Political prognosticators tend to like to … prognosticate, but apparently Democratic ones don’t during this election cycle. When GQ reached out to the country’s “smartest political strategists” to fill out a midterm election survey, GQ correspondent Lisa DePaulo had trouble getting Democrats to participate.
“It’s a cold day in hell, or at least in Washington, when a supposed lefty rag like ours reaches out to the top political strategists in the country for their brilliant opinion about the midterm elections — the final tally? the biggest upset? the most cringe-inducing campaign tactic? — and the Republicans respond with breakneck speed, while the Democrats … Well, you’d have thought we asked them to undergo [a] root canal,” DePaulo wrote.
“It. Is. Just. So. Grim,” one Democrat wrote back to the magazine, declining to fill out the survey. DePaulo’s questions included the smartest and dumbest campaign tactics, what candidates the strategists would like to kick back some cocktails with (Dana Perino, by the way, revealed she had a strict two-drink limit) and a bonus question of who would be in the Super Bowl.
Out of 12 respondents, four were Democrats: Clinton pollster Mark Penn, Howard Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi, Blue Line Strategic Communications’ Michael Meehan and former DNC official Tracy Sefl.
