Reply #12: He did vote for the anti-EPA amendments and he praised Ryan's budget (vaguely as usual)

[karynnj]

What I wonder is that it is usually accepted that many people want to give the answer they think a pollster wants to here - which is why most companies try to calibrate market research results by past experience of that bias. Brown has gotten puffy star treatment - especially by the more liberal Boston Globe. At this point his favorable number is around 53. What I wonder is how solid is it?

Once the Democrats converge around a candidate, you wonder if votes like the EPA ones and the mere fact that he will vote for McConnell for majority leader might pull him down. The best thing that national Democrats could do to help is what Obama just started - the defining question of 2012 may be the Obama budget vs the Ryan budget. In 1996, Weld has favorables in the 70s and was his record was more liberal than Brown's, but Kerry won by 7 points. (I admire Kerry immensely and he is a fantastic debater, but part of the reason he survived was that he made the issue Democratic values vs Republican ones. I suspect the same phenomena will help any good Democratic nominee.