journal in the comments. "I've decided to take it as a sign. :)" Above, "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" by Grant Wood. (Oil on masonite, 1931, Metropolitan Museum) Longfellow's words resonate with irony in today's history-challenged world: "Hardly a man is now alive/ Who remembers that famous day and year."

"While I'm sure there are some hoity-toity Liberals in Mass, the majority of them in my opinion are not what your average Conservative thinks of as Liberals," wrote Miss Tammy in Professor Jacobson's comments at Legal Insurrection the other day, putting her finger on the facts on the ground — missed for the most part by the usual media suspects  — that help explain Memeorandum's headline of the day, "Poll shocker: Scott Brown surges ahead in Senate race." Miss Tammy explains:

These ain't San Francisco, radical, hate-America types. Most of them are workin'-class, decent, hard-working folks, who just happen to have been brought up to hate Republicans on principle.

Honestly, they remind me of the way Southerners used to be. I equated Republicans with the devil as a small child … that all changed as the party got more liberal and most of my relatives voted for Reagan and have voted R ever since … Interestingly enough, not one of them has ever changed their registration to R, though.

These people are our neighbors and colleagues. Take the Board member at last night's Chelsea Planning Board meeting who leaned over to Tuck and whispered, a glint of Irish mischief in his eye, "Who's gonna be the next senator?" then answered his own question:

Brown's going to win! I've been a Democrat all my life, and this one-party thing isn't working out.

"People like that are really conservative," notes Tuck, "Particularly someone like him. Successful. Born in Chelsea. Still lives in Chelsea, by choice." We had a similar exchange earlier in the day with Tony, an electrician who'd been sent to do some work at GOP headquarters in downtown Boston. Waiting for the phone-banking operation to get rolling, we fell to chatting with him, a union man who thinks for himself:

When I was younger I voted with whatever candidate the union was backing [always the Democrat], but as I got older, I started thinking more independently and became aware during the last few years that union leaders don't care about helping the individual, just about helping themselves.

Howie Carr goes for the jugular in today's Boston Herald [via Gateway Pundit]:

It becomes increasingly clear, Scott Brown is winning among the people who work for a living, as opposed to Democrats, who are Martha's voters …

Let’s be clear here, Brown-Coakley is a fight between the working classes and the nonworking classes. If you have a job, if you pay your own way, then you're for Scott Brown. If you're a moonbat, or a hack, or an illegal alien, or if you have a trust fund or are from New York (or  most likely both) then you're for Martha.

More tea party spirit in a rousing and insightful call to arms from Karen in the comments to yesterday's post, "I know more Democrats who are voting for this guy than Republicans":

There are a lot of former Democrats over there who are pulling for Scott Brown! It's time we stop thinking in terms of Democrat or Republican and start thinking what's best for our COUNTRY. Political parties are belief systems which can be difficult to escape from once you're brainwashed. They tell you how to think, who to vote for, what is right and what is wrong. These are things that we, as individuals, need to do for ourselves. We have been lulled into this "party line" nonsense by those in charge as a way to keep us fighting among ourselves while they have been free to pillage and ruin our country. We need to admit we've been duped and then GET OVER IT and get to work fixing all that has gone wrong. We are the people and we can do great things together!

The old-boy networks are disintermediating via the internet before our eyes.

Update: Amy Kane reports in the comments:

"The liberals are going! The liberals are going!" - chant at Guiliani rally for Brown in the North End today. "Send Scott Brown to the Senate and let's have Massachusetts send a signal that Massachusetts is once again independent," Giuliani said.

"It's a Brown-out!"

From our March 2007 post "Completely smugly and to the utter annoyance of my critics": A bellwether is any entity in a given arena that serves to create or influence trends or to presage future happenings. The term is derived from the Middle English bellewether and refers to the practice of placing a bell around the neck of a castrated ram (a wether) in order that this animal might lead its flock of sheep," according to Wikipedia. Egad. Castrated rams leading flocks of sheep. Could there be a more perfect metaphor for the MSM shaping the "opinions" of the clueless among us? (Pictures of Spain photo)

“It’s a Brown-out,” said Paleologos, director of Suffolk’s Political Research Center. “It’s a massive change in the political landscape”:

Paleologos said bellwether models show high numbers of independent voters turning out on election day, which benefits Brown, who has 65 percent of that bloc compared to Coakley’s 30 percent.

Be still, my beating heart.

