Allright, you mokes, it's a loss, so let's take it like men.
Sure, we had them down, but I suppose after this loss it's safe for the folks over at DU to start burning books again.
So what happened?
Early on, it looks like Team Bush made a bonehead error in announcing the firings yesterday. Not smart. In addition, Suzie's people didn't respond rapidly to the sugar story. Some unease about the economy was allowed to creep into the election, enough to keep Suzie from going over the top.
Plus, it looks like Donna Brazile deserves some credit for getting her people out.
Look, you can't win them all, folks. Suzie did about as well as we could have expected her to. A couple of bad hits during the week wiped out the Bush bounce and gave the election back to Landrieu.
Now then, the smart Democrat won't see this as a rejection of Bush; rather, they will look at this as an election in which Democratic turnout was okay and swing voters felt that it was okay to keep Landrieu in for another term. However, what we have to hope for is that the ideological Democrats who run the national party will immediately latch on to this as a vindication of Pelosi liberalism. That is, the national folks will say that it was the black base vote that put her over the top. This could work to our advantage, because the general thrust of this year's elections have been pro-Republican and pro-Bush. The National DNC people will want to latch onto anything that tells them that their message is okay and that they don't have to change.
Let us hope that they proceed to analyze it that way, because in 2004 the dynamic will be different.
The Iraq campaign will have come to a close and the United States will find itself in possession of the second largest oilfields in the world. This will mean reasonably high production and low fuel oil prices.
Al Qaeda will still be at large. Bin Laden is, imho, most likely dead, but we will not be certain, so we'll have to proceed as if he is alive and dancing. That will keep the population, of needs be, on alert.
The economy will have long been in recovery mode by November of 2004. Bush and Rove have adopted the permanent campaign of the Clinto people, only without the crassness that characterized the Clinton regime. The economy will be able to be used to our advantage.
Look folks, we had a chance to win this one, and we blew it. What's important is that we get some "lessons learned" under our belts and move on to the next campaign.
Be Seeing You,
Chris