So the dust has settled on the Texas 28th, and the netroots are left to claim yet another "moral victory."
We exposed a "Democrat in Name Only!"
We got national attention focused on the raise!
We showed the power of the netroots to race money!
I've heard this story too many times before. That's why I'm sick of "moral victories." When are going to win one?
More after the jump.
Let's take a quick look at Ciro's campaign. He got 24,448 votes in 2004, but only 18,217 votes this time. Cuellar's numbers also dropped, but not by as much. And despite all the hollering about how "Bexar County will turnout in droves this time," Ciro's numbers dropped there as well. Ciro got
10,824 votes in Bexar in 2004, but only got
10,622 votes in Bexar this time. All that time, money, and boots on the ground and Ciro did EVEN WORSE on his home turf.
But this isn't the first time we've had to buck ourselves up after falling short.
Paul Hackett: The moral victory here was "we came close in a red district!" or "This positions Hackett perfectly for a statewide run!" Look how THAT turned out.
The Alito "filibuster": In his Alito post-mortem, Kos patted us on the back for our efforts and said: "So we are now on the map. The Alito vote may have fizzled, but you better believe the Dem establishment knows we exist." Well, we may be on the map, but Alito is on the bench. Which would you rather have?
Richard Morrison: The moral victory was "We forced Tom Delay to campaign in his district." I wanted to force Tom Delay into early retirement, or better yet, a cozy cell in federal prison.
Stan Matsunaka: I remember when Marilyn Musgrave authored the Hate Amendment, and we put challenger Stan Matsunaka on the "Kos dozen." This was touted as a rematch of the 2002 race, and the Netroots were going to push Stan over the top. Well, look at the elections results. Matsunaka got 42 percent in 2002, and 45 percent in 2004. Big effing deal.
Some are going to dismiss this as a "Goodbye, cruel world" type of post. But I guarantee you that the "Democratic establishment" that we mock as worthless around here IS LAUGHING AT US TODAY. We couldn't beat a fake Democrat in a Democratic primary in one of the most Democratic Congressional seats in the country.
The Netroots have a batting average about as good as Bob Shrum.