Horseshoes and hand grenades
Hackett lost to Schmidt in Ohio today. I've been following this mostly through Nick -- he's been very interested -- and I heard the verdict when I got home tonight.
For those who aren't as much of a wonk as he is, it was a House seat vacated by Bush's new trade rep. Schmidt is the Republican candidate, a woman with little charisma who seemed obsessed with talking points; she stands firmly with Bush on just about everything I've heard about. Hackett is a Marine reservist fresh out of a seven-month stint in Iraq. He scared the Republican side so much that the Schmidt campaign got an emergency infusion of $285,000 for the last week of the campaign, a huge boost that no one expected the Republican National people to give to a minor House seat.
Early returns had Hackett leading. He finally lost by about 3,500 votes out of 112,000.
Nick says that the last election there, the Dems lost by 44%. Here, he lost by 4%. I'm reading about how this is a great step up, a good sign and bellwether and we're making progress. All I can hear is "it was close, damn close".
My problem with this is that we are still losing, in every contest we're in. Oh, it was close, it shows we can win it. But we never do. In the 2000 election, we were really close. In the midterm elections, some of the seats in the Senate were razor-thin -- but we lost them. In 2004, we were damn close, with the same returns pattern that Hackett had (we were winning when I broke for lunch, but by 10pm it was lost). In the 2004 congressionals, we had a shot at taking back the Senate, and some of our candidates were polling so well despite their underdog status... but we didn't shift the balance. But they did so well, when no one expected them to, that it's gotta be a sign!
It feels like Democrats are falling into the rut that fitness instructors and touchy-feely school counselors are in... where you coach them to meet the goal, and they fall short, so you start praising how far they came and what they accomplished, to try and make them feel like they're still a good person and it's all okay. We didn't win, but we got a really thin margin! Look at what that got us! And we'll do better next time!
How long are we going to be on this "step up"? Are we ever going to take the next step up? Or are we just going to stay in the land of horseshoes and hand grenades for the next six, ten, twelve years, while the Democratic leadership does the "I'm ok, you're ok" schtick?
I'm tired of this, and cynical, and I can't get my hopes up about congressional races these days. I burned out in 2004 when we lost everything we wree aiming for. I don't have that sort of optimism anymore.
For those who aren't as much of a wonk as he is, it was a House seat vacated by Bush's new trade rep. Schmidt is the Republican candidate, a woman with little charisma who seemed obsessed with talking points; she stands firmly with Bush on just about everything I've heard about. Hackett is a Marine reservist fresh out of a seven-month stint in Iraq. He scared the Republican side so much that the Schmidt campaign got an emergency infusion of $285,000 for the last week of the campaign, a huge boost that no one expected the Republican National people to give to a minor House seat.
Early returns had Hackett leading. He finally lost by about 3,500 votes out of 112,000.
Nick says that the last election there, the Dems lost by 44%. Here, he lost by 4%. I'm reading about how this is a great step up, a good sign and bellwether and we're making progress. All I can hear is "it was close, damn close".
My problem with this is that we are still losing, in every contest we're in. Oh, it was close, it shows we can win it. But we never do. In the 2000 election, we were really close. In the midterm elections, some of the seats in the Senate were razor-thin -- but we lost them. In 2004, we were damn close, with the same returns pattern that Hackett had (we were winning when I broke for lunch, but by 10pm it was lost). In the 2004 congressionals, we had a shot at taking back the Senate, and some of our candidates were polling so well despite their underdog status... but we didn't shift the balance. But they did so well, when no one expected them to, that it's gotta be a sign!
It feels like Democrats are falling into the rut that fitness instructors and touchy-feely school counselors are in... where you coach them to meet the goal, and they fall short, so you start praising how far they came and what they accomplished, to try and make them feel like they're still a good person and it's all okay. We didn't win, but we got a really thin margin! Look at what that got us! And we'll do better next time!
How long are we going to be on this "step up"? Are we ever going to take the next step up? Or are we just going to stay in the land of horseshoes and hand grenades for the next six, ten, twelve years, while the Democratic leadership does the "I'm ok, you're ok" schtick?
I'm tired of this, and cynical, and I can't get my hopes up about congressional races these days. I burned out in 2004 when we lost everything we wree aiming for. I don't have that sort of optimism anymore.