What Went Right In Ohio

Well, waddaya know? Schmidt pulls it out with a four point squeaker in a district that hasn’t given a Democrat more than 30 percent in 20 years. And all it took was a little last minute massaging of the count in her home district.

Too bad Karl’s so busy these days. The party would probably really like his input on where that permanent majority thing he’s been working on stands.

Seriously, I think this really is a bellwether. There is no way in hell that Hackett should have come within 15 points of Schmidt and the fact that he came so close says that something is seriously going wrong with the GOP brand, regardless of how appealing Hackett is as a candidate or how fucked up the Ohio GOP is.

The polls show a spike in Democratic party ID and the GOP is looking more fat and corrupt than the Democrats were after almost half a century in power. We may just be seeing the beginning of our 1994.

Don’t ever think it can’t happen. Much larger swings than we need have happened a bunch of times. I have a feeling that this 50/50 stasis is about to break — and this election makes me think it’s going to break our way. I hope the powers that be take the time to really study what went right in Ohio.

And I hope our man Hackett decides to run again. He’s got the shinin’.

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