It’s still too early and murky to say one way or the other how the Massachusetts special senate election is going to go on January 19th but Rasmussen released a new poll today that shows Coakley’s lead over Brown has shrunk to less than ten percent.

That’s amazing….

State Attorney General Martha Coakley holds a nine-point lead over her Republican rival, state Senator Scott Brown, in Massachusetts’ special U.S. Senate election to fill the seat of the late Edward M. Kennedy.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state finds Coakley ahead of Brown 50% to 41%. One percent (1%) prefer some other candidate, and seven percent (7%) are undecided.

The special Senate election will be held on January 19 and special elections typically feature low turnout. That’s one reason the race appears to be a bit closer than might typically be expected for a Senate race in Massachusetts. Kennedy carried 69% of the vote when he was reelected in 2006.

Massachusetts voters in the Boston Metro area tend to vote overwhelmingly for Democrats, but this is a special election in more ways than one. There are at least 3 good reasons why MA voters could defy history and give the election to Scott Brown.

1. Many MA voters are just as fed up as the rest of the country with the Democrat agenda of big spending, big government and big bills rushed through in the middle of the night. They know that a win for Scott Brown pulls an emergency brake on the Democrat runaway train.

2. MA Governor Deval Patrick is very unpopular with MA voters right now. He has broken pledges not to raise taxes and doesn’t have a lot to show for his time as governor. People in MA are not happy.

3. Martha Coakley doesn’t really have much to show for her record. If people were excited about her as a candidate, she would have a much more commanding lead over Brown. She’s trying to coast into office based on the “D” after her name. Under normal circumstances, that might work. These are not normal circumstances.

We’ll know how this story ends on January 19th. Scott Brown is campaigning like a trooper, traveling the state and doing lots of media interviews. As someone who lives in the Bay State, I can tell you that I hear a lot of people talking about Scott Brown, not his opponent.

More at Memeorandum.

The planet is dying! Go green! Pass climate change legislation! Unless of course it impacts the lives of wealthy progressives. The Boston Herald reports that wealthy liberals on Martha’s Vineyard are fighting MA Governor Deval Patrick’s plan to build wind power turbines there.

What a surprise! They’re all for “green” power unless it’s in their backyard.

“Blazing a trail for renewable energy, Go. Deval Patrick is alienating Martha’s Vineyard’s liberal rich and famous by pushing a plan to lease state waters for 166 450-foot-high wind turbines between the pristine vacation spots of Gay Head cliffs and Cuttyhunk Island.”

“People come here because it’s a very special place. Not because they’re going to see David Letterman or someone, but because they can see the world the way it used to be,” argued an outraged Chilmark resident Andy Goldman.”

“Goldman, a retired trial attorney, and his wife Susan Heilbron, a former commissioner of New York City’s waterfront, are generals of the grassroots uprising Let Vineyarders Decide.”

“I plead guilty to thinking global warming is a real problem, but that doesn’t mean everybody who has a plan with the word ‘green’ has to be supported,” Goldman said.”

“Patrick’s final plan, due from Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Ian A. Bowles no later than Dec. 31, would permit a commercial wind farm of up to 100 turbines southwest of the wildlife refuge Nomans Land adjacent to the Vineyard and another 66 turbines off Cuttyhunk Island. State waters extend three miles from shore. The turbines would be comparable to 50-story buildings crowned with strobe lights.”

“James Feiner, a Vineyard real estate broker, claims he lost a $2 million-plus home sale on Gay Head this fall when his client – an environmentalist, no less – got wind of Patrick’s plan and bolted.”

“A mortified Feiner wasn’t even aware it was being discussed.”

“For them to run a band (of turbines) from Cuttyhunk to Nomans Land is idiotic,” Feiner said. “It would have impacted the whole water view of (my client’s) property.”

His client’s property??? Hasn’t Mr. Feiner heard that we’re all socialists now? It’s no longer his client’s property, it belongs to all of us.

Q: What happens when the most intelligent, popular president in history visits the bluest state in the union to support his bestest buddy, Governor Deval Patrick?

A: They fail to sell all the tickets to their event and get protested by the local moonbats.

Obama landed in the Bay State today. Outlook: not good.

From today’s Boston Herald:

“President Obama blows into the bluest state today facing a cold shoulder from once true-blue admirers, as gay rights activists, anti-war protesters and vexed environmentalists vow to picket a fund-raiser he’s headlining for Gov. Deval Patrick – a marquee event that hasn’t even sold out.”

“As of last night, liberals who once braved frigid temperatures to behold Obama were shunning tickets to the fund-raiser at the posh Westin Copley Place featuring the president, sources told the Herald. And despite campaign denials, Patrick operatives reportedly were pushing the ducats – between $500 and $6,000 – by e-mail up to the last minute.”

“He’s reaching the point in his presidency where not only has the honeymoon ended, but the fighting has begun,” said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia presidential scholar.”

“Among the groups planning to dog Obama during his scheduled afternoon swing through Cambridge and Boston:”

“Anti-war activists CODEPINK, who are irate with the president for backpedaling on promises to withdraw from Iraq and weighing a surge of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.”

“It’s disturbing and very upsetting,” said Sarah Roche-Mahdi, the group’s Greater Boston coordinator.”

“Donning bright-pink wigs and hats, these anti-war women said they’ll shadow Obama from MIT, where he’s slated to give a speech on the environment, to the swank Westin Copley fund-raiser.”

