My Thoughts At The Moderate Voice

This is totally rambling and I may edit in the moment, but here is the comment I posted at The Moderate Voice.

It appears the national media is going to report the Reed defeat as rebuke to the corruption of Jack Abramoff and I think that's wrong.


From The Moderate Voice:



Actually, as a Georgia resident, I have a bit of a different take.

This was a bit of stand against a certain type of politics.

The Abramoff thing just didn't play that well down here. Despite what some people may think, we are not all crazy.

Even though we had some of the most hotly contested Democrat races in generations, one of my most liberal friends crossed over to cast a vote for Cagle.

The fact is that although Reed was raised and educated in Georgia, he simply hasn't been down here in years. I believe the Georgia Republican party was a little offended at Ralph seemingly descending from the mountain like Moses to take over things. We just don't like that.

I also believe there are many people on both sides who didn't want to face the potential firestorm of a Reed candidacy. Republicans do not want a controversial outsider. And Democrats, particularly like my friend, do not want to see "satan" nominated. Neither side saw it as good for the state and I think that is pretty noble.

I guess I think that although Abramoff mattered on a meta-level, most people down here really just wanted to be Marlene Dietrich.

They just want to be left alone to decide their own fate.

Update: Okay, I couldn't stand it. I edited a few things (including a terrible assumption I made that Jeff Emmanuel corrected in the comments). I'm pretty laid back in general but a little OCD about certain things. You can still follow the links to see my original comment with all its rambleness.