So Martha Coakley got beat. Anyone surprised? The dowdy Massachusetts intellectual lady got beat by a good looking guy who drives a pickup truck and once had a nude photo spread. Did you expect any less? With 1 in 5 Americans scared to death to spend an extra dime in this economy, which one of those two would you take a chance on? The one who seemed at least, alive, or the “cool and aloof” intellectual whose presence is about as exciting as an empty soup tin? 

This is America. We go for style over substance. We like our politicians charismatic and charming regardless of their party affiliation. We’ll vote for the guy who at least looks and sounds like he’s thought about us even if it’s in between cashing special interest checks. 

But this headline? “GOP's Brown wins Mass. Senate seat in epic upset” Please. Epic?  Epic for whom? The media, that’s who. I say it’s off to the races for “main stream media.” Buckle up, it’s gonna be a loud, bumpy and long ride.  

Now begin the weeks of constant, churning, and nauseating media chomping on the “will this signal the end of the Democratic Party as we know it?” rubber chew toy. That slobbery blob of plastic coated goo will pass for news for a while. Reporters will interview reporters for hours about this single state election and its “ ramifications.” The GOP and White House will trot out everyone with the same talking points to every outlet that has a signal, a webpage, a printing press, or a twitter account. 

I’m going on the record now. I don’t want to hear it. 

Let me save you some time. The GOP will say the House and Senate will be theirs in the fall elections; that this one election, in one state, is a treatise on the “wrong direction” in which the nation is going. In other words, “Obama bad.”  

The Democrats will say that they’ll just have to work harder to retain the seats they have and to they’ll continue to fight for the reforms so needed in the US today. This election shows the fear and pain and desperation that engulfs so many now. “We feel your pain.”  

Well. Here’s my personal advice to the Democratic Party: Admit it right away and get the discussion away from fall elections. Admit that you picked and backed a loser. She was a candidate who never "related." She might have done well in a courtroom. She might write really well and speak quite articulately…but when you are dealing with voters who are watching their lives circle the economic drain, when you are courting people who are terrified, some guy in a pickup truck spouting alleged “common sense” and “morality” looks pretty damned good. Admit it, you blew it.

And Democrats, if you want to win in the fall, you better get smart and get smart NOW. Start by getting better more accessible candidates to run. Candidates who actually look and sound like the voting population electing them. Don't get all "intellectual." Be sharp. Be smart. Be simple. Yes, you better get into the trenches and get candidates out there who are loud, strong and not afraid to elicit some good old fashioned emotion from voters. Give voters what they want: someone who works for them. Give them what they need: the promise to help when they need it. And for God's sake, give them someone who is lively, laughs a little too loud now and then, and not seen as "above it all." 

If you do that, maybe, just maybe, you won’t lose.