Between friends

I waited a day to post a serious response to Michael’s “Man Not In The Arena” post. I was initially unsure if he was serious. Now that I know he is serious kindly indulge me a few points of clarification.

My intent in posting “Outsmarted, outflanked and outworked in SD25″ on www.wrightrepublican.blogspot.com was not to criticize GOP foot soldiers. As a perenial GOP foot soldier I appreciate any effort that anyone puts out for the GOP cause. If any foot soldiers were offended by my comments I sincerely apologize. That includes Michael.

The real intent of my post was to express my opinion that the grassroots mechanism exercised by the left appears to be superior to the grassroots mechanism exercised on the right. It appears to me that the left has worked hard over a lengthy period (of more or less republican dominance) to develop extensive voter ID, issue ID, list management, volunteer recruitment and community building. I have deep concern that the left is doing what appears to be an excellent job of identifying, educating, motivating, cultivating, validating, recognizing, and equipping their troops to succeed. That’s the long and short of my post.

And to digress slightly, I’m not talking about the DFL when I refer to the left. I don’t think their cause is so much a result of DFL party proficiency as it is possibly the effectiveness of third party entities doing the work for them (i.e. MoveOn, Emily’s List, 2020, …etc.)

Ok back to Michael’s robust criticism of me:

I was intrigued that a site dedicated to exposing democrats became the platform for Michael to attack me personally. That’s not been my experience with Michael in the past. We have occasionally disagreed. But to this point he has always graciously opted for a phone call to set me straight. Why he chose to marginalize me personally on his blog while certainly his prerogative is nonetheless surprising.

I did not attack anyone personally in my post. No where did I say anything unkind or disrespectful about Ray Cox. My post was for the most part about the performance of the left. Frankly, I was flabbergasted when I read that Ray had lost. I had no idea. I do not recall any polling about that seat. I am as disappointed as anyone that we lost the seat. Had I known I would have done something to help, although with two full-time jobs I doubt it would have been anything beyond GOTV phoning.

With Michael’s usual panache he reiterates my point that I did not actively participate in the SD25 campaign. He then leaves the lingering stink of sloth in the air to defame my character as an active member of our party. Technically, Michael is as almost always “spot on” about the fact that I was not involved in SD25. In that narrow frame I am humbled to now be considered an award winning blogger, albeit with the cynical insult that MDE intended. I suspect Teddy might be somewhat plussed that his words were used to denigrate one of our own.

Folks who know me personally know both the principles I try to live by and my commitment to contributing to our cause. Michael was careful not to criticize me in that frame although he is welcome to do so publicly or privately if he thinks it could help us keep from getting our asses handed to us again in November.

I’ll be on NARN today with my fellow “award-winning” blogger Mitch Berg at 1:30 or thereabouts. At Michael’s request I will hang around to receive whatever it is that he is so motivated to bestow upon me.

I am hopeful that this experience causes all of us to raise our sights about the job ahead of us for 2008. My experience is that when we talk about how much progress we are going to make we typically find our selves disappointed (2004, 2006, last Thursday).

We are engaged in a grassroots battle with a new level of leftist campaign sophistication. While our ideas are a key ingredient to our prospects for success, there is no excuse for failing to evolve our process to try and meet the abilities of our foe.