Taken from an article on CNN.com on July 27, 2006 on Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi unveiling the Democrat's 2006 message.
At a meeting with reporters at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee headquarters, Democratic leaders unveiled a Web video with clips of the president saying "stay the course" interspersed with graphics such as "gas prices at an all time high."
They played the video on a small laptop in the front of the room full of reporters because, they said, they couldn't find a screen projector.
Sometimes it is the little things that count in life, and one would hope that when our leaders draw together the national media corp to unveil the Democratic message that their staff would make sure they had a projector.
So far, Democrats have raised a record amount of money, recruited great candidates across the nation to take on the Republican establishment, now we need to be sure that they don't blow it by overlooking the details.
We have learned that in tight races, details are important.Take the California 50th, where the Republican party paid attention to details and realized that they were seriously lagging in collecting absentee ballots. They also video taped Busby at a rally saying that people did not need identification to vote. They rallied Republican absentee voters and got out a message on illegal immigration on the last days of the campaign to win this seat.
In the upcoming months, Democrats must pay attention to the details in swing districts, from voter registration trends and absentee voter registration to what the candidates are saying in the closing days of the campaign when they are tired and can easily fall off message.
Overlooking details will mean that all the money raised, candidates recruited, focus groups tested, advertising bought, mailers sent, and precincts walked will be wasted if we overlook details that cost us close seats and in January we swear in Dennis Hastert once again as Speaker and a Republican as majority leader.