A New Domain and an Old Game

So, after a lot of time (and help from the Blogger help board), I finally have registered www.michaelglenwick.com and made it the home for my blog. Going to livefromthemountaintop.blogspot.com will still take you to my (hopefully) weekly posts, so it's your call. The new domain won't change much, just the fact that no one else with the same name--yes, you, the one with the sex podcast--has the rights to michaelglenwick.com

I recently finished reading The Thumpin' by Naftali Bendavid about how Congressman and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) Chair Rahm Emanuel led the Democrats to victory in the '06 congressional races. Aside from highlighting Emanuel's unique nature as a politician, Bendavid explored in (sometimes too much) detail how elections are won and lost. In 2006, they were often out of even savviest Democrats' hands; according to Bendavid, one of the biggest reasons why Emanuel was able to end the "Republican Revolution" was because of Republican mistakes, not Democratic advances. From New Orleans to Baghdad (and don't forget about corruption scandal after corruption scandal), the Republicans' reputation was its worst in more than a decade, and the Democrats were in a unique position to take advantage of that.

At the same time, however, Bendavid notes--in his most important paragraph--that only a select number of politicians would have been able to utilize and stretch the resources the DCCC had and gain 30 new House seats. For two years, Emanuel's life revolved around the '06 election. He didn't get more than four hours of sleep a night, his health suffered measurably, and he barely got to see his wife and kids. But he was committed to the Democratic cause like no one else, which is largely why Baltimore-native Nancy Pelosi (who knew that a Democratic victory would make her the first female Speaker of the House) entrusted him with heading the DCCC.

Like any sport, a good team wins by playing well but also by having a committed player or two being in a position to take advantage of the other team's mistakes (advice my beloved NY Knicks would do well to heed). Whether or not we want to admit it, politics is a sport in many senses like any other, and in '06 Emanuel was that player. Liberals didn't like him for pushing more conservative Democrats in many of the more moderate races, and conservatives despised him for his recentnesses in pursuing the Democratic cause.

But he didn't care.

Emanuel couldn't have done it on his own, but the Dems couldn't have retaken the House without him either. With Congress up for grabs again in '08 (yes, there is more to the '08 election than the presidential race), reading Bendavid's book is the least that we--Democrats and Republicans--can do to prepare us for what is sure to be an exciting political season.