Today's topic: United States Senate special election in Massachusetts, 2010.

When Senator Ted Kennedy died, the weight of the influence the democrats had in the Senate dropped significantly. Whether you agreed with him or not, Kennedy was a remarkable senator and definitely had the voice of the people of his constituency heard on a national level. So who could possibly fill his shoes? No-one, really. A junior senator holds a vote but not much influence. But there is considerable nationwide interest in this campaign. The GOP are hoping to upset many applecarts with the election of Republican Scott Brown. The Obama administration really needs a democrat, so Martha Coakley is getting a lot of attention. And there's liberatarian party candidate Joe Kennedy (no relation to Ted) who could be a force for good in the Senate, but is most likely going to be a vote sucker for the other two. Let's look at the candidates in a very, very brief summation.

Martha Coakley (D): a liberal candidate, she basically fulfills the very definition of an Obama Democrat. Coakley supports the healthcare reform, ending the war in Afghanistan, supports gay marriage rights and strengthening hate crime laws.

Scott Brown (R): very much a staunch republican, he supports what you would expect from a republican candidate. Brown positions himself as a fiscally conservative candidate, supporting lower taxes and is against wasteful spending. He is against late-term abortions, same-sex marriage and is in favor of gun rights.

Joseph L. Kennedy (I): born Joseph Lewis Rodriguez and placed in the foster care system early in life, he is a true outsider to the political realm. He is against healthcare reform, the wars in Irag and Afghanistan, further taxation, supports gay marriage, wants to abolish Federal Dept. of Education and in favor or Ron Paul's "Free Competition in Currency Act".

and finally:

Mulderjoe (I): a cynical candidate, is pretty much going to call a horse a horse and will not B.S. you. I will take Washington by storm and will be very vocal in voicing the opinions of the citizens of the commonwealth. I will do my best to bring our troops back home as soon as possible and put all of the money spent on these ridiculous wars into getting our country back to a fiscally viable superpower. Once the country is financially stable, I will commission a military task force to hunt down the architects of 9/11 and will not rest until Osama Bin Laden is captured...which is what we should have been doing since the Twin Towers fell. I support gay marriage, mostly because this whole political unrest about it is absurd. If two people want to marry and be legally responsible for their partner, that's fine. Why anyone would want to marry is beyond me, but that's okay. I am completely against wasteful spending, and there's a lot of it. I will call out idiocy wherever I see it in the government and I will hold myself accountable for the will of the people under my constituency.

Thank you and vote on Tuesday the 19th of 2010.