Thune victory roundup

First, see an excellent article by Sheryl Gay Stolberg at the New York Timed headlined "Gracious but Defeated, Daschle Makes History." Excerpt:

"John is going to come in a hero," declared Senator George Allen of Virginia, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, saying the party would probably like to see Mr. Thune's face on Mount Rushmore. Mr. Allen called the outcome of the South Dakota race "monumental" and said it was psychologically equivalent to Republicans' winning three seats.

For Mr. Thune, a telegenic 43-year-old who drew strong support from fiscal and Christian conservatives, the victory was especially sweet. Two years ago he lost a bruising Senate race to another Democrat, Tim Johnson, by just 524 votes.

About 3:30 Wednesday morning, he greeted a throng of cheering supporters and announced, "I think everyone's got a little celebrating to do."

Below is a picture of John Thune receiving a congratulatory phone call from Senator Daschle. Senator-elect Thune thanked Senator Daschle for his thirty years of service to South Dakota. Behind Thune is his brother, Rich, and in the background, Political Director Ryan Nelson and Deputy Campaign Manager John Wood can be seen congratulating each other.

The crowd went nuts when Thune took the stage:

Here, Thune embraces his mentor, Senator Abdnor, who Daschle defeated in 1986:

The Times also discusses South Dakota in its traditional state-by-state post-election analysis.

Elsewhere in the Times, William Safire says President Bush should "offer a domestic cabinet post to Daschle, an understanding pol who can be depended on to turn it down" and suggests the Democrats replace Daschle with Senator Kerry. Meanwhile, Maureen Dowd says John Thune is "an anti-abortion Christian conservative."

The Washington Post has an article headlined "Leader's Defeat Means New Face for Democrats."

The Washington Times has an article headlined "Daschle concedes win to Thune."

Finally, Steve Hemmingsen "weighs in" with this observation:

What happened? Tom is a good guy and he has been friendly to me over the years but, you know, I think in the end the Thune folks were right about one thing and one thing that counts in South Dakota: being out of touch. I don't know that he was way out of touch, but Thune's hired gun campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, used the strokes of a master painter to compose the picture he wanted the average South Dakotan to see, disregarding everything else.

Without a doubt, the canvas was those first commercials showing John Thune's kids.

There were a lot of strokes in between about being an obstructionist, being against South Dakota values and all that. But I suspect the final nails appealed to the basic instinct of South Dakotans who live in small towns: don't get too big for your britches.

That last blast of commercials showing the multi-million dollar house, the swimming pool, Linda Daschle's Jaguar, her ¾ million-dollar paycheck as a lobbyist all added up to "He ain't the kid from Aberdeen anymore."

Tom threw some logs on the fire himself. Going town to town in a suburban. He might as well have driven the Jag. He should have known better. There was that dumb hunting commercial with clothing so new all that was missing was the Minnie Pearl price tag on the hat. Throw in the testimony about Tom disappearing only to turn up walking the cornrows to fill his limit fell short of heroic. Isn't that what any hunter would do? He should have known better. He looked like a Washington guy hunting in South Dakota.