Last year, Republicans spent tens of millions on ads contrasting opposing statements from the same Democrat. This is the problem with trying to be all things to all people, this is the problem with polling to find out how to offend as few people as possible. The great thing about Hackett's campaign was that he would say what he means and not back down.
"I said it, I meant it, I stand by it," he said when I asked if he regretted any of his comments. "Bush is a chicken hawk, okay? Tough shit." As for the SOB barb, Bush "talks the tough talk. He should appreciate that."
A whole helluva lot of people in OH-02 had heard those quotes, yet Hackett did "astonishingly" well. We kept hearing comments where the first half of the sentence would be a declaration opposed to Hackett's politics/statement, and the second half of the sentence would come full-circle to a statement of respect.
Voters don't take a list of a candidate's issue positions and decide which candidate they agree with on the preponderance of the issues.
The primia facia burden is whether a voter respects a candidate. Hackett's service gave him a "one second bio" which allowed him to communicate with voters on the issues:
"I'm Paul Hackett, and I'm running for Congress," he said, swinging into handshakes as if he were landing roundhouse punches. "'Preciate your support tomorrow." A hint of his jarhead cut was still evident beneath his flock of small curls; flecks of gray clung to his temples. A button on his shirt said, "Proud to have served." Hackett flashed a relaxed smile to an older woman who had just emerged from the plant and joked about the sweat seeping through his shirt. A man in a T-shirt and baseball cap gave him an obligatory nod and walked on past, until a union rep corralled him with the one-second bio: "He's a Marine and he's just back from Iraq."
With that, Eddie McGowan stopped to take a second look. "He's a military man?" he asked. "That's big for me. Means he's not afraid to fight for his country at home or abroad.
But since Hackett did serve, you would think he could expect some Swift Boating. Yet during the Special Election, Hackett stuffed the Swift Boating before it could get off the ground. Rush tried to bring it back at the end, which resulted in Hackett's famous, fatass drug addict quote.
Unlike John Kerry, Hackett will fight to defend himself immediately. What does one Hill Republican think about Swift Boating Paul Hackett?
"That's just bullshit," counters Marine Corps Major William Reynolds, who is communications director for Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and also served with Hackett in Iraq. "Paul was under fire, mortared, and IED'd." Reynolds notes that politically, he and Hackett "didn't agree, but it was a real delight to have him over there. As a Marine, he was a trusted person on the ground. You knew when you were there you could count on him."
Hackett's straight talk allows him the ability to drastically change the political landscape, while some people are still thinking left/right, Hackett is uniting people who want to move forward:
This, says blogger Chris Baker, is the thing about Hackett that most outsiders missed--including the party strategists who issued self-serving memos about Hackett's strong showing, but never mentioned his positions. "Those national Democrats never saw Hackett talking to a Republican," he says. "The voice he was using had the same effect as Ronald Reagan when he would quote FDR. When Reagan ran in Ohio, he wasn't talking to Republicans--he was talking to Democrats. Hackett, when he says, `This is not Goldwater's Republican Party, this is not your father's Republican Party'--you sit in a roomful of Ohio farmers and you see all those heads nodding up and down. The national campaign staff was talking about targeting Democratic voters. But Hackett was talking to both sides."
When it comes to campaign style, Hackett goes out and fights and lets people who support his fight join him. Which is why he doesn't owe anyone anything except a fighting spirit to respect:
The success and brashness of the netroots highlighted a widening fissure among national Democrats. Hackett's blunt challenge to political convention appealed both to the fiercely independent--and generous--Internet base, and to conservative voters who might not agree with all of Hackett's positions. With both groups, Hackett was scoring points because he didn't sound like a Democrat.
And he didn't have to sound like one--because he owed the party nothing. Washington had left him to fend for himself for much of the summer; the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) responded to his initial appeal for help by encouraging him to come back if and when he'd raised $100,000.
There is a moral to the story:
Hackett can taste the coming battle, and he likes it. Talking about what lies down the road, he sounds exactly the way he did during the August campaign, when he'd don his Ray-Bans and leap out of the car to change a few more minds: "You gotta get out there and fight the fight."
Indeed.
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