Somehow, sitting here in Los Angeles, looking at the barren hills and letting the sunshine permeate my little room, things don’t seem as bad as they could be. The Louisiana senate race is history. I was wrong about the outcome. Hats off to the Landrieu campaign, they overcame all the big guns the GOP brought in, and possibly were even able to use it to their advantage. Certainly the canning of O’Neill could not have helped; bad timing. And, arguably, allowing her to vote in favor of Homeland Security took that issue off the table, to Landrieu’s advantage. It would appear that black voter turnout was a key. The only warning this victory brings to Democrats is that Landrieu won, in the end, by trying to be a moderate Demo, attaching herself as much as possible to the president. It’s good thing I didn’t make any bets on this prediction!