Why the democrats lose and the Republicans Win....

[WCGreen]

Back in 1998, we had a gubernatorial election in Ohio which pitted Bob Taft, a bland middle of the road republican who had been an elected official all his life, against Lee Fisher, a slightly more charismatic man who had been an elected official most of his life.....

Now, we all knew it was going to be a tough race but close race. BTW, I was the treasurer of the Cuyahoga Democratic Party at the time and had access to every prominent democrat in Ohio from top to bottom. I thought about what I would do to win if I were a republican. So I poured over Bob Taft's financial statements and discovered that he had received a $ 5,000 contribution from Art Model, the former owner of the Cleveland Browns, the same year that he decided to take the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore.

Hallelujah, I thought, this is going to be great. I double checked to see if Fisher had taken any money from Model and found he hadn't.

Okay, here was my plan. Print up some Baltimore Ravens game schedules for 1998 and pass them out at all the Cleveland Indian Games, at the County Fair, at any place where people gathered. On the other side, two pictures. One of Bob Taft and One of Art Model. The caption....Bob Taft Salutes the Baltimore Ravens.....

I even devised a plan that an independent group called fans of the Cleveland Browns would be in charge of it. The whole thing would have cost about three or four thousand and I felt it would be worth at least 10-20 k votes in the Cleveland area...

I presented the plan and guess what happened. That is too nasty. End of story. Guess who won the election.....

Now tell me, if a republican operative in Ohio had been offered this big fat softball coming across the plate do you think they would have let it go by?

The GOP want to win. They play to win, not to score points.....

[leftofthedial]

1. they campaign continuously

and they care ONLY about winning

it is power they want, not governance

[rockydem]

2. I agree

[msongs]

3. how about we start running a pair of candidates right now....

new blood, rising stars....

Msongs
Dean-Obama 2008
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[WCGreen]

5. We need more people with the fire in the belly...

Ones at teh local level who will say what they mean and mean what they say.......

Obama fit's the Bill....

So does Clark....

So does Dean....

We need to focus on the local level, take control of the democratic party precinct by precicnt.....

[DenaliDemocrat]

4. You're right

They get downright dirty, and they WIN. They play for keeps, we play by the rules.

The most ironic thing about this whole election is how G.W. Bush played so dirty. A little coward who hid in Daddy's pocket during the war would not renounce slandering Kerry's war record.

What did we do? We sat there and TOOK IT for three freaking weeks before someone finally fought back. By then, it was too late.

[ElectroPrincess]

10. Yes, and there's a clear hierarchy ...

When your team leader comes up with a plan, no matter how devious or nasty to the other side, a good partisan trooper says, Yes, tell me more? Orders are given and little to no discussion is wasted on "everyone's input."

Forgive my bluntness but one thing I particularly dislike about more humanitarian groups I've been an active member of is that they take "seemingly FOREVER" to come up with a viable action plan.

You want to win fellow Democrats? We have to get down in the mud, declare small group leaders and run an equally scathing whisper campaign.

The trick is saving a part of your morality and perspective to prevent you from actually enjoying the process of trashing one's opponent and figuratively "taking NO prisoners."

That's precisely why those folks in the upper middle class often switch parties to Republican. Greed, money and power is a high that can easily become addictive.

[The Chronicler]

6. Man, beautiful idea. Sorry it got shot down (nm)

[lanparty]

7. Better organized ...

All around they ARE better organized, and they ARE ruthless.

The venue was a knife fight. We stick to the rules, they bring guns!!!

[Cleita]

8. You guys really don't get it.

Our election system is compromised. Back when we had honest elections the popular guy, usually a Democrat got elected, or sometimes a moderate Republican, like Eisenhower. Even Nixon was honestly elected. Something happened in the Reagan years to start messing with the system. They finally did it by the time Clinton (a genuinely popular President) had to leave office.

Our election system is a crooked cooked books accounting system the mafia would be proud of.

[Robeson]

11. You are right...

...and I think elections themselves may be predetermined, and what they give us is simply a "dance of Democracy". And we bite into it every election cycle, hook, line, and sinker.

[Robeson]

9. You are right, and you also had a great plan...

...that should have been accepted. We either want to win, or we don't. We are not playing on an even playing field. Especially when it is our own party that handicaps ourselves, as they did with you in Cleveland.