tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555502.post114781506616557317..comments2023-10-30T08:12:13.060-07:00Comments on Thosethingswesay: Spending Your Political Capital in 2006Mike M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14716539792698477275noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555502.post-1148089054198328572006-05-19T18:37:00.000-07:002006-05-19T18:37:00.000-07:00I suspect Dean is right, though not by much. His ...I suspect Dean is right, though not by much. His 50 State strategy is risky, for sure. But, it's also similar to how the Republicans, a party that had not controlled both houses for deccades at the time that I was in high school, took over just a couple of years later. His faults aside, Dean gets that in the long term, only a national strategy can build a national majority. The Immanuel approach, focused more on vulnerable seats right now, CAN pay short term dividends, but they tend to be fleeting. Also, remember, no matter what national polls say, people tend to like their representatives (and, of course, incumbents have huge advantages over challengers) so even what looks like a vulnerable seat might not be.<BR/><BR/>Dean has the Republican playbook down, I think. For years, election cycle after election cycle, Republicans languished in the minority but, the whole time, they were building the think tanks, the magazines, the locals parties in every state, and it eventually paid off in a way that the left has not, so far, been able to counter.<BR/><BR/>If Dean's allowed to pursue his strategy over more than one election cycle, we might someday be reading books and articles about how the Democrats came out of nowhere to retake the government.Mike M.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14716539792698477275noreply@blogger.com