The Kossaks are declaring victory.

Jerome Armstrong wants Hackett to run for statewide office.

Chris Bowers calls Hackett’s loss “tidal.”

The moonbats at the Democratic Underground want (yes…you guessed it) A RECOUNT!

And I need an aspirin. Reading lefty blogs usually leaves me with indigestion. This morning, they’ve imparted so much spin to this insignificant race in Ohio that I’ve got a pounding headache. In fact, I haven’t seen this much spinning since the last time I got drunk back in ‘95 and nearly threw up at a hoity-toity New Years Eve party.

The combination of rich moonbats (it was a charity event at a country club in very Democratic Madison, Wisconsin) and unwashed, college age, post modern feminists who defined incongruity by trying to be elegant in their formal dresses despite the fact that armpit shaving was unknown to them, caused the 7 glasses of champagne I imbibed to rumble uncomfortably in my gut. I was saved from embarrassment by a kindly old widow who, seeing my discomfort, led me outdoors to the 18th green where I gratefully gulped the fresh, clean, Wisconsin night air. The bemused widow must have been the only other conservative in attendance and saw the look on my face when the MC introduced the dinner speaker as “a tireless fighter of the fascists who control our country.”

I get the same kind of nausea reading the desperate wishful thinking emanating from liberal websites who are crowing this morning that BushitlerMcChimpyHaliburton is finally…finally on the run:

” A New Wind is Blowing”

No spin – the GOP is on the run.

Tidal

Tonight’s results exceeded my wildest expectations. Don’t get me wrong – I would have been overjoyed had Hackett won. But I am still thrilled, and his tremendous showing in an incredibly red district should buoy the hopes of Democrats everywhere. Tomorrow, we can begin the important task of dissecting the Hackett campaign’s operations in fine detail, to figure out what contributed most to its success – to see what results this extraordinary lab experiment yielded.

OH-02: What a Ride

So the state GOP avoids a “devastating blow”, but only by the hair on their chinny chin chin. OH-02 saw the resurgance of the Democratic Party, the GOP had to spend $500K they hadn’t otherwise planned on spending, and a Democratic star is born (next stop for Hackett—statewide elected office). So much for “burying” Hackett…

Bleeechhh!

Perhaps the “Reality Based Community” should sip something whose effects would be a little less psychedelic and face some cold, hard facts.

First, the reason why the lefties had to start a blogswarm and the rationale for the admittedly excellent job done by liberal websites in raising money for their candidate was because the National Democratic Party couldn’t life a finger to help him. This from July 7, less than a month ago:

Meanwhile, Hackett’s campaign staff was at its office in Batavia, meeting with representatives of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, seeking help in what they know is an uphill campaign.

David Woodruff, a spokesman for the Hackett campaign, said Wednesday that Democratic officials said they would help the Hackett campaign recruit volunteers, but made no commitment to having paid staff in the 2nd District or helping raise money.

“We didn’t ask them to give us $3 million,’’ said Woodruff. “We talked about how we can win without spending $3 million.

“They said they’d do everything they can to get us volunteer help. I don’t know what other help they are going to be able to give.”

The Democratic committee, through spokeswoman Sarah Steinberg, won’t even confirm that its representatives met with the Hackett campaign

In the only congressional race taking place this summer, the National Democratic Party, thanks to the idiocy of one Howard Dean and his complete ineptness at raising money, was reduced to offering to help recruit volunteers.

If the liberals consider this a victory…BRING IT ON!

Meanwhile, the Republicans barely broke a sweat in defeating Hackett. Despite a relatively unattractive candidate and a scandal in Ohio that is tarring Republicans with the malfeasance of an unpopular governor, the Republicans still won. If not a comfortable victory, a victory nonetheless.

A look at the numbers tells an even more significant story. Hackett received 54,500 votes while his opponent Jean Schmidt received about 59,000. The liberals are crowing at the “huge” turnout. That turnout represents about 20% of the electorate which isn’t even considered “average” for a special election of this nature. In other words, despite massive coverage by the MSM and lefty blogs, Hackett got a little more than 50% of the total vote achieved by retiring Congressman Portman’s opponent last November. In that race, more than 310,000 votes were cast with the Democrat receiving about 90,000 votes.

Clearly, the Democrats did a very good job at getting their people to the polls. The massive amount of money raised by liberal blogs in the last fortnight went to a typically well organized “Get out the Vote” campaign. In the end, the Democrats succeeded in getting twice the number of their people to the polls than Republicans did. Schmidt’s total vote was about 25% of Portman’s vote compared to last November’s results. Thus, the same percentage of Republicans voted for Schmidt as voted for Portman when comparing turnout with 2004. The Democrats simply did a better job of getting their people to the polls.

The closeness of the race will allow the liberals to delude themselves for a while. They’ll try to dissect Hackett’s campaign and attempt to glean whatever “secrets for success” they may think they find in it. This will be a worthless exercise because the reasons for Hackett’s close loss had much to do with the fact that the election did indeed take place in a vacuum. All the political hot air in the country was sucked into Ohio’s 2nd Congressional district for this special election. The blogswarm, the fundraising, the mutually reinforcing pats on the back during the entire process, all taking place under the glare of the MSM, eventually came to naught. In the end, the Republican emerged triumphant.

And let’s not forget the loons at the Democratic Underground. Like the drunk relative you hide in the broom closet at family gatherings, someone in the Democratic Party is going to have to stand up and say “either quit drinking the kool-ade or leave:”

I write this as it appears increasingly certain that this race will qualify for a free recount under Ohio law (0.5% margin). Even if it doesn’t the national party of the losing candidate (probably Hackett) should pay for one. Turns out I was wrong here. Margin was 52 to 48 but I still would investigate a recount.

Someone in the national Democratic Party better give these moonbats a civics lesson. When the votes are counted and your candidate loses it’s considered bad form to demand a recount regardless of what the margin your candidate loses by. It’s just not funny anymore. It’s psychotic. And if the Democrats don’t think that this kind of stupidity isn’t hurting them as a party then they’re sticking their heads in the sand. The American people don’t like sore losers. And that’s what the base of the Democratic party is being perceived as.

I haven’t seen any headlines yet or reaction from conservatives. I’ll be updating this post throughout the day.

UPDATE

Michelle Malkin has her usual excellent round-up of early postings on the election. Check back with her during the day as I’m sure she’ll be updating.

The Captian makes a similar point that I made:

In the end, it doesn’t matter much, because in 2006 this district simply won’t get the national attention it drew here. The Democrats will not have the resources to dedicate to this one single seat that they did in an off year special election. Without the overwhelming focus on this rock-solid conservative seat, it will revert to a fairly easy GOP race next year—especially if the Democrats foul the atmosphere with a slew of pointless lawsuits.

Polipundit has this:

Polipundit pointed out that “this is a one-time result because of freak circumstances” including that “Paul Hackett ran commercials in which President Bush seemed to endorse him.” It will be interesting to watch the media coverage of the election result and to see if ANYONE in the MSM presents the fact that Hackett ran one of the most misleading ads that I have ever seen, which did appear to show him aligning himself with the President and in support of the effort in Iraq.

I predict this is the way the Dems will run next year. Flag waving patriotism in TV ads extolling the bravery and unselfishness of our troops while trashing the war and the President on the stump. Should be fascinating to watch…