From a reader:
Jonah,
I know there has been a lot of talk about who is to blame in on the right (personally I agree with your article on the subject) but there has been precious little said about who won on the left. In as much as you can say it was a failure of politics instead of policy for the Republicans, doesn’t the failure of Lamont to take out Lieberman also point to a failure of policy over politics for the Kos crowd? They purged their ranks in the primary only to have their head handed to them in the actual election. I know this was expected, but I think seeing it actually occur bodes well overall for the general direction of the political discourse in the US. the Democrats won in places where they looked and sounded like conservatives, and where the Kos crown had influence, they were trounced.
Seems to me it’s worth a mention, even if we can’t manage a gloat just yet.
All the best,
Tom
Update: Several emails from Kos defenders along these lines:
Your reader noted the Lamont loss and wondered if this
wasn’t a repudiation of the “Kos crowd” by the voters.
Yes, Lamont was a defeat, but I wonder if your reader
knows that within the blogosphere, there was probably
no greater supporter of guys like Jim Webb, Jon
Tester, Patrick Murphy and Chris Carney than Markos
and the Kos crowd. You couldn’t get through a week –
or even a couple of days – without seeing a photo of
Jon Tester and his tractor or Jim and Hong Webb posted
on Daily Kos. They raised money for all of these
candidates…and they all won. They were behind them
before anybody else thought they had a chance. And
the candidates we’re talking about here are hardly a
gang of raging lefties.
The Kos crowd picked some winners and they picked some
losers. They picked some liberals and they picked
some moderate. So did Emanuel and Schumer, and they
are being hailed as the brilliant architects (well, by
some) of a great Dem victory. And they deserve
credit. But let’s be honest – the “Kos crowd” did
chalk up a fair number of victories this year.