Cowboy Up

This is a Guest Blog submitted by Ben, who runs the local blog Cyberquerque: While a lot of people are saying it’s nice to have the election cycle over, political junkies like me are preparing for the next group of elections in ‘08.  Especially out here in New Mexico.  Where the Congressional run for NM-01 is always a nail-biter!

Watching the results and the slow going in NM-01 afterwards reminded me of something that my dad, a Democrat in a sea of red in Denton, Texas, said a couple of years ago when I was bummed about the 2004 elections. (a paraphrase follows)

“What are you depressed about? Yeah the democrats lost. Bitch about it for a couple of days then cowboy up. You need to realize it’s less than two years until the next election and there’s work to be done!”

Especially for those of us in New Mexico, where NM-01 is always a fight, plus the possibility that Heather will jump to try and take St. Pete's seat in the Senate.  Dems, celebrate taking back the House and Senate and mourn this loss for now, and Reps, vice versa - celebrate Heather winning and plotting her move to the Senate next year and cry about losing Congress for a few days.  Then it's time to get back to it.  Politics are moving at the speed of, what I call, the 24-7-365 campaign.  Unlike the hacks that sell the campaign by the same name, it's my personal belief, we need to be ready to take the fight to our opponents.  I kinda take Churchill to heart when he stood in the House of Commons and said:

"We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields, and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender!"

So, for both sides of the political divide, celebrate or cry for a few days then start working for ‘08.  Like the old man said, "Cowboy up. There's work to be done."  And this time (not working at the paper), I hope to take a place in the trenches.

This post is by guest blogger Ben of Cyberquerque. If you'd like to submit a post for consideration as a Guest Blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link in the upper left-hand corner of our main page.