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- Carolyn Gritter on Political Rhetoric, James Michael Curley Edition
- Elias Nugator on Political Rhetoric, James Michael Curley Edition
- Maurice T. Cunningham on Political Rhetoric, James Michael Curley Edition
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Author Archives: Maurice T. Cunningham
Political Rhetoric, James Michael Curley Edition
Professor Duquette and I have been critical of Senator Scott Brown, Elizabeth Warren, and their backers crying “hypocrite” at each other. But my real problem with the accusation is it is just so awfully boring. So for some real taunts to get under an opponent’s skin let’s turn to James Michael Curley.*
Of Catholics, Cherokees, and JP Morgan Chase
MassInc Polling Group released the results of a statewide poll of registered voters last week and some of the internals are telling. MassInc and actually polled a religious variable, the first time in years religion has been publicly surveyed in Massachusetts. Since the poll release the race has become a tussle between the Elizabeth Warren as Cherokee controversy and the Scott Brown as dupe of Wall St. angle.
More McGee Mess
Peter Lucas of the Lowell Sun has an interesting piece on the Stanley McGee mess. (Thanks to MassterList for flagging it). This is the key line in Lucas’s piece, to me:
The commission attitude, as judged from the minutes of its May 1 meeting, was: It did not really matter, you see, because McGee is a Harvard Law School graduate, a Rhodes Scholar, a brilliant attorney who also has the governor’s ear.
That explains the lack of curiosity among state officials about what happened in Florida?
Gambling on McGee
The matter of the state gambling commissions’ hire of the accused but not charged Stanley McGee as interim executive director continued its weird non-linear path yesterday with McGee offering his resignation to Chairman Steve Crosby because his presence would be a “distraction” to the work of the commission. Which is true.
Small Business Attitudes in Massachusetts
Thumbtack.com has a survey of small business owners nationally, broken down further by state, region, and city. I first noticed this on themonkeycage.com so props to them, it’s a great site. The details of the survey are here and link to findings and national summaries here. Click here for the details on Massachusetts.
Of course small business owner attitudes is one dimension of our economic reality and prospects here in Massachusetts. Consider the Thumbtrack work and MassInc’s recent report Recapturing the American Dream: Meeting the Challenges of the Bay State’s Lost Decade and it appears we have our challenges set out for us here in the commonwealth.
Scott Brown Plays Trivial Pursuit
Among Senator Scott Brown’s many superb qualities as a campaigner is his mastery of Trivial Pursuit, Politics Edition. The Brown-Warren race is becoming a minuet of minutiae.
Prof. Cunningham in The Daily Beast
Professor Cunningham in The Daily Beast today on the Scott Brown campaign hitting on the Elizabeth Warren as Cherokee (non)issue:
“They’ve kind of looked for these rather trivial issues, and I think they’ve hit on this one,” said Cunningham. “It’s a little bit like a Mel Brooks film. You keep telling bad jokes until you find one that people really laugh at.”
Thou Hypocrite! Massachusetts Political Rhetoric
We have a plague of hypocrites running for office this year. It’s a real problem but I might have a solution.
MPP on GOP Caucuses at CommonWealth Magazine
The surprise at the Massachusetts Republican Party caucuses to elect delegates to the national convention was that the Ron Paul forces won half the slots, defeating some prominent Mitt Romney backers. Professor Ubertaccio and Professor Cunningham discuss what it means for Romney and the state GOP on a CommonWealth Magazine video, direct link to YouTube posted here.
Mitt Romney and the Art of the Takeover
Mitt Romney made a lot of money in corporate takeovers and he’s at it again. This time he’s retaken the Massachusetts GOP. How it fares under his hand-picked leadership is a work in progress but that isn’t the point. The state party’s role is for Romney to extract value from it and then discard it. It’s what he does.