FalconBlog--Triumphs and Trials in the BGSU Falcon Nation

As usual, Bill Clinton is on target

Bill Clinton is the most insightful and brilliant political mind of his generation. Clearly he has his faults, but he's usually on the mark.

In speaking before the Urban Land Institute, Clinton said that Democrats had to stop whining. Correct.

He also said we had to accept responsibility for the defeat. Correct.

He said that it we couldn't convince people we were for freedom, and families and hard work, that was our fault, not theirs. Correct.

And if we didn't have a message, we would continue to lose. Correct.

Here's my take on Tuesday's devastating outcome. More than half of the people in the country don't see it our way, and that's how it goes. We are, in my opinion, in danger of dropping into a half-century in the wilderness.

I do not buy theories from various bloggers that we are making progress. We are not. No incumbent President with Bush's record should ever have been re-elected. It never should have been close.

Imagine, if you will, if a Democratic president had lost jobs, started a war he couldn't finish, failed to catch Osama Bin Laden, make us international pyriahs and rewarded cronies with war contracts, do you think that Democratic President would have been returned to office? Or won a state?

No. He would have been toast. And for all our focus on the ground war, you need a message and you need a strong candidate who doesn't have the baggage that Kerry had (I'm speaking of his dizzying track record of votes and resulting justifications from Iraq, most of which were votes determined by Howard Dean).

Don't get me wrong. Kerry is a strong leader, and made a good candidate. And electable. But he couldn't seal the deal.

I don't buy that things are getting better because we picked up a legislative seat in Peoria. They are not getting better. We are being pushed to the very edges of the country--look at the map below. We are basically a non-presence over most of the country, and while we came perilously close to picking the electoral lock while losing by three or more points nationally, our non-presence in, for example, Kentucky, merely allows the GOP to concentrate their resources on a dwindling number of states. And since those states only add up to 272 EV, they only need one (hello, Ohio) to pick us off.

And if they turn California--even to competitive--we can kiss our butts good bye.

To the future, let me say this. Hillary Clinton will never be President of this country. I don't care who they run, she is too polarizing, and too energizing to their base to get elected. Why don't we try someone who APPEALS to people who are in the GOP base. Kind of like they did with Reagan. Wow.

Candidly, I doubt if Edwards will either, though I like his ability to connect with people.

I don't know who it will be, and I doubt it will happen at all. Much as I hate his guts, Zell was right about one thing...we are a national party no more.

We have to craft a compelling, relavent vision of the future, and soon, and we have to have someone come out of the primaries who is out best candidate, or we will lose in 2008 and spend then next 30 years as an irrelevant party.

We have to do more than Hate Bush. We're about to get steamrolled on Social Security and taxes, and the war will go on in Iraq--a terrible wrong ratified by our nation.

We should have beaten Bush. It shouldn't have been close. It shouldn't have mattered that it rained. A real opposition party would have held the President accountable. We did not.