Posted by
Daniel Miller on Wednesday, November 08, 2006 12:56:02 PM
I've been off the past coupla days; working for Rick O'Donnell (he was defeated pretty badly, more later). Yesterday I worked 6A-8P as a Jefferson County Election Judge in beautiful downtown Idledale Colorado. I had the distinct honor and pleasure to meet and work with Mary, Rose and Sue as well as MANY nice folks who live in the Idledale precinct. I haven't discussed this with my wife yet, but I want to move there to join the fun....
O'Donnell..? No offense meant toward Rick, but I believe the seat was lost when Bob Beuprez was talked into giving up the seat to run for governor. It never made any sense to me to give up a sure thing for 2 unknown situations. Surely, if Beauprez had been allowed to defend his 7th district seat (he'd been reelected easily) the GOP could have found an unknown to run against the unknown at that time Bill Ritter. Geez, 1 outta 2 is always better than 0 for 2. I'll try to get Mr. Tancredo to help me until we can get a Republican back in the 7th.
Nationally, we could see this coming, couldn't we? Give them credit, democrats successfully tied a national uneasiness with the war in Iraq to local races and picked up significant seats in the Senate and control of the US House. Historically this trends is expected in the 6th year of a Presidency. Expecting bad news doesn't make it easier to swallow, but hopefully the GOP will realize that they cannot take their base for granted. I strongly believe that if Social Security reform and the legislation to make the 2003 tax cuts permeant and tax reform had not been allowed to slide off the table, the GOP base would have responded more positively. The GOP base felt that the elected GOP legislators squandered their majorities and punished them. It's how it works.
Going forward, in 2008 we can expect to have 2 years of democratic performance to incorporate into our message as well as pledge to actually act on our message. A proposed contract with the GOP has a nice ring to it.
Winners laugh and tell funny stories and losers say deal the friggin cards. What's the game?