Health reform teeters as GOP seeks Massachusetts miracle

A couple of weeks ago, President Obama appeared to be on the brink of achieving the Democratic dream of comprehensive health care reform.

Today that dream is at risk of being derailed in the most Democratic of states: Massachusetts.

Democrats are increasingly nervous over the once inconceivable prospect that they will lose Tuesday's special election to replace Sen. Ted Kennedy, who died last August. Losing the seat would strip Democrats of their 60-seat Senate majority and give Republicans enough votes to block the reform bill -- along with other key parts of the president's agenda.

Kennedy -- an advocate for health care reform throughout his career -- held his seat for more than 46 years.


The latest poll, however, shows Republican state Sen. Scott Brown leading Democratic state Attorney General Martha Coakley. An American Research Group survey taken Friday through Sunday had Brown ahead of Coakley by seven points, 52 to 45 percent. The survey's sampling error was four percentage points.
No poll released in the past few days has shown Coakley ahead.

Brown's campaign, by most accounts, has seized the momentum in a race that until recently attracted little national attention.

Obama and former President Bill Clinton hit the campaign trail over the past three days in an attempt to save a Coakley candidacy often hampered by complacency and missteps.

Even diehard Democrats accuse Coakley, who once had a double-digit lead, of running a lackluster campaign.

"I wish she was more likable as a candidate. There are some things that are turning me off about her as a candidate," said Scott Olson, an undecided Democrat.

Heading into the race, few political analysts believed Brown had a serious shot at beating Coakley. Brown was underfunded and unknown statewide. No Republican has won a U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts since 1972. Democrats control the state's entire congressional delegation. They also hold the state's governorship, along with overwhelming majorities in the state legislature.

Obama crushed Sen. John McCain in Massachusetts in 2008, beating the GOP presidential nominee by 26 points.

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