Absent the Camelot "aura," the nation has been relieved of its obligation to care deeply about the senate seat in Massachusetts, and it has responded enthusiastically with an utter lack of enthusiasm:
But the race to replace the late Sen. Edward Kennedy has become anything but a battle royal. Tucked between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Tuesday's long-awaited special primary election features just one House member and no Kennedys. And the first family of Bay State politics hasn't coalesced behind any candidate. Without the Camelot aura, the contest has been a low-intensity affair mostly dominated by two veteran politicians - Attorney General Martha Coakley and Rep. Michael Capuano - who are acquainted with the sort of party activists likely to show up for an early-December election. The central question in the time-compressed race is whether Coakley, the front-runner and best known of four candidates thanks to her years as a Boston-area prosecutor and statewide official, can hang on to the lead she's enjoyed since the race officially began following Kennedy's death in August.
Note to Massachusetts: Without a national symbol whom we are compelled by history and a constant barrage of media retrospectives to think of as a symbol of our national coming of age, hope lost and later lionized, Democratic primary politics can be a real bore, especially with the contenders grappling so desperately for the Kennedy mantle.