Marine Major Paul Hackett and the 20 point swing from GOP to Democrats

Marine Major Paul Hackett, an Iraq War veteran and Democrat, failed in his bid to win Ohio's House 2nd District last week - but he gave the Republicans a damn good run for their money. http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/ 20050803/NEWS01/...

Paul ran in a district which has not gone to a Democrat since 1980, which George W. Bush won comfortably in 2000 and 2004, and in which a Democrat has not scored more than 30% since 1984.

Given the hurdles in his path, Paul's narrow loss was a remarkable achievement.

In 2004 the Republican incumbent won by 44 points, 72%-28%.

In 2005 Paul Hackett lost by 4 points, 52%-48%.

Of course, Ohio Republicans were keen to pretend that a 20-point swing from the GOP to the Democrats was actually a great victory and not a disturbing harbinger of what they may be facing in 2006.

Hackett's opponent Jean Schmidt said, 'no one had thought we'd be the focus of the national media or be the so-called first test of the Republican Party and the Bush mandate. Well, ladies and gentleman, we passed that test.' http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=3675511

What, by losing a huge portion of your support in less than twelve months?

Meanwhile, Ohio Republican Party chairman Bob Bennett said that it was a remarkable victory for Schmidt considering 'the onslaught of national media attention given to her opponent's exploitation of the Iraq war.'

No, no, no.

Paul Hackett served in Iraq.

THIS is what somebody looks like when they're exploiting the Iraq war:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/top10/05/ 209_bush1.jpg

So we'd like to offer our congratulations to Paul.

Despite his narrow loss, it was a remarkable achievement to pull so much support away from the Republican party in such a deep-red district, and we hope that Democrats across the country were watching closely.

Because if the number of people who ran away from the GOP in Ohio last week is any indication of what we can expect to see across the country in 2006, Congress is gonna turn bright blue.

From The Democratic Underground http://www.democraticunderground.com/

This is great, the dumborats have to celebrate barley losing, talk about knowing your place, how long do you think it will be before they quit offering a candidate all together?

Barley loosing?

Is that what you do in the field behind the trailer park?

Loosing? And you call others 'dumb'? Whatever you say, Einstein. LOL. Someone should have loosed an education on your stupid ass.

Never. Mathematically impaired rightard cannot understand that losing by 3 points is a big boost over losing by 20. Mathematically impaired rightard cannot comprehend that in a very heavily repuglicon district Hackett got a lot of republican votes. Mathematically impaired rightard does not understand the concept of trends.

Next election

yes you can come close when you find a Marine that says the war should continue and we must win it, hell why don't you just ask for a republican to run on your ticket

Ask your mom I'm doing it with her