Reply #93: I'm sorry, but Max has nobody to blame...

[DirtyDawg]

...but himself. As I understood it at the time, Max Cleland's campaign staff was begging him to get tough on Saxby Chambliss - his opponent in '02 - in response to the campaign that was being run against him. They had the message and the spots all ready to go that would have called Chambliss out on his sorry-ass, effort along with calling him the chickenhawk that he was...and he/they got cold feet. I don't know why...maybe they just decided it wasn't the 'gentlemanly' thing to do...meanwhile, they got their asses handed to them and we got two repig senators and a 'denny-dimwit' repig governor.

As for the polls, again, it was my understanding that going into the last couple of days Cleland was in fact in trouble. I even ran into Begala and Carville at lunch on election day who quite candidly said so...that the Governor's job was safe but Max's was in doubt. So even though I believe Diebold was the final weapon, if Cleland and Barnes had run a more aggressive campaigns, Diebold wouldn't have mattered.