I love the cover - I must get the book.  Thanks for the news!  I have a gift card to Amazon that I’ve had a hard time spending, but you just made my chicoe a bit easier (at least part of the card).  The cover pic is enchanting….And the post underneath - all those owls - AMAZING.  Wow. I’ll have to think on that one, meditate before sleeping, or whatever.  See what comes to me about it.  I’d never have imagined such a sight, though there was an old abandoned farmstead in Kansas I’d visit occasionally, and every time I went there a few owls would swoop over me, as though reminding me that I was on their turf….but not in a mean way.Still gotta find my short story about Rosemary and her owls!Stace

I am not gloating reosrdhe.  I am not even 1% happy with the way this has come down the pipe.But to say that any of this is Sherrod Brown’s fault is ridiculous