Ken Buck lost. So did Tom Tancredo, but that one is easy to understand. When you win, you can move forward with little introspection. When you lose by a close margin, you have to second guess everything.
Here are my top ten reasons why Ken Buck lost:
1)Meet the Press. David Gregory and Michael Bennet were throwing hard pitches in tandem, but I would have thought that a non-nervous Ken Buck could have still gotten some hits. Instead, Ken Buck fouled lots of pitches hard off of his own body before striking out.
2)We don't want Tom Coburn or Jim DeMint to be our Senator in Colorado. Couldn't a prominent moderate Republican (like John McCain) vouch for Ken Buck at a Colorado rally?
3)Speaking of John McCain, his friend Jane Norton and Ken Buck obliterated each other with primary ads, and the accusations of sexism started there. They finished with an attractive female Ob/Gyn telling Ken Buck to leave her patients alone.
4)Women are a huge voting block and they want control of their own bodies. Hands off Ken Buck! No abortion in a case of rape or incest - really Ken? That is not now, nor will it ever be, a politically popular position. By the way, if that woman wants to have the baby, G-d bless her. She has every right.
5)Gay people push back. They want and deserve equal rights. Gays do have equal rights when it comes to voting and funding campaigns. You reap what you sow.
6)Colorado is not part of the Bible Belt. Most of us are not Orthodox anything -- let alone religion. Fundamentalist religious views are out of favor in Colorado. Even Dr. Dobson has seemed to go away. Denver and Boulder are big progressive cities and most of us like them that way.
7)Hostility toward Hispanics, or the perception thereof, will always be harmful in a statewide Colorado election. Ken Buck raided a small Greeley business and seized lots of private files of Hispanics -- the Court disapproved. Not good.
8)Michael Bennet has many powerful friends in politics, media, and high finance. Bennet has the Colorado blueprint created and funded by the Gang of Four and now, a little Soros money. Why such record spending for Michael Bennet to be in the Senate?
9)It is hard to beat a stone cold politician and political machine in a political race.
10)My kiss of death.
My advice to Ken Buck, take a few days off. Get back to work being a prosecutor. There are huge cases going on in the Fighting Nineteenth. All your top deputies have been measuring drapes for your big corner office in Greeley. Good luck with that.
Ken Buck will probably move on and be fine. So will Tom Tancredo, who handled his uphill climb with a whole lot of class. Dianna DeGette will go back to the House of Representatives essentially stripped of power. As for me, I am still sharing my views on the radio every day at three. Let's talk about it.