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(Great observations! - promoted by Jennifer Daler)
I respect the need to vent about what went wrong on November 2. I definitely welcome a constructive discussion on how we can start laying the groundwork for a progressive victory in 2012. But I think we need a reality check regarding what can actually be achieved by strategic voter mobilization in a partisan wave election. As Donald Green and Alan Gerber point out in Get Out The Vote
"Using the most effective get-out-the-vote strategy will not guarantee victory. All the other factors that shape the electoral fortunes of a candidate - persona, platform, party, and campaign management - are relevant as well. A spectacularly successful GOTV campaign might lift an overmatched candidate from 28 to 38 percent or a competitive candidate from 48 to 58 percent. Often, winning elections is only possible when voter mobilization strategies are combined with messages that persuade voters to vote in a particular way."
In other words, when the mood of the national electorate favors the opposition party - as was abundantly clear going into this election cycle - executing a flawless field campaign can narrow a strong candidate's loss margin to a few points but it won't necessarily deliver a win.
