Speed Gibson

The Left is still fuming over the election, even talking of secession. After the midday euphoria of the mid-day exit polls, their world collapsed less than twelve hours later. It's understandable.

1. The Left had retaken control of the Democratic Party from Clinton/Gore.
   
2. They had the perfect candidate, a Northeastern liberal, the most liberal in the Senate, in fact.
   
3. Their candidate had Vietnam War experience, with an impressive array of medals.
   
4. Their opponent was not glib, to the point of appearing less intelligent (to them).
   
5. Their opponent was fighting an war in Iraq that many did not understand or support.
   
6. Their were still lingering effects such as job losses from the recession and 9/11.
   
7. They had unlimited cash thanks to George Soros and the 527's.
   
8. They had the silver-throated John Edwards on the ticket, who was almost as liberal as Kerry.
   
9. They had the MSM in their pocket, overly, even libelously critical of Bush, while Kerry got one free pass after another.
   
10. While seldom leading, they were almost always within the margin of error in the polls.
    
11. They had Michael Moore and a number of celebrity endorsements.
    
12. MoveOn.org and other get out the vote initiatives were functioning well.
    

They had worked hard. All the planets were aligned. George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukasis, even Al Gore were not all in vain. They weren't going to lose to this barbeque jockey this time.

And yet they lost, even worse than before, by millions of votes.

There will be recriminations for a while, but sanity will resume, starting with the removal of Terry McAuliffe. I saw Al From, founder of the Democratic Leadership Council, on a forum on C-Span. His remarks and (surprisingly) those of Donna Brazille, plus James Carville's sober reflections on election night give me hope that the Democratic Party may start finding its way back.