It doesn't surprise me that Tom Reilly was behind all this. Just read my comment on a thread at BMG that speculated it was Reilly's campaign that was behind Killer Coke days ago. 'No, no,' said lots of people. Maverick Dem - I think - suggested we were just some crazy Deval lovers who'd believe any conspiracy.
Listen to my voice of reason from that comment I linked:
One would think that [there's no connection between Killer Coke and Reilly]. However, Reilly has been known to make the world's stupidest campaign gaffes I've EVER seen. He's pumped at least a million of his warchest into ads already, yet he's barely gained anything in the polls. He's at least 10 points down and, more importantly, last in a three way race.
Would he look at that kind of situation and tell himself he needed to do something - and fast? I'm SURE he's done that, whether or not he's behind Killer Coke (and, despite any connections, I always say INNOCENT till proven guilty - I just think research would be intelligent in this case). Patrick is the toughest opponent Reilly has. He's still in first despite the fact that Gabrieli has pumped about 4 million (probably more) into the race thus far. If it was Reilly vs. Gabrieli, Gool 'ol Tom would have a much better chance.
Again, I'm NOT saying Reilly is behind it or even knows about it. It's just a motive.
Everything I said not only made sense, but seems to have turned out true. I only tossed in all that "motive" nonsense because I wanted to give Tom Reilly the benefit of the doubt. I wanted to believe Democrats don't Swiftboat Democrats. I was wrong.
I knew Reilly was a terrible campaigner. (St. Fluer anyone? 'Driving Cardinal Law out of Boston'?) I knew, from Reilly's past campaigns, he was a fan of dirty campaigns (with other Dems, too). However, the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke was beyond despicable: it was intolerable.
Lots of people, from the beginning, attacked Deval supporters for giving the Killer Coke campaign the time of day. 'We should just ignore them,' their reasoning went. This is why we can't ignore even fringe groups. I'm sure John Kerry's campaign advisers thought the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth were merely a fringe group to be ignored and they likely cost him the election - both the Swiftboaters and Kerry's idiotic campaign "advisers." Don't forget, Swiftboater group was essentially one person too - but he got lots of help, just like Ray Rogers seemed poised to just days ago before David broke the story.
We need to learn from our mistakes as Democrats. Luckily, thanks to people like David, the Lefty Blogosphere in general and now Joan Vennochi (like I said, she deserves Pulitzer Prize contention for this work) the Democratic Primary in Massachusetts is not only saved but has become a great vetting process - after Joan Vennochi's article, we all now know Tom Reilly is not fit to be Governor of this state.
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One point of contention from your BMG comment: in the time between the State House News poll in July and the Channel 4 poll a few weeks ago is when Reilly's ads began, and he went up ten points in the polls.
From the polls I saw pre and post his ads, he went up around 3-4 points tops. If he's polling at about 25% right now (and I think that's kind) are you saying he was at or below 15%? If so, please link me to one of those polls because even I didn't think he went below 20%.
He was at 19, then he went up to 28 or 29. I think the 19 one was state house news service, and the then ch 4 had him high twenties a month or so later.
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