Comm 361: Grant Paulsen

Massachusetts Senator-elect Scott Brown may have won a seat that has been blue for decades, but that doesn’t mean his party should anticipate more of the same during the 2010 midterm elections.

That’s the belief of Chris Cillizza, anyway.

Chris Cillizza on PBS

Cillizza, who covers the White House for the Washington Post in print and online, and who authors “The Fix,” a politics blog for the Washington Post, joined C-SPAN political editor Steve Scully on Tuesday afternoon to talk about Brown’s upset victory.

“This was an election for the ages,” Cillizza told Scully. “It wasn’t about healthcare. It was about [Democratic candidate Martha] Coakley. It was about change.”

Cillizza joined Scully — and took questions from students from the George Mason University, the University of Denver and Pace University — as part of a distance learning course that C-SPAN produces.

The show, which airs on C-SPAN3 on Friday at 5 p.m. and also streams online (http://www.c-span.org/Distance_Learning/), provides a unique opportunity for students to interview guests via video conference.

“Brown proved what President Obama showed us in November,” Cillizza said. “He showed that you can appeal to independents and rally your base. That’s tough to pull off,” the political writer added.

Cillizza was at ease while answering questions. His extensive television work as an analyst on NBC, CBS and MSNBC is likely responsible for the relaxed delivery he displayed while fielding the questions Scully, and several students, were asking him.

One of the classes participating in the C-SPAN program was Steve Klein’s “Writing for the Web” course from George Mason University. Cillizza spent part of the interview discussing how writers should blog differently than they write, a fitting topic for Klein’s students.

“People want personality when you blog, not just opinion,” said Cillizza, a Va. native who lives with his wife and son. “People want to know you, they’re more interested in the person than the byline.”

In closing his conversation with Scully, Cillizza predicted that the Democrats would fair better in the 2010 midterm elections than many pundits are currently anticipating.

The author of “The Fix,” did say, though, that Democrats need to start talking more about jobs, and less about healtcare.