[Paul Atreides]

When I read the title, I thought it was an announcement of Castro's death, or that bin Laden had been captured.

[stevem]

I wonder if the Republicans might have had a better candidate and a better message.

[gobucks]

"The campaign for the GOP was directed largely out of the Bush Campaign and the Republican National Committee. The Democrats relied on a disparate array of 527 groups to mount such an effort, from America Coming Together to ACORN to MoveOn.org. This decentralized approach invariably led to coordination problems, not to mention the registration of phantom voters like Mary Poppins."

We didn't have to pay our friends to be our friends. Those GOTV GOPers almost ALL VOLUNTEERED. Democrats need to understand this: if you have to pay people to vote, pay people to get people to vote, your message is worse than you think.

[SwinneySwitch]

I don't think the Nader supporters appreciated the demonrat efforts to keep their candidate off the ballot!

Let every vote count, as long as it's for a democrat!

[marblehead17]

ping

[Torie]

The author makes the silly and erroneous assumption that most Nadar voters in 2000 voted for Kerry. The guy is an amateur.

[cripplecreek]

Mr. Slave is taken?

[agincourt1415]

In Florida the Repub turnout was in the 90 % bracket.

[cardinal4]

Perhaps if they didnt run an uppity New England liberal whose disdain for the real America was obvious for all to see. Or maybe it was the nut wife of his. Could it have been the bunny suit pic? Personally, I think the wonton pteracide of a helpless bird photo-op coupled with the "Can I get me a huntin' license?" segue that cooked his, er, goose..

[sasportas]

"...the key might have been the sheer numbers of new voters registered by each party and the effectiveness of their get-out-the-vote efforts."

I don't think so, I think the results of this election were due to the the conservative base getting fired up... over such things as Kerry's betrayal of vietnam vets, him being the epitome of Massachussets liberalism, and the moral issues: homosexual marriage, the potential appointment of new supreme court justices, etc.

[eureka!]

The author misses a very big point in the Rat turnout: the hundreds of millions of $$ for GOTV from the 527s (in addition to the traditional union effort). That made the race a lot closer than it would have been. As to the future, the GOP now has a ground machine that will only be nurtured and grown. Combined with the dying monopoly of the old media, Rats are going to be unhappy in 2006 and thereafter as well....

[WildTurkey]

Totally bogus. He factored in Nadar but omitted the Libertarian Party effect. </sarcasm>