Credit for this goes to Eric Kleefield over at TPM.
By now we all know about the thumping that Travis Childers gave to Greg Davis in MS-01, a very conserative district that has a PVI rating of R+10. The NRCC funneled *$1.2 million*, while the shadowy Freedom's Watch threw in an estimated $400k and Greg Davis himself used almost $1 million.
The Republicans' entire strategy was to tie Childers with the "librul" Democratic establishment and they even used race-baiting guilt-by-association-by-association Rev. Wright smears.
How well did it work? Childers improved 3 pt. victory (in the first special election) to an 8 pt. thrashing in last night's runoff. Great news, huh? Think it can't get any better?
Think again.
On a conference call with reporters today, NRCC chair Tom Cole confirmed that the party will continue using Obama to tar Dem House candidates, in much the way the GOP has historically used figures like Ted Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi to do the same.
In a sign of their utter incompetence, the Chairman of the NRCC Tom Cole plans on using the exact same strategies in November.
But Cole is undaunted by yesterday's results, calling the anti-Obama strategy a "useful tool" for hitting Dems in conservative areas: "I think reminding people that we have a very liberal, and I think very inexperienced Democratic nominee, and that your opponent is likely to be supporting that individual, is interesting."
It was very useful indeed. Then again, why am I so surprised? This is the same Republican leadership that has stuck to the same strategy in Iraq even though it has failed us for the past 5 years. Their dogmatic idiocy will actually play in our favor this time by helping us win more Congressional seats in the fall. Thanks, Tom!