Martha, My Dear

"Hold your head up you silly girl, look what you've done."

So go the lyrics of the Beatles' song, "Martha My Dear."

Paul McCartney was writing about his sheepdog, not a girl.
I'm not thinking of a girl, either, but rather a 57-year-old woman.

The Massachusetts Attorney General.
The Democratic U.S. Senate candidate to succeed the late Ted Kennedy.

But oh, what she's done.
Made a muck of this special election campaign.
Should the worst happen, and a Democratic seat turn Republican for the first time in over thirty years, she will hardly be able to hold her up.

Her future in elective politics will, in fact, be quite over.
Deservedly so.

One does not mock one's opponent for "standing in the cold and shaking hands outside Fenway Park."
One does not run as an entitled incumbent when one is neither.
And one gets out there and presses flesh and wears silly hats and tells stupid, self-deprecating jokes till they say, "Hey, she's a good sport."
And one runs and runs and runs till even those whose votes are beyond your grasp have to give it to you for being a fighter.

Alas, Martha Coakley, my dear, you've done of the above.
And you may well lose (God forbid) to who is, in fact, the silly boy...