My first DailyKos diary was Feb 26, 2006, and my predictions were both fortunately but also unfortunately correct:
The tide has finally turned. The Bush Administration is spiraling downward to its deserved position as one of the worst Presidencies in American history. The full process will take years, but I do not believe the situation is reversible. The politics of tomorrow will be shaped by this fall, and how accountability is assessed. Republicans will continue the process of distancing themselves in proportion to Bush's unpopularity, and there is enough time even before November 2006 for them to do so. The battle between distancing and accountability is the real battle for the politics of the next generation. Target Republicans not Bush Cheney
This diary didn’t stop me from donating and phone banking, but that’s not enough. We have an additional battle to fight over how the results of the election are interpreted. After all, the Confederacy lost the Civil War and we’re still dealing with the aftermath because we let the losers define the outcome.
After 2008, the Republicans quickly rebranded as “the Tea Party.” There never was any Republican accountability for the Iraq War (“Democrats voted for it”), the economic collapse (“President Clinton had reduced regulation a decade earlier”), or even Katrina (“now is not the time to point fingers,” and somehow the time to directly assess culpability never arrived).
No matter how big the electoral victory in November (and my prediction isn’t stopping me from donating, phone calls, etc.), Republicans are going to fall back into criticizing “Washington.” Telling the public that they can’t trust the CDC, the FBI, all the arms of the federal government that they themselves have mismanaged.
That’s the battle this time. The election of President Obama and a Democratic majority in 2008 may have been like winning the Civil War, but losing the battle to reinterpret the results. So in addition to doing everything to ensure the biggest landslide we can, we also need to recognize that on November 4th our challenge will only be beginning.