Dem Election Season Off To Bad Start

Updated

Paul Hackett, darling of the MoveOn.org crowd and the guy who was supposed to be the starter for a new round of Dem election wins, lost 52 percent to 48 percent to Jean Schmidt. Licking its wounds, AP declared it a "narrow defeat," but a 3,500-vote margin when only 112,000 votes are cast is comfortable, not narrow.

Schmidt's a former Bush administration trade exec, is pro-war, anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage. Hackett, an Iraq war veteran, was anti-Bush, anti-war and reflected Dem views on moral issues.

Update: The DNC calls Hackett's defeat "by a handful of votes" a big win for Dean's "50-state strategy." But not all agree. James Taranto, for example:

Well, maybe. But as RaisingKaine acknowledges, "the candidates had something to do with it, and Jean Schmidt was a very weak candidate compared to Paul Hackett."

Hackett, a Marine civil affairs officer who has served in the current Iraq conflict, was able to get away with attacking the president's patriotism, unlike Howard Dean and John Kerry. As the Associated Press reports:

Hackett complained about politicians who "use the war to wrap themselves in the American flag" and called the administration's approach to using the military to fight on several fronts simultaneously--in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Balkans--while cutting taxes "irrational" and "patriotism light." . . .

In his concession speech, Hackett made a veiled reference to his criticisms of Bush: "Chickens are a very interesting bird, not to be confused with birds of prey." He earlier had called Bush, who had a noncombat role in the Air National Guard during the Vietnam War, a "chicken hawk S.O.B."

"I meant it, I said it and I stand by it," Hackett said.

Hackett also benefited from youth and good looks; whereas Schmidt's appearance has been the target of cruel barbs from bloggers. And despite all this, Schmidt won anyway, thanks to the heavily GOP composition of the gerrymandered district. Strangely, after more than a decade of Republicans controlling the House, there doesn't seem to be much of a move on the left for redistricting reform.

Does Hackett's near-victory portend a Democratic tide? We won't know until November 2006, but we'd guess he's more of a one-off--a candidate like Eisenhower, Clinton or Schwarzenegger, who is able to prevail (or, in Hackett's case, come close to prevailing) against the political tides by dint of a compelling biography or a strong personality.