Leaving Me Cold

In Eileen McNamara's column today she intends her title to be directed at Kerry Healey and how her campaign has left women out in the cold. Along with many of the columns she has written during the campaign I find her arguments lacking and instead of being informative or balanced they further her and the Globe’s agenda to promote Deval Patrick despite the fact that he has proven to be less than straightforward on a number of issues, both personal and political.

McNamara, thinking that her readers only subscribe to the Globe says Healey’s fear-mongering tactics have backfired on her. Wasn't there a poll last week that stated Healey had cut Deval's lead to 13 points in three weeks or did I just imagine that? She then goes on to write that Healey has thrown another gratuitous blast at illegal immigrants. Is it wrong Eileen to not want people who are not from this country and are here illegally to not receive the same benefits that I as a taxpayer do? Forgive me for not having the bleeding heart that you do. Also didn’t Deval just do the classic Kerry (John that is) and flip-flop on one of his more controversial platform’s involving illegal aliens? She then asks when Healey plans to devote comparable attention to the more significant issues in education, health care, and the economy. Excuse me, but when is Deval Patrick going to focus on these issues (or any issues in the campaign for that matter) that do not have to do with him backtracking on his record or completely avoiding it altogether?

She wraps all of this up nicely with talking about the little bruncheon that brought together women who in her terms have the finger on the pulse of the women voters who inhabit the commonwealth. Perhaps it would do Eileen better to point out that Shaheen is no stranger to negative campaigning. Shaheen, though has "toughness credentials" while Healey is just a big meany. Then she delves into the same arena Deval did with his rebuttal to the leak that his brother-in-law is an unregistered sex-offender; Kerry Healey is not running a genuine campaign nor is there anything genuine about her. Eileen fails to mention that Kerry Healey, through her campaign of fear has exposed the disingenuous nature of Deval Patrick's campaign of hope. Perhaps the insincerity that runs rampant in the Patrick campaign is too painful to really examine so it is just easier to attack Healey on her association with Romney, who is not insincere, he just opposes abortion and gay marriage, then look at Healy independently from her boss.

If Eileen McNamara wants to write a column about two hundred and thirty women getting together to talk politics it might be helpful to know what these women talked about and not how she feels about the woman who was not there.