Schmidt Beats Hackett(Welcome
Polipundit readers! Thanks,
Lorie!)
The left will try to claim that
Hackett got a far better percentage of the vote in this district than did Kerry, but the fact of the matter is that he tried to
sell himself as Bush's buddy in ads, however much red meat he served up to the Kos Kidz.
"Voters declared that they support our president and approve of his leadership," Ms. Schmidt, 53, told supporters gathered at a suburban Holiday Inn late Tuesday evening. "They want us to stay the course so the enemies of freedom cannot bring their terrorism to our shores again."Note that the Times highlights how well Hackett did, selling the message that this was not a defeat for the Democrats:
But Mr. Hackett's showing was unexpectedly strong in this district, a Republican bastion that snakes along the Ohio River from affluent Cincinnati suburbs to struggling Appalachian hamlets. President Bush won the district with 64 percent of the vote last year, and Republicans have held its Congressional seat for two decades.Dems are on a roll--lost in 2000, lost in 2002, lost in 2004, and they've just lost in 2005. They're in trouble in 2006, defending more Senate seats in states where Bush won than the Republicans are with seats in states Kerry won.
John Hawkins does a little
well-deserved gloating.
But of course, it's a
overwhelming victory for the Left says Swing State Project.
We have sent a powerful message for 2006 tonight, and over the past several weeks. Close the book on round one, an overwhelming victory of us.Hatrios
says:
A win would've been great, but I certainly didn't expect to do this well.
One of the
Kos Kidz:
No spin - the GOP is on the run.Let's get real. Turnout in this election was about 114,000 voters. Turnout in 2004 was 308,000. Hackett, with the left-wing blogosphere exercising its organzational muscle, managed to get about 60% of the voters who supported the Democratic candidate in 2004 to pull the lever for him. Schmidt, with the right-wing blogs essentially asleep, was only about to get about 25% of 2004 Republican voters out to the polls. The left can't devote all those resources to every race in 2006.
Let's hope that the Democrats buy into Swing State's theory that this validates the 50-state project. They'll waste time and resources on unwinnable races.
