Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Dovish Republican Runs Well in Mass.   [David Freddoso]

There is one thing no one is mentioning about the special House election yesterday between Jim Ogonowski and Niki Tsongas in Massachusetts. An NRCC memo glosses over just how Ogonowski managed to get 46 percent in this thoroughly Democratic district:

Unlike 2006, Democrats failed in trying to make President Bush and Iraq the central theme of this 2007 election.

This is true, but also incomplete and misleading. The fact is, Ogonowski, an Air Force veteran whose brother died on 9/11, ran as a dovish pragmatist on Iraq. He said he had opposed the Iraq War from the beginning, and he wanted a sensible way of getting the troops out. Both candidates opposed a precipitous withdrawal, and so the only disagreements over Iraq were nitty-gritty details. That neutralized the Democrat's clear advantage on the issue that hurt Republicans the most in 2006.

I still have doubts that many Republican House candidates will run on a dovish platform in 2008, which is why I don't feel confident that yesterday's election signifies a trend.

10/17 12:28 PMShare