Seems obvious:
As someone who was skeptical about Dean, I'm surprised how successful he's been. That said, there are certain lessons I think we need to learn from this moving forward: 1) COMPETE EVERYWHERE - This is the most important lesson we need to internalize. That's why I wrote my controversial blog post about San Francisco. Woody Allen says80% of success is showing up and he's largely right. Where Dean dispatched organizers (sidenote: I still HATE that term; any alternatives?) to Indiana and Alaska, we should dispatch organizers to Maine and Wisconsin with the goal of electing Republicans at the state and local level while hoping to pick up the occasional House or Senate seat. It's important to physically show up and ask people for their vote. I have a family member who is a VERY Conservative Republican Redneck Bitter Clinger who lives in John Murtha's district. This guy votes the straight Republican ticket EXCEPT for John Murtha. Why does he vote for Murtha? He votes for Murtha because every 6-8 months Murtha shows up at the bar he hangs out at and talks to him about the state of world affairs and the guy just likes Murtha personally. If John Murtha can do this, why can't we pick off some Dems doing roughly the same thing? In 2009, there will be a Governor's race in New Jersey. With the economy tanking, Governor John Corzine wil eventually raise taxes. Unfortunately for him, New Jersey has a history of tax revolts. This gives us an opportunity, but we have to start organizing for it now. I live in Austin, TX. We have a House seat here I'm convinced is winnable. I'll address this in more detail later.