Who was most responsible for the Democratic takeover?

[Perky]

Think thi s through before voting.... This is not Chicago you only get to vore once


On edit: combined bushco and incumbents to make room for Howard Dean

sorry it is early.

[lvx35]

1. KO was a big force, as well as some CNN reporters.

But I gotta say it was Bush's own mess that people were voting out.

[xchrom]

2. failure after failure after failure.

[wholetruth00]

3. Dean and his 50 state strategy played a significant role

[anitar1]

4. I think Howard Dean's strategy played a big

part also. He is very shrewd.

[Monk06]

25. Without Dean it wouldn't have happened. It's 50 states or zip. The guy worked like a man possessed.

[cali]

5. Any poll on this that doesn't include Dean is worthless. n/t

[acmavm]

8. Dean's there. Why am I the only one who thinks he saved our

asses and the party?

[cali]

9. Oops. You're right, and I need coffee.

[neoblues]

6. The IRAQ Occupation.

The supposed "war" in IRAQ; presumably under the category "Bush failures"--which isn't really a "who" (though, by extension "Bush" would be the who).

Beyond that, Independents were a key, but so was the choice of 'Conservative' Democrats as candidates (unfortunately apparently necessary--I hope we can make real "liberals" more competitive, and soon).

Though the country is still facing terrible troubles and now Democrats will be blamed even more (though mostly blameless given our lack of power in recent years; we had still been being blamed for supposedly "obstructing" the Republican steamroller--which was just another sign of the absurdity of the media and the American public who believed such nonsense). Since we have only a year and maybe a half, which is too little time to undo six years of total Republican majority problem creating time, and we face an anti-Democratic Executive Branch and barely have a majority in the Senate--and we have to show America we CAN govern, we DO have "ideas", and we can SOLVE the country's (Republican--) created problems. Unfair and too much to ask, but we'd better be able to do it--or otherwise thrill the electorate sufficiently they'll look with favor on a Democratic majority in 2008.

I hope that whoever was really responsible for the Democratic victory decides to (or cannot help but) do it again in a couple of years.

[flobee1]

7. Explanation

It was the GOTV effort that secured the Dem victory

People, we have the power to dominate every election
We are the majority!
We only have to get EVERYONE voting and we win!
Democrats dont need to be convinced on issues, we know whats right and whats wrong. Every democrat that does not cast a vote is hurting the country and everythin this country is founded on. If every Democrat that voted in this election convinces just ONE person to vote in 08 that did not vote tuesday, there will be no question of who will win!

we have 2 years

thats more than enough time to convince ONE PERSON to go to the polls

[lapfog_1]

10. If I was ranking them

1. Bushco failures (Iraq and Katrina)
2. Repuke scandals.
3. Dean 50 state strategy
4. KO/TDS lampoons and tweaks
5. Left wing radio and blogs (yea us!!!)

[cali]

12. Might I point out that

if we didn't have Dean's fifty state plan we wouldn't have been able to capitalize on either the disasterous war or repub gaffes. We simply wouldn't have had a game on the ground. That's why Dean deserves the number 1 spot.

[lapfog_1]

15. Each and every one was a cog in the big blue machine

If we didn't have them all, it would have been another long night.

But at it's core, we have to thank Bushco because they are just SOOO incompetent.

Americans gave them a pass in 2004 because they also own most of the MSM and were able to slant and shape the story... and Rove's "genius", which was really just his ability to slime, cheat, and steal, wasn't as effective this time and the MSM propaganda machine (the echo chamber) just didn't resonate this time. That's why Bushco failures are number one.

As for the scandals, that was OUR secret weapon on voter suppression on their side. I think Foley and Ted and K-street and all the rest cost them more than a million votes.

That gave a chance for the 50 state strategy to work. People don't normally vote out incumbents. They may think Congress sucks, but THEIR congress critter is a great guy/gal. So we had to have the first two in place to give the third reason a chance. Present voters EVERYWHERE with a choice. And a valid choice. And spend money so they know they have a choice.

Then I give credit to our small portion of the MSM... it's effective anti-propaganda and it's presented with a "cool" and humorous touch (which is great at reaching young adults much more so than MSM).

And then there was "us" (all of our great radio hosts and the blogosphere). What did we do? Well, without it I wouldn't have been able to get facts to convince MY friends that the Republicans were bullshitting them and the Democrats DID have a plan... and I used this site and others to find out where I could help the most. Things that if I was left to my cable TV and local newspapers, I wouldn't have been able to do. So yeah, let's give ourselves a pat on back for this victory too. I think Nancy owes us collectively more than she owes George Soros. But not as much as she "owes" George W. Bush for just being the fuck up that we all knew he was from before 2000 (well, speaking for myself).

