It seems to me that people attempting to describe what happened with any campaign is an awful lot like blind people trying to describe an elephant, to the person touching the trunk it feels like a hose, to the people touching the tail, it feels like a snake, etc.
Everyone has their own perspective and their own reasons for expressing their perspective. The beltway Dems didn’t do enough to help out. The beltway Dems did too much and it drove away Republicans. The campaign listened too much to beltway consultants. The campaign didn’t listen enough to beltway consultants. The campaign didn’t listen enough to volunteers. The campaign paid too much attention to volunteers. The ads weren’t good enough. Too much focus was on Media, Advertising, Field, etc. Ned went to too many DTC meetings. Ned didn’t go to enough DTC meetings. Ned went to too many rallies. Ned didn’t go to enough rallies. Ned’s didn’t speak enough on specific issues. Ned spoke too much about certain issues. The list is endless.
In many ways, it boils down to, “If only people had listened more to me, and the campaign had been run my way, things could have turned out differently.” I know what it feels like. I have my list of things that I think the campaign should have done differently as well.
Yeah, it would be good if we could all learn from this, but perhaps a good starting point is learning to listen to those around us, instead of trying to beat people over the heads with our own opinions. Yeah, it feels good to get it all out. After all, this is part of the grieving process, and we do need to grieve so that we can regroup and fight the next battles.
Yeah, there were people that I got angry at and got frustrated with. However, at the final big staff get together, we went around the room and talked about what was most important to us about the campaign. That was a very wise and helpful thing. I said something about how we all came together as a community that cared for each other and worked together to make our state and our country a better place. It might not always feel that way, but I think that is really the important part of what happened. If we focus on that and use it to work together going forward, then Ned and all of us really did win.
Thank you to everyone who helped us win and who are helping to make it an enduring victory.
]]>It seems to me that people attempting to describe what happened with any campaign is an awful lot like blind people trying to describe an elephant, to the person touching the trunk it feels like a hose, to the people touching the tail, it feels like a snake, etc.
Everyone has their own perspective and their own reasons for expressing their perspective. The beltway Dems didn’t do enough to help out. The beltway Dems did too much and it drove away Republicans. The campaign listened too much to beltway consultants. The campaign didn’t listen enough to beltway consultants. The campaign didn’t listen enough to volunteers. The campaign paid too much attention to volunteers. The ads weren’t good enough. Too much focus was on Media, Advertising, Field, etc. Ned went to too many DTC meetings. Ned didn’t go to enough DTC meetings. Ned went to too many rallies. Ned didn’t go to enough rallies. Ned’s didn’t speak enough on specific issues. Ned spoke too much about certain issues. The list is endless.
In many ways, it boils down to, “If only people had listened more to me, and the campaign had been run my way, things could have turned out differently.” I know what it feels like. I have my list of things that I think the campaign should have done differently as well.
Yeah, it would be good if we could all learn from this, but perhaps a good starting point is learning to listen to those around us, instead of trying to beat people over the heads with our own opinions. Yeah, it feels good to get it all out. After all, this is part of the grieving process, and we do need to grieve so that we can regroup and fight the next battles.
Yeah, there were people that I got angry at and got frustrated with. However, at the final big staff get together, we went around the room and talked about what was most important to us about the campaign. That was a very wise and helpful thing. I said something about how we all came together as a community that cared for each other and worked together to make our state and our country a better place. It might not always feel that way, but I think that is really the important part of what happened. If we focus on that and use it to work together going forward, then Ned and all of us really did win.
Thank you to everyone who helped us win and who are helping to make it an enduring victory.
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