Sunday, March 26, 2006

A few thoughts on Doran's withdrawl

Posted by Craig Westover | 1:28 PM |  

I haven’t had a chance yet to comment on Kelly Doran pulling out of the race, but I like what Kennedy vs. The Machine had to say --
As we told you back in January, Kelly Doran was entirely too sane to win the DFL endorsement even though he would have made a formidable general election foe in either the senatorial or gubernatorial contest.

Here was a man who offered up largely centrist positions, a sunny demeanor, and millions of his own self-generated dollars — and those running the DFL asylum said, ‘no thanks.’

As first reported by Checks and Balances, the real estate developer has observed the first rule of wealth creation — know when to cut your losses.
I do not take Doran’s leaving the race as a good thing for conservatives. As KvM notes, Doran occupied the centrist ground, which is now open territory. Where will those voters go? Hatch and even Kelley could disingenuously adopt them and Pawlenty is probably already there. With winning the election the ultimate goal, the GOP will imagine it must swing to the left to encompass those voters. A battle-winning, war-loosing strategy.