If President Obama can’t do the trick, invoke Dr. King

At the Boston Martin Luther King Day Breakfast this morning, Martha Coakley argued that voting for her will help carry on King’s legacy. “Chairman Martha” said:

I’m running for the United States Senate because Dr. King’s work is unfinished; his dream is unrealized. Tomorrow we act on the dream and we make sure that we allow me to continue that work. We remember the dream tomorrow and we will act on the dream tomorrow. I know that [King] would be standing right on the front line for health care — not as a right — not as a privilege, but as a right, as Ted Kennedy always said.

Coakley is probably correct about where King would stand on health care, but I understand that this event is traditionally a non-partisan affair. To that extent, Coakley’s remarks seem out of place.
Scott Brown attended the event, but sat with the crowed, not with the speakers. According to Politico, Brown was “received warmly, shaking hands and taking pictures with well-wishers during pauses in the morning’s event.” He later criticized Coakley’s pitch for votes based on King’s memory as “inappropriate.”
As for Coakley, she “received polite, seated applause,” her “tepid reception at a stronghold of Democratic politics reflect[ing] the lack of excitement among Democrats for the race.”

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