According to the newest polls, Republican Scott Brown has pulled ahead of Martha Coakley in the Massachusettes Special Election.

Today’s Suffolk University poll has Scott Brown leading by 4 points in the battle for the seat left vacant by the passing of Ted Kennedy.  Brown has been running largely on the promise that he will be the vote that blocks health care reform.

Coakley has been running on a platform that include keeping religious people from working in emergency rooms and beating up reporters.

For whatever reason, that hasn’t been working for her.

Conspicuously absent from the race is President Obama who, perhaps still stinging from his failure to help candidates last November, has chosen to sit this one out.

Rumors persist that the Suffolk poll might actually be good news for Coakley, as whispers about her internal polling paint an even uglier picture.  Who knows how true that is, but the fact that we’re even discussing the possibility of a Republican taking Kennedy’s seat speaks volumes about the shaky ground the Dems are walking.

- Robert Laurie