Why I Deservedly Lost

Special to FreeRepublic ^ | 8 May 2008 | John Armor (Congressman Billybob)

[JDoutrider]

I’ve lost count of the battles I have fought... Win or lose, I’ve learned one important lesson: Keep your options open... Never let a defeat detour you from your mission... Your Faith, coupled with the knowledge of lessons learned, will bring the Victory you seek...

[Huck]

[Jeff Gordon]

Just so that you know...

I named my cat after you.

[Congressman Billybob]

Lordy, Lordy. I did almost everything wrong, beginning with the failure to assemble the people and the funds that I knew were necessary. I think you missed the point of the column, just a bit.

Executive failures are always the fault of the person in charge. That applies to every endeavor from baseball to bombing missions. I took that as a given.

John / Billybob

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I was disappointed to learn that you will not be the nominee. And I blame myself that I didn't give more than I did, tho if other FReepers did what I did you would have had some money to work with. And if they didn't . . . I guess in that sense we all got what we deserved.

[MissMagnolia]

For the balance of my days, I will go back to being a writer.

Don't discount the 'power of the pen' ........ Best Wishes!

[Copernicus]

It is this: ideas and visions, even very good ones, are necessary but not sufficient in elective politics.

In a nutshell, you summarize the story of the Libertarian Party and other American Dissidents who believe government governs best that governs least.

A Conservative is a Liberal who has been mugged, a Liberal is a Conservative who has been arrested, and a Libertarian is a Citizen who says "Is all this really necessary?"

Best regards,

[truthkeeper]

ps: I know I didn’t say anything that you didn’t already know...I just like typing. ;>)

LOL...I was drinking coffee!

[CPT Clay]

Organization and boots on the ground.

Get out the vote is an essential effort.

Hey Billybob, we have a Mayorial election here in Farmers Branch Texas. Care to take a road trip and work the precincts?

Election is tomorrow.

[CPT Clay]

Good ole Chet.

The quintessential say one thing in the district and vote the other in Washington ‘Critter.

[Richard Kimball]

Having seen Edwards up close, he's a guy to study if you want to know how to stay in office. He's very smart. He's developed strong ties in the black community, with veterans, with the small town people, and being an A&M grad, with the A&M folks. I've sent him a couple of letters, and his staff has always replied with polite letters that specifically address the issue. If he's going to vote differently than what I advocate, the letter notes that, and states that he hopes I understand that although we disagree on this position, he still wishes to hear from me on issues.

Finally, a few years ago, I was having a tough time getting a passport. There was no reason for it, just the passport office was being slow. Finally, after three months of calling the office, getting hung up on, being told to leave voice mails on voice mail boxes, then having the voice mail boxes refuse to accept the message because they were full, I called Congressman Edwards' office. Two days later I got my passport by overnight mail.

I disagree with Edwards on a lot of issues, but you couldn't blow him out of office with a stick of dynamite.

[mr_hammer]

Last November I ran for city council and garnered 20% of the vote...OUCH!

Anyhow, learned a lot...in real-estate, its location, location, location.

In politics, its money, money and political machine.

The fella I ran against spent approx. $12K as close as I can tell for a $5K a year slot.

Now he is running for a county commissionaire position only weeks after winning the council position.

[WOSG]

You are generous to the voters. I prefer the line “The People have Spoken ... the b*stards.” :-)

I was told to expect to spend at least $400,000 for a *primary* run for Congress in Texas. That’s way too much and I hope these candidates spent less now and have more later, but you can credibly reach out to 40,000+ voters or more for a lot less than that. Just do the math on a few flyers, plus staff and signs, plus an office and calls (3 cents a pop).

If you want to feel better, there were some primary election losers who blew through millions of dollars in primary election races here in Texas ... and didnt win. So your dollars per vote is still pretty good, fwiw. ;-)