Posted by
arandomguy on Wednesday, November 08, 2006 12:18:38 AM
Minnesota has made some serious mistakes in this election, but we've also made some good decisions. First, we elected Keith Ellison in the 5th district, something that I have opposed greatly in the last few weeks. Ellison has ties to the Nation of Islam - pretty close, intimate ties - and this is certainly worrisome.
Our governor's race is much closer than I would have expected. I thought Pawlenty would easily win, buy he is basically in a dead heat with Mike Hatch, a total nimrod. I was at a Hatch rally yesterday (I didn't have a choice, unfortunately. He came to my campus), and he didn't seem to have great numbers of support.
The bottom line is, that it is just a bad year to be a Republican. Conservatives are angry with Republicans that they don't support the conservative cause enough. The Democrats are mad just because they're not in power. Anybody with an (R) next to their name suffered, as evidenced by several governor races across the country, as well as by the losses by DeWine in Ohio, and Santorum in Pennsylvania.
Voter turnout was likely the biggest problem for Republicans. They couldn't mobilize their increasingly disgruntled base, and they couldn't rouse moderate voters to their side. Moderates were persuaded more by the Democratic message of "change" (which we all know is nonexistant), than by the Republican message of "fear Nancy Pelosi."
The Republicans campaigned poorly, from the White House on down.