Call the President an "SOB," Win Votes (The Nation)

[Catchawave]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20050803/cm_thenation/19755&printer=1;_ylt=AhT1rtsSa5efyIVAWKW2KMQ__8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE

John Nichols
Wed Aug 3,12:15 AM ET

The Nation -- "Two months ago, the special election race in the 2nd Congressional District, which stretches across seven southern Ohio counties, was expected to be a low-key affair, a near-automatic win for whichever republican candidate emerged from the June 14 GOP primary," the local newspaper, the Cincinnati Enquirer, noted on Tuesday. "After all, the previous congressman, Republican Rob Portman, routinely won the district with more than 70 percent of the vote."

In fact, Portman, who was plucked from the southern-Ohio district by President Bush to serve as the US Trade Representative, won all of his seven campaigns for the seat with more than 72 percent of the vote. The district had been so radically gerrymandered by Republican governors and legislators that it was all-but-unimaginable that a Democrat could ever be competitive there.

But, in Tuesday night, Democrat Paul Hackett almost did just that. Hackett's near-win came after a remarkable campaign in which he blunted Republican efforts to exploit national security issues and provided food for thought for Democrats as they prepare for 2006 Congressional races nationwide.

Republican Jean Schmidt, a feverish foe of reproductive rights who used her links to religious right activists to beat more mainstream Republicans and secure the party's nomination for the open seat, was leading Hackett, a smart, telegenic Iraq War veteran who criticized the Bush administration for leading the country into the war and then mishandling it, by an unexpectedly thin margin of just 3,573 votes. Unofficial returns gave Schmidt 59,095 votes (51.7 percent) to 55,091 votes (48.3 percent) for Hackett.

more....

[phantom power]

1. Hackett's secret to success is simple.

He dared to tell everybody that the Emperor has no clothes, and he never apologized for a word he said.

You can bet that even people who voted against Hackett this time around, heard what he said, and they'll be thinking about it. It will sink in.

[faithnotgreed]

3. thats exactly it

[PATRICK]

2. GOP internals

More than the DEM threat this does deal a blow to the RW extremist cakewalk over the sane in their party. You have to wonder how much of a blow considering the nature of that party now and the rigged system.

After all the major effect often is within the party that gets punished for its own decisions which THEN possibly rewards the other party. I suspect more than inner GOP rebellion you will get more "try harder" strategies, more election tampering, more PR dirt, more spin. In that case it is up to the Democrats also to try much harder since they will not reap as much from the march of a GOP split as one might hope- in a fair democracy. You cannot repeat a static attack against this system, but continually progress creatively probing for more possibilities- the same way that the intractable RW GOP will.