Dave in Suomi: The Most Unlikely President

Thursday, November 06, 2008

I found this short piece by Ezra Klein in The American Prospect to be so eloquently written, I wanted to share it with a wider audience.

At 1:23 PM, Anonymous said...: Ezra Klein writes about what happened to Max Cleland in 2002. You know, he lost to Saxby Chambliss. Senator Chambliss just got re-elected in the Georgia runoff. He actually used imagery of 9/11 attacks in his ads in this very election and it worked, he won again.

Zell Miller, who supported Cleland in 2002 (and Bush in 2004), supported Chambliss this time and said the right to filibuster was important because otherwise the Dems would just "spread the wealth" and "rob from Peter and give to Paul".

McCain, Palin, Giuliani, Romney and Huckabee all campaigned for Chambliss. The runoff turnout was just above half of what it had been in the first round, low turnouts favoring Republicans. Georgia is a red state and not every state has just suddenly changed its direction or political philosophy.