This is not a Creigh lovefest, excusefest, or apologyfest - that's not what I mean by the title of this post. I'll get to that shortly. But first...We got smoked last night. Steamrolled. Blown to bits. We got pants'd in front of the whole gym class (mixed company, mind you). But you know what? I'm not nearly as torn up as I should be. Maybe because we've seen this coming for a while now. Or maybe because the Democratic Party in general, and Creigh recently, have been repeatedly letting us down with their lack of fight, Republican ass kissing, corporate ass kissing, and overall failure to stand up for progressive values. As much as I hate to say it... ha, who am I kidding... good riddance to all those pseudo-dems! At least now, the Republican-friendly legislation will be coming from Republicans.
Ben hit one of the nails in our coffin on the head (to mix metaphors) yesterday. I'm simplifying his point quite a bit, but how can anyone expect to win Democratic votes running as a Republican? Plus, it's been obvious for a long time that Progressives and Liberals had very little enthusiasm for getting behind Creigh. It wasn't just a campaign strategy failure; Deeds didn't represent our values very well at all. In fact, Deeds' biggest selling point to Progressives and Liberals was the uninspiring, "I'm not going to be as bad as the Republican." Yes, he got my vote for that, but I'll be damned if I'm going to invest my time or money in a guy whose main selling point is that he sucks a little less than the alternative. And to varying degrees, I suspect many Progressives and Liberals felt similarly.
In all fairness, this debacle wasn't all Creigh's fault. Lowell's supurb "After Action Review" goes into great detail on the disaster, and in Creigh's defense I'd like to highlight Lowell's first two points: the enthusiasm gap. Creigh was sailing into strong headwinds through no fault of his own. And it definitely hurt him. While the shortcomings of Creigh's positions on the issues, the problems with his campaign, and with the party in general were all huge factors in our losses, he should be cut some slack for timing factors completely out of his control.
Now about that bus.
There is more than enough ammunition to make Creigh the poster child of this failure. The word scapegoat also comes to mind, although that's a little strong given that a big chunk of the problem was Creigh and his campaign. So it's a bit hard to call him a scapegoat given his involvement. And beyond a doubt, the powers that be in Virginia Democratic circles need a scapegoat. Someone's got to be thrown under the bus and the most culpable person is Creigh. After getting trounced in the election and skewered in the blogs and media everyone knows Creigh is a loser, right? So just shove him under the bus and let's get back to business as usual.
Well, wouldn't that be convenient for all the players that have been involved in this mess? For all the party leaders who are more concerned about themselves and their future than actually pushing through a progressive agenda. For all the resume padding campaign monkeys who are more concerned about name dropping, resume building, and getting business for themselves than doing the best for thier clients. For all the party-based, close-minded, know-it-all, ego maniacs more concerned about expanding their own fiefdoms rather than building a good government for all Virginians.
I'm encouraged to see some comments thinking along these lines - that we need a major rebuilding effort. It is time to rebuild the party with new candidates - candidates who represent our values and will actually fight for them instead of selling out to business under the guise of the "economy" or wasting time trying to compromise with Republicans who refuse to compromise. It's time to find candidates we can get excited about and the moderates/independents can also get excited about. It's time to move to new party leadership. New party staff. New ideas. We need to harness the energy from our loss to Move Virginia Forward.
But we're up against well established foes within our own party - those who have much to lose and little to gain through change of any sort. They will fight and fight hard to keep their jobs and see that "change" is lip service rather than real. They will spew forth well reasoned logic as to why none of this their fault. And they will provide us with a scapegoat. There's a bus with Creigh's name on it revving its engine right now. If they can convince the rank and file that this monumental failure was his fault they will remain in place to screw up the next election.
Blame Creigh and his campaign for what they need to be blamed for. Hold them accountable for their clear failures. And then make him the poster child for what will go wrong again if the Democratic party is not overhauled. But don't allow him to become the scapegoat so the party "leaders" can wash their hands of failure yet again.
