and all of the others who ran this cycle and didn't make it, or are still hanging on tenterhooks for a possible change of fortune.
You fought the good fight.
We are going to LEARN from what happened, and either help you in your next attempt, or get that knowledge to the next person in line who tries.
2010 is closer than we think. I went around and collected as many signs for my local House candidate [Carol Shea-Porter in NH-01] as I could find, to save money in the next cycle. I put out 4 of them this year from 2006, and they were indistinguishable from this years signs! Let's recycle those signs!
But that recycling of signs is a small tiny thing compared to understanding the nature of each one of our own backyards. This is where the hopes, fears and ignorance of our neighbors drive them to vote the way they do. We need to grasp that better.
We need to be able to affect the local media narrative better and fight back when they manufacture lies like they did against Darcy. We've got to find the Achilles Heel of the newspapers and local TV and radio stations that refuse to play fair, that give favorable borrowing terms to Republicans like they did with Reichert a few scant weeks before the election.
In legislation and law enforcement:
Take them to court, make them pay for their criminal actions where we can. Congress has to step up, and use anti-trust legislation to break up the media monopolies that have infested cable and print. We need a new revised Fairness Doctrine, which looks at all the changes we've had in media since 1988.
We need transparency not just in the WH and the boardroom, we need transparency and fairness in the newsroom.
In the marketplace:
There are wealthy Democrats who could, if they chose to do so invest in both traditional media as well the newer aspects of the internet and satellite radio. I'm not one of them, but I implore those who are to consider that this is the time invest in restoring our democracy in the media.
2010 is closer than we think. It's just around the corner.
And we get to do this, all over again.