While it's encouraging to understand that the Country is not moving to the right in various ways http://www.dailykos.com/...
it's noteworthy that "Iraqi exiles remain in dire straits," http://www.dailykos.com/... and it's enlightening to explore the difference in "likely" and "registered" voters in recent polling, http://www.dailykos.com/... are these the kind of stories that will win November's election?
It's easier to write informed, educational and truly salient pieces about topics that may or may not be all that relevant to the outcome of November's election than it is to write more challenging and less certain pieces about how to energize our base and swing Independents enough to win races on Election Day.
This message doesn't just apply to our Kos featured writers; it applies to us all. Why EXACTLY are Democratic voters not as enthusiastic about voting in November than Republicans? What are the SPECIFIC options by which we can narrow that enthusiasm gap? What do Independents need to hear to vote Democratic this fall? What do those of us who phone banked and canvassed in '08 need to hear to return to action during these next 43 days leading to Election Day? Is there time to unleash our Big Money into races that the Koch brothers and other Republican donors have poured tens of millions of dollars into winning? If yes, what's the fastest and best way to go about launching our Big Money Bomb?
What's the best way to use the 10-2-10 and 10-30-10 marches? Would having each speaker at the marches devote 10 to 20 percent of their speech time to GOTV motivate those tens of thousands expected to attend to start making phone calls not just to GOTV, but also to bring on board a brand new wave of callers and canvassers?
What are the best ways we who live in districts that are not in play can help our embattled candidates win? Is there anyone organizing out-district and even out-of-state phone banking to help those candidates? If not, isn't it time we organize that effort?
There are various questions and topics that relate DIRECTLY to helping Democrats win the most seats possible this November. Aren't those questions and topic what we should be homing in on like a laser? Because if we continue to write pieces that are interesting to write and interesting to read, but don't do so much to help our Democratic candidates win this fall, we will ensure that come November 3rd we will be writing and reading enlightening pieces about why we lost so badly, and what that means to our future.
It is NOT my intention to criticize for the sake of criticizing. I know we are feeling more than a bit worried that much of the work we did in '06 and '08 can be undone by a Republican takeover of the House. I sincerely do not mean to press on frayed nerves. I just think that our best shot of losing the least number of seats this November is DIRECTLY related to the number of stories we write between now and Election Day on HOW WE CAN WIN THE MOST RACES IN NOVEMBER.