"I know more Democrats who are voting for this guy than Republicans"

Walking through East Boston on the final leg of our homeward journey after phone banking for Scott Brown at Boston, MA GOP headquarters this morning, we caught the heart and mind of this affable young man with our newly acquired Scott Brown lawn sign. Eye contact. Ear-to-ear smiles. Species recognition. He pointed with pride to a Scott Brown sign on his back window. We got him to pose with our sign.

"I know more Democrats who are voting for this guy than Republicans," a caller is telling Howie Carr on WRKO 680 am this evening, even as Rothenberg reports the race is a toss-up. Although we adore Howie and link his column from time to time, we've never been a fan of talk radio and will probably never tune in again after the election. But, then, we never marched with signs to town halls and city halls before this spring when we caught Tea Party Fever. One thing led to another, we blogged about it, and here we are on the frontline of the fight for the heart and soul of the Shining City Upon a Hill.

The best thing about phone banks — The jury's still out on the usefulness of phone banks themselves (see below for talking points) — is the fellowship with wonderful folks of like mind you get to shmooze with. Tina from Southie, above, and ourselves could hardly stop talking about how bad things are and how much we owe Barack Obama —  and a compliant media! — for awakening a sleeping nation. And don't get us started on the Gramscian march through the cultural institutions:

How can the mainstream media be intelligent and allow this to happen?

We guess it depends upon what your definition of intelligent is.

If you're not a gifted salesperson — our highest achievement along those lines was third prize for selling the most Girl Scout cookies in third grade — you find yourself listening with a third ear and picking up talking points and techniques from more skilled callers nearby, like retired Air Force guy Jim of Somerville, above left discussing the fine points of phone banking with Deputy Regional Coordinator for Boston Shawn Burke. But even smooth-talking Jim wasn't able to sell a majority of the folks at the other end of the line, grumpy at having received multiple calls from the campaign in the last few days. One told him, half jokingly, that if he received one more call from us, he was going to vote for the other side. Our working theory is that phone banking is in its last throes, a victim of more sophisticated social-networking opportunities for future campaigns. But just as we were starting to agree with our sis that phone banking does more harm than good, in comes Amy Kane in the comments to our previous post with this from a commenter at that lame Globe endorsement of Martha Coakley:

My family was going to go with Coakley, who for us, is a local candidate. We've received multiple calls from Scott Brown's campaign and not a thing from Coakley. We're swinging for Brown. It's time for a change of direction.

Way to go, phone bank volunteers!

It surely is nice to be appreciated. Phone banking itself may give way to something more finely tuned to the person at the other end of the line in the next election cycle, but there is no substitute for the on-the-ground fellowship of red staters bonding behind enemy lines in blue-state Taxachusetts. We are totally energized!

Update: Blog pal Dan Riehl links, and we pick up the home phone for a donation request from a Scott Brown call center in Minnesota. They wanted $50. Ask and ye shall receive. We didn't want to give our credit-card info over the phone so went to the Scott Brown for Senate web site and ended up giving $250. You give too.

Update II: Hub Politics links. Thanks, Matt!

Update III: Instalanche! "Plus: Jackpot: Brown raised a million dollars a day every day this week. 'The first-ever moneycarpetbomb?'”

Update IV: Ed Driscoll links: "That dovetails perfectly into what Erick Erickson calls 'The Story The Media Is Missing Because It Does Not Fit Their Narrative.'”

Update V: Linked at Eastboston.com: "History in the making?"

Update VI: Gateway Pundit links!

Boston Globe readers agree with Scott Brown!

Click here or on image to help send Mr. Brown to Washington!

"This gives hope," writes fellow tea partier Amy Kane of Amy Kane Online Journal in the comments to our previous post, with overwhelming evidence that the people of Massachusetts agree with Scott Brown that It's not the Kennedy seat, it's the people's seat:

Late yesterday afternoon The Globe posted its endorsement of, surprise, Coakley and the comments section exploded in favor of Brown. This morning they re-posted the same lame editorial with a different URL and brand new comments section, and the comments section is once again leaning heavily Brown.

As the all-seeing, all-knowing Glenn Reynolds wrote way back in 1999, "The powers-that-be aren’t anymore":

Without talk radio and the Internet, Tennessee would probably have an income tax now.

The major media were almost all pro-tax, and anti-tax groups got little publicity, most of it negative and condescending. Used to the old way of doing things, state politicians (many of whom barely use e-mail) missed the groundswell of opposition until it was too late. Tax opponents, meanwhile, simply bypassed the traditional gatekeepers in the media and took their case directly to the people. The people responded.

