Republican Beats Iraq Vet

The Democrats ran Paul Hackett, a veteran of Iraq (including the battle of Fallujah), in a special election in southern Ohio. He lost. Now, what to make of it?

The Democrats claim to be happy because they were more competitive in this district than they have been in 30 years. They hope to reproduce this strategy elsewhere to better results. The Republicans are happy because they won.

There are extenuating circumstances. Every week brings out new reports linking lobbyist and coin dealer Thomas Noe with the possible theft of $4 million of public money. Hackett hoped to link his opponent with this. As a long-term strategy, this probably will not help the Democrats. It is limited to Ohio and will be in the distant past by the 2006 Governor's race.

While I am sure that Hackett had a platform, he didn't run on it. He ran on his war record. It almost seems unpatriotic not to vote for him. Again, this is not a good long-term strategy. Many Democrats dislike the military. Even if they were to retake Congress by running Iraq vets, they would not get along well with their new members.

I am still a little unsure about where Hackett stands. He is supposed to be anti-Bush. His web site says that he thought that the war was a mistake from the beginning yet he volunteered to go. Now that he lost, he is talking about volunteering to go back. Plus he seems to agree with Bush's current policies of replacing American troops with Iraqi security forces. Was Hackett as anti-Bush as he says?

On other issues, he is for hybrid cars and government assistance for trial lawyers. He skirts the issue on handguns, denies that there are any problems with Social Security, and proposes some sort of government help with health care. His positions could have been (and possibly were) written by a political consultant. There is no new strategy here.

Probably the Democrats were making a fuss over this election because they need a win. With the Ohio party looking worse every day, they had an opportunity. It didn't come through but they still have to keep the troops pumped up.