“Environmental coalition 350.org – which has soured on Obama’s efforts to curb global warming – plans to protest the MIT address. They’re also taking out a full-page ad in the MIT student paper questioning Obama’s commitment to the green cause.”

“Gays and lesbians are furious with Obama for forsaking campaign vows to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and the ban on gays serving openly in the military.”

“About 150 members of gay marriage advocate Join the Impact-MA plan to converge on the Hub hotel to give the commander in chief an earful.”

Two words: Epic fail.

Democrats don’t like September 11th because for some weird reason they feel it glorifies Republicans. That’s how they see 9/11. It’s just a partisan problem to be re-branded. Luckily for them, they now have a president who agrees.

Last time I checked, 9/11 was a national day of mourning for all Americans, regardless of political affiliation. Not so anymore. Democrats want to change the narrative of 9/11 to fit their agenda.

Matthew Vadum at American Spectator reports:

“The Obama White House is behind a cynical, coldly calculated political effort to erase the meaning of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from the American psyche and convert Sept. 11 into a day of leftist celebration and statist idolatry.”

“This effort to reshape the American psyche has nothing to do with healing the nation and everything to do with easing the nation along in the ongoing radical transformation of America that President Obama promised during last year’s election campaign. The president signed into law a measure in April that designated Sept. 11 as a National Day of Service, but it’s not likely many lawmakers thought this meant that day was going to be turned into a celebration of ethanol, carbon emission controls, and radical community organizing.”

Michelle Malkin has more on the subject, including a report from the Sweetness and Light blog which has then Senator Obama’s official response on September 11th, 2001.

“The essence of this tragedy, it seems to me, derives from a fundamental absence of empathy on the part of the attackers: an inability to imagine, or connect with, the humanity and suffering of others.”

Empathy? Really??? That was what caused Jihadists to murder thousands of Americans, a lack of empathy???

You know, this reminds me of another Democrat who also happens to be a useless political stooge sold by master astroturfer David Axelrod. In 2007, Obama’s friend Deval Patrick made the following stunningly ignorant remarks about September 11th which were found offensive even by the standards of liberal Massachusetts residents.

“Among many other things, 9/11 was a failure of human understanding. It was mean and nasty and bitter attack on the United States. But it was also about the failure of human beings to understand each other, and to learn to love each other.”

The next time someone kills a member of your family with a bomb or beheads your spouse with a knife in front of a video camera, be sure to remind them that they’re acting mean and nasty. Remind them that what they need is more “empathy.”

Note to the Democrats: Try to re-brand 9/11 if you wish. YOU are the only ones who see 9/11 as a “partisan” issue.

The American people know exactly what 9/11 really was. It had nothing to do with empathy and it will never be recognized for your thinly disguised service to Obama’s never ending campaign.

9/11 was a direct attack on America by vicious people who wanted to kill as many Americans as they could. Period.

The Democratic Party’s attempt to capitalize on such a massive American tragedy is beyond inappropriate, it’s disgusting.

Shamelessly ripped off from Hot Air. I hope Allahpundit will understand.

Harvard Pilgrim CEO and Republican, Charles Baker, has announced his candidacy to run for Governor of Massachusetts in 2010.

“The Massachusetts governor’s race is more than a year away, but it’s heating up fast, with the head of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care now saying he’s going to resign his post there and toss his hat in the ring as a Republican.”

“A state that can’t grow jobs, can’t keep it’s young people, is in deep, deep, serious long-term trouble and that’s what I see when I look at Massachusetts right now,” Baker said.”

Deval Patrick’s slogan based, David-Axelrod-orchestrated-campaign of Yes We Can “Together We Can” is wearing thin with many Bay State residents who feel they are over taxed and under-represented. Massachusetts is dominated exclusively by Democrat politicians, a few of whom have been brought up on charges of bribery and fraud in recent months.

The Boston Herald (the Boston newspaper that’s not going broke) is already reporting that 2010 may be the “Real Year of Change”

“The premature pop of the starter’s pistol in the 2010 race for governor has rattled summering pols amid Beacon Hill buzz the campaign season could bring an unprecedented shuffle in major elected seats.”

Charles Baker will no doubt receive massive support from listeners of Michael Graham at 96.9 WTKK, who was recently dubbed Boston’s “Maestro of Conservative Controversies” by the Boston Phoenix.

Michael Graham has been using his experience as a former campaign manager to organize ordinary Massachusetts citizens to run for state and local office in an effort to break the bureaucratic stranglehold on the Bay State.

“150 citizens, normal people, political novices and neighborhood activists jammed the dining room of Ken’s Steakhouse at 8am on the most beautiful Saturday we’ve had in New England this year.  Their hands are raised because I’ve just ask(ed) “How many of you plan to be on the ballot in 2009 or 2010.”

“The response was overwhelming.”

WTKK’s afternoon talker Jay Severin, a conservative Libertarian and WTKK’s evening talker Michele McPhee, an expert on crime reporting are also likely to throw their support behind Charles Baker, as well as WRKO’s longtime favorite, Howie Carr, a frequent critic of Governor Deval Patrick.

2010 may still be a way off but the growth of the Tea Party movement and the massive increase in ratings for FOX News bodes well for conservatives.

If successful, Charles Baker’s announcement to run for governor in the bluest of blue states may become known as the conservative shot heard around the USA.