Be sure to read the whole thing, a concise, early analysis of how the old-boy-networks are being "disintermediated via the Internet"  As Tennessee goes, so goes the nation?

Update: Heading into downtown Boston shortly to do some more phone banking.

Update: Weekly Standard links. Thanks, Mary Katharine!

It's the people's seat, stupid!

T-shirts now available at Cafe Press. Plain white version in all sizes here. All proceeds will be donated to Scott Brown's campaign for US Senator. Hottie McAwesome won the debate last night and brought in $1.3 million from supporters all over the country during a 24-hour Moneybomb yesterday. "Seven days left until we change business as usual in Washington. Click here to volunteer.

"'It's not the Kennedy seat, it's the people's seat" is perfect pitch[fork]," we wrote in the comments to Dan Riehl's provocatively titled "Mass: Why Scott Brown's Quote Fell Short." Fell short? We almost had a heart attack till we got to Riehl's punchline:

In last night's debate, Scott Brown had to remind moderator David Gergen, "It’s not the Kennedy seat, it’s the people’s seat." Brown should have added, It's not the Coakley seat, either, even if only for Martha Coakley's sake. Based upon her lack of ideas, poor campaign preparation and two-year-old rhetoric, it's clear Coakley believed it belonged to her and not the people going in.

The rest of our own comments:

It's what we Tea Partiers have been all about from the start and will be the perfect rallying cry to shred the "arguments" of those same-old, same-old Beacon Hill machine types who would delay certifying a Brown victory till after the Obamacare vote. Where do I get my T-shirt and mug?

Our friend neo has video of the money quote. "And I love this comment at Ann Althouse's," she adds:

Gergen, who could hardly conceal his bias, called it “Teddy Kennedy’s seat."

Brown to Gergen: Thanks for the opening I could drive my truck through, you Kennedy School of Government at Harvard meathead.

It's the people's seat, stupid!

Update: Dan links. Thanks, good buddy! And again.

Update II: Instalanche! It's the Army of Davids, stupid!

Update III. Just got a call from a volunteer at downtown Boston phone bank at GOP headquarters, 85 Merrimac Street, not far from City Hall — asking us to do some more calls to get out the vote. We're heading in there Thursday morning. If you're in the area and in it to win it, come on down! Leave any questions you may have in the comments, and we'll either email you or answer you there. It's the GOTV, stupid?

Update IV: We'll drink to that! Vodkapundit lifts a glass to us in "The Week in Blogs — The Links!"

Scott Brown Moneybomb and "the change agent in the race"

Donate now to Scott Brown's Moneybomb.

Martha Coakley is "the change agent in the race," a Senior Democratic strategist told the Washington Post with a straight face. We guess it depends upon what your definition of "change" is. She's got the big guns of Beacon Hill and the national Democrat party and lobbies shooting for her, and that means a lot of change pouring into her campaign coffers.

But if it's real change you're looking for — to stop Obamacare with that all-important 41st Republican vote — Scott Brown's your man. If you're with us, please put your money where your heart and mind are and contribute to Scott Brown's Moneybomb at redinvades blue. They're shooting for $500,000 in this one day, January 11. In less than an hour they've gone from $41,000 to just under $71,000 and counting. We gave $100, and our wonderful friends and relatives and readers and commenters here at sisu have been most generous.

Change is in the air, even if Martha Coakley hasn't a clue. The Journal's editors explain:

The mere fact that Democrats have to fight so hard to save Ted Kennedy's seat shows how badly they have misjudged America by governing so far to the left.

Speaking of change, since we started writing this post Scott Brown's Moneybomb has brought in $10,000 more of your hard-earned dollars. Keep 'em coming so we can send a really big change to Washington!

Update: 4:05 p.m. tweet: "THE REST IS FROSTING ON THE CAKE: Scott Brown Moneybomb explodes, tops $500,000 with 6 hours to go till midnight! $501,750.94 and counting!"

Update II: "Whoo hoo"! exults blog buddy Stoutcat of GrandRants in the comments:

As of 4:20, we all have brought in over $522,000 for Hottie McAwesome, and he has raised the bar to reach $750,000 by the end of the day. I think he can do it! Wouldn't you love to see the look on Coakley's face right about now? :-)

"Sen. Hottie McAwesome is on fire!"

Update: Over the top: "Thank you! $1,303,302.50 raised!"