We used to say that close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.\u00a0 But sometimes it is also true in politics.\u00a0 Ronald Reagan lost to Gerald Ford in 1976.\u00a0 Ford, the Republican Establishment candidate went on to lose to Jimmy Carter.\u00a0 But the fact that Ronald Reagan came close to beating an incumbent President during a primary election set the stage for the Reagan revolution four years later.<\/p>\n
Cuccinelli lost in Virginia, which is a bad thing.\u00a0 It is hard to imagine a worse Governor than Terry McAuliffe.\u00a0 But to people who study this objectively, this was a very bad result\u2026for Democrats.\u00a0 McAuliffe outspent Cuccinelli $34 million to $19 million.\u00a0 In addition, by all accounts, Cuccinelli ran a terrible campaign.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t even know enough to respond to the endless personal assaults by McAuliffe.\u00a0 In addition McAuliffe flew in all the Democratic heavy hitters to push him over the line.\u00a0 This included Bill and Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Barack Obama.\u00a0 It should not have been close.\u00a0 But McAuliffe didn\u2019t even get a majority of the vote.\u00a0 He only won because an Obama bundler funded a \u201clibertarian\u201d candidate to syphon off votes from Cuccinelli.<\/p>\n
What turned this around at light speed was ObamaCare.\u00a0 Cuccinelli started to make this a referendum on ObamaCare over the last couple of days and the results were dramatic.\u00a0 Against all odds, he almost pulled it off.\u00a0 McAuliffe won by the skin of his teeth.\u00a0 If the election had been delayed a week, McAuliffe probably would have lost.\u00a0 Contrary to what you may read in the newspapers or hear on television every qualified Democratic strategist understands this.\u00a0 Unless things change around overnight, Democrats are going to start deserting Obama at a pace that will stagger the imagination.<\/p>\n
The disaster called ObamaCare has set off a political tsunami that came very close to sweeping Terry McAuliffe out certain victory. \u00a0 \u00a0That tsunami is growing stronger and wider every day and the devastation on the American political landscape will be beyond imagination.\u00a0 Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, with one exception.\u00a0 Sometimes, in politics, it matters very much indeed.<\/p>\n
TDM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We used to say that close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.\u00a0 But sometimes it is also true in politics.\u00a0 Ronald Reagan lost to Gerald Ford in 1976.\u00a0 Ford, the Republican Establishment candidate went on to lose to Jimmy … Continue reading