Former Daschle staffer comments on defeat

Amy Sullivan, a former staffer for Senator Daschle, laments his defeat and says it's time for the Dems to have a blue state leader:

I think Democrats need to say out loud now what many have been whispering (or blogging) for a while. I adore my former boss Tom Daschle and--objectivity be damned--am heartbroken today about his loss. But it is clear that Senate Democrats simply cannot afford to have a leader who hails from a hardcore red state. It puts both the leader and the party in an untenable position.

Note that Sullivan says the Dems have been whispering about a change in leadership "for a while." When the Dakota Blog Alliance alerted its readers about this fact during the campaign, it was studiously ignored by the Argus Leader for the longest time, and when the Argus Leader finally did mention it, it was dismissed as a story the Thune camp was pushing. Is it any wonder that the blogs were so influential in this campaign? The blogs were only responding to the huge dereliction of coverage of a newspaper that was loathe to print anything that might negatively affect Senator Daschle's political career.