More Election Deconstruction
Democratic Congressman and speculated black horse contender to replace Gephardt, Harold Ford Jr. gets it right on the money during an appearance on Crossfire:
The question to ask is, what happened? Where was the message and why couldn't you convey it? I think at some level, the leadership in the House, on the Democratic side, has to take responsibility. I would imagine there were distractions: the snipers -- which I'm happy and delighted we caught -- the Iraq resolution -- which occupied most of Congress' attention for a good deal of time. But there was still two to three weeks to focus on the issues and Democrats really did not have a coherent message.