Shoe leather wins races.(Lessons Learned From the Past Election Cycle)(Democratic Party (United...

The year 2004 was a bad one for the Democratic Party. Self pity aside, we lost nationally for two reasons; first even a bad message beats no message, and second, although Democrats had a better ground game than they did in 2000, the Republican ground game this time was still superior. But although this resulted in a consolidation of national Republican power, not every state suffered that fate.

In Hawaii, Democrats had a very good night--a surprise to the local pundits. Although most mainlanders view Hawaii as blue state forever, Hawaii voted for Richard Nixon and Ronal