Clearly, Hillary Clinton's loss to Donald Trump was the most stunning moment of the November 8 elections. That said, democrats are also still coming to grip with former Senator Russ Feingold's loss to Senator Ron Johnson in Wisconsin.
Earlier this year Feingold had double digit leads in polls and many conservatives (I'm among them) had written off Johnson's re-election prospects. Johnson's come from behind stunner has produced a number of theories from political observers, but few have blamed Feingold himself. Milwaukee Congresswoman Gwen Moore is
downright throwing Feingold under the bus.
Moore is claiming she would have been the perfect candidate and Feingold's defeat, she argues, contributed to Clinton's Wisconsin defeat. There may be some through to that. Clearly conservatives came out to support Johnson and some of those may have been the last second deciders that voted for Trump. But Moore's suggestion that she would have been a more energizing democratic candidate seems unlikely.
She's little known outside of Southeast Wisconsin and even then what notoriety she does have outside that region is for making outrageous statements. Feingold clearly never got past his 2010 loss to Johnson and considered it a fluke. Johnson was elected on the Red Tea Party wave of of that year. Feingold likely believed Trump at the top of the Republican ticket meant a big year for Democrats. He was and the entire Left (and many on the Right) were wrong about that. Gwen Moore certainly wasn't the antidote to that reality.
