Ohio Democrat Touts His Loss

Democrat Paul Hackett, who lost an off-year election for the House to Republican Jean Schmidt, touted his loss as a victory for Dems:

Hackett said his run for Congress proves two things: that no Republican is safe; and that the DCCC will be a "key player in seeing that Democrats take full advantage of Republican vulnerabilities."

Hackett said he is proud that his race for Ohio's second district seat in Congress "can serve as a template for how we win seats across the country in 2006."

For those not familiar with Hackett's campaign, he showed clips of President Bush in many of his ads, claimed to have supported the Iraq War by fighting there, but also thought the war was "wrong." Basically, he was an anti-war candidate who believed his military background gave him all the credentials he needed. We have seen this strategy before in the guise of John Kerry. The only reason Hackett performed better than Kerry was because he obfuscated his true beliefs better.

He is right about one thing, however: if you campaign as a conservative (even if it's not what you believe), you have a much better chance of winning. That should be the message to Dems and the GOP alike.