Noriega campaign shows shortcomings of MSLBs

By MSLBs, for non-regular readers, I mean MainStream Liberal Blogs. ’Twas them, from the top down, starting with Kos (which should give you a clue as to how ‘real’ this “reality-based” effort actually was), who pushed for an undistinguished state legislator to run for Senate, and inflict upon voters a campaign as disorganized, disastrous and dim-witted as a Dennis Kucinich presidential campaign, doorknob bless him.

No, I take that back.

Kucinich actually comes off as halfway professional or more.

First, Kos has kind of a fetish for “men in uniform” Democratic candidates. Probably something psychological there, but I have both better and less scary things to engage in than psychoanalyze Kos — like playing tag with a pack of javelinas.

I will say, though, that I said four months or so that Noriega needed to find more to run on than a military uniform. If he hadn’t “discovered” populism after the lenders’ bailout, he’d be foundering worse — like a pack of scared javelinas caught in quicksand.

And, doesn’t this seem like a modern, Internet-driving version of “backroom politics,” except powered by lattes, not Montecristos?

But, beyond that, it shows that backroom politics as anti-backroom politics probably isn’t a good idea. The Texas Dem insiders who stayed away from Noriega probably did so in part because they weren’t stroked. Victor Morales and his self-starting red pickup campaign were one thing; this may have been another.

Finally, on the blogosphere side, is it not things like this that are decried against the mainstream media, actually believing itself to be a fourth estate?

At the same time, massive primary turnout aside, it shows the Texas Democratic Party as a statewide force is more illusion — by far — than reality.

If there’s one thing Texas Dems need to learn from the Noriega loss (and loss it will be, in all likelihood — I’d bet on a McCain win before a Noriega one) — is that it’s 18 months and pocket change until the 2010 gubernatorial election.

Back to specifics of the Noriega campaign.

Whether his fault or Texas Dems, we have little in the way of North Texas/Metroplex appearances, no sense of campaign urgency up until now, etc.

Both a better candidate and a better campaign are necessities. No Kinky Friemdmans or pistol-packing Strayhorns will be around to provide false hope.