A Handful of Random Post-Election Thoughts

If Bill Clinton had “delivered” Arkansas for the Democrats, and John Edwards had done the same with North Carolina, John Kerry would be the President-elect.
And why didn’t MoveOn give a hand to Doris “Granny D” Haddock in her run for Senator from NH? As previously noted, MoveOn’s rate of success was pathetic: only 5 of their 27 candidates for the House or the Senate were elected.

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MoveOn Candidate Results

Just thought you’d like to know: five of the 27 candidates for the House and Senate endorsed by MoveOn were successful in their election bids.
These are:
House
Allyson Schwartz (PA)
John Salazar (CO)
Melissa Bean (IL)
Senate
Ken Salazar (CO)
Patty Murray (WA)
A number of the remaining 22 candidates lost in squeaker races, which might set them up well for another try.

Take Heart

Liberals and true Conservatives everywhere, take heart: the turnout was still less than 60% of eligible voters. Even with a bare majority of 51.1%, only about 30% of all eligible voters chose Bush.
I can well believe that 30% of the American electorate is homophobic, in favor of school prayer, etc. That certainly doesn’t mean that the rest of us have to pander to them.

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After the Deluge

So, two days after the deluge, the pundits conclude that the Kerry campaign – and the Democratic party – were sunk by bad assumptions about rural/exurban voters; the success of the Swift Boat veterans in discrediting Kerry as a war hero; and the intensity of opposition to gay marriage.
In other words, they couldn’t pull it off with the standard formula for success: a well-funded campaign and a decorated war hero/former prosecutor as the standard-bearer – not to mention the fact that the opposition’s candidate for Vice President has a gay daughter who wears a wedding ring.
Having “blown” yet another election that was theirs to lose, the Dems are already being quoted in the press about yet another exercise in self-flagellation: a Hillary Clinton candidacy in 2008.

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