[fasttense]

13. I'm with lapfog_1. But I would add

legitimizing discussions, increased awareness of and reporting about election fraud.

[lapfog_1]

17. I, personally, believe that they hacked the vote AGAIN

and probably harder than 2004. But it simply wasn't enough. Yes, I'm all for increased awareness of voting fraud. On election night I proposed that we draft a letter (still working on it) to send to some congress person in the right place. The contents of that letter is a proposal for a new bill that I want congress to consider... I called it the "Andy Stephenson Assurance in Voting Act of 2007"... and outlined it generally to ensure that people can vote with paper ballots and that said paper ballots would be hand counted. We simply must get rid of all voting machines. I'd like WilliamPitt to draft the letter, and perhaps do the rough draft of the legislation. I think that would be only appropriate.

BTW, my background is 35+ years as a systems programmer... and in my misspent youth, a hacker. And I can f'ing guarantee anyone that I could hack the vote and in a way that can't be traced unless you track down all the voters and ask them to reveal how they think they voted.

I don't like computers handling my money at the bank... but I understand why we take the calculated risk. But with voting, we don't need to take that risk. It only happens once or twice a year, and only every two years for bigger elections. Why risk it?

[BootinUp]

11. BushCo Incumbent Failures ...No contest

The people voting for Deans 1 year old strategy are being intellectually dishonest.

[stlsaxman]

20. Deans 50 state strategy was supposed to be effective overnight?

Hell, if it only took 1 year to work, it was a damned fine strategy.

GOPers have been working the "grassroots" (from school board members up) for decades.

[BootinUp]

23. I think you misunderstood me.

I agree that it is not a 1 year project. That is why I do not credit it with being the number one reason we won this election. I support Dean's 50 state strategy, I supported Dean for Chairman, I supported Dean keeping to his strategy when he was under assault from Emmanuel and Reid.

[seaglass]

14. I think the credit can be shared, it wasn't just one person/thing.

Bush had less than a 40% approval rating for almost a year - so people had woken up to his incompetence. The Republican Congress similarly had corruption and scandals exposed. The stage was set.

But without a 50 state strategy with candidates ready to challenge incumbents that 2 short years ago would have slid right back into their seats - we wouldn't have won.

Thank you Howard Dean for building up the party, thank you DCCC and DSCC for supporting/choosing the right candidates in the right locations and thank you netroots and grassroots for supporting candidates that beat some of the DCCC/DSCC candidates and won in the end.

Thank you John Kerry for your support of candidates across the country, both fundraising and distributing funds. Thank you Nancy Pelosi for your efforts. Thank you Moveon for GOTV.

I'm sure there are many others who deserve our thanks, there's enough to go around.

[liberal N proud]

16. You forgot - "We The People"

The voters are the ones who ultimately stood up and said ENOUGH!

[JNelson6563]

18. The Perfect Storm

Republicans got sloppier and some of their blatant corruption and hypocrisy was better exposed for all too see. Only the most hard core kool-aid drinkers did not vote for change.

Dean's 50 state strategy is excellent. We did run hard races and win in states where we might not have mounted much of a challenge just 2 years ago.

I'd also like to add this item not on your list, state and local parties and the hard work they do. There's a reason Dean is working to build parties in every state, they effectively increase the Dem vote. The more resources invested in state and local party building, the better we will fare.

Julie

[sandnsea]

22. I agree

Nobody has talked about the truly awful fear and smear commercials they ran. Everybody I talked to, all over the country, were beyond disgusted with the smears. Worst they'd ever seen. It seemed to work in Tennessee, but I think most people voted against that stuff.

[kentuck]

19. George W Bush...

His incompetence, his arrogance, his grab for power, his wiping his ass on the Constitution..

[sandnsea]

21. Do another poll

Who called you...

Local Dem Party & Candidates
State Party & Nat Candidates
Interest Group
Moveon
2 of the above
all of the above

That way we can see who was contacting people and getting the info out. I was contacted by the candidates and Moveon. The local party too, but we've always had a ground game.

[Perky]

24. OMG these results are astounding to me.

Given my other post about this not being a manadate for liberalism I woould have expected the liberals to be all over this poll.


Maybe they were to busy sniping at me in my other post for having the audacity to tell the truth.

[Lilith Velkor]

26. Katrina

[eleny]

27. Hard to choose between Dean and Bushco

I chose Dean - but it's a combination, IMO.