Jim Braude on the election results

quotes Alice Roosevelt: "If you don't have anything good to say about anybody, come sit by me"
but thrilled to be here with people who serve kids
satisfy his quota of talking to Republicans by talking to MASC exec director
"I was an elected official, and it was the most tortured..two years of my life..the only thing worse than angry, small-minded, uninformed constituents is angry, small-minded, uninformed colleagues"

"There's nothing like good planning, and this is nothing like good planning"
"as goes Massachusetts, so goes NOBODY"
"everybody's looking for their bumper stickers from the '70's 'Don't blame me, I'm from Massachusetts'"
"Don't tell me we're the most liberal, tolerant state in the country" Rhode Island is more Democratic, we've had FOUR women in Congress in our state history
Massachusetts had spillover for Question 3: so passionate about stopping Q.3, they came out and voted, and voted Democratic
"virtually no clout with this orange-faced character from Ohio"
"it enables bad behavior..if you are not convinced you need to listen to others"
asks Patrick why he won...Braude says Baker made a ton of mistakes...Patrick is a great campaigner..major reason he won, "I have rarely heard a guy in a tough campaign...with a more positive message"
Governor Patrick relentlessly "every single day, talking about positive stuff"
"people are sick of all the negative crap...celebrated all of the good things we do"
"your abject failure in dealing with the media about all the good things you do"
"when people don't understand the question, they vote no" (on Q.2)
his prediction (which was right): people will vote yes on 1, as they hate their taxes, but no on 3, because it goes too far
Reagan convinced people that taxes and what they buy have nothing to do with one another
"good things you get from government cost money"
Baker and Patrick both talk about education non-stop
"I never had (Patrick) on, not once, where he did not talk about the quality of education in Massachusetts"
most people don't care about the achievement gap...Patrick talks about it all the time
breakfast at school..."they wouldn't be able to learn" (without it)
In terms of newspapers and media in general, they took "a thumping"...not a single newspaper endorsed Bump, she won
"don't really care what the newspapers think"
"created a story rather than reported a story"
Local and statewide press and how you need them: "nothing is more important than the success to your work"
"the way they form their opinions about what YOU DO based" on local media
"it's got to be as high a priority as the rest of the stuff that you do"
"it doesn't matter if you are right or wrong; all that matters is that you want good coverage. It's huge and it's hugely important"
"work us, use us..adopt a reporter...they are crazed for information...answer their questions for them"
Impossible to badmouth somebody that you like and know personally; make sure your reporters know you
CULTIVATE REPORTERS
"pick a reporter and take them out to lunch"
"most of us in the press are complete paper tigers...you confront them..and I'm telling you that over time, it's harder to trash someone, if you deal with them"
"You can never undersell the knowledge of most constituents you have...they're busy"
"talk radio is the place where reasonable, thoughtful ideas go to die"
the leaders of the Tea Party are some of the most despicable people...not all the 40% of people saying they identify with them can be despicable..."regular people who are scared"
the 2012 campaign for president started yesterday..."nothing happens for the next two years"
The New Hampshire primary is 15 months away
"I would suggest you go on the offensive..think big...maybe we could actually have physical education...I grew up thinking that your job is to educate the WHOLE child..the goal is to win, losing is not so bad if you fight well"
"They want people fighting for things they believe in..and the right people to lead that is YOU"