Barney Frank had reason to celebrate on Tuesday night, when he won a 16th term in Congress by an 11-point margin. But rather than crack a smile, Frank began a harangue that was cantankerous even by his standards, sniping at everything from the Tea Party to the Boston Herald, and complaining about the “deteriorated nature of this campaign.’’
Truth be told, graciousness was in shockingly short supply almost everywhere on Tuesday night, when Charlie Baker’s blunt “he won, fair and square,’’ in response to supporters who booed Deval Patrick’s name, was about as sportsmanlike as it got. Patrick found room in his victory speech for a fair amount of crowing, but none to mention Baker by name. Meanwhile, 10th district challenger Jeff Perry broke protocol by delivering a fiery political speech at 8 p.m., just after the polls closed, as if tired voters hadn’t been brained enough by negative campaigning.
Nationally, it was an even more dispiriting display. Delaware Senate also-ran Christine O’Donnell delivered a laundry list of demands to the opponent who clocked her by 17 points; narrow loser Alex Sink of Florida took the occasion to remind the winner that there are “2.5 million Floridians who didn’t vote for him’’; Pennsylvania’s Pat Toomey eked out a two-point win and then gassed on about the strong, clear message sent by the voters.
Like Frank, many of the candidates were clearly tired of the vicious attack ads paid for by unknown donors, and of the way those denunciations seemed to creep into the tone of the debate and coverage. But the candidates have to realize that they’re part of the problem. The many voters who saw this election as a chance to push for a unified, consensus approach to state and national problems must have been scratching their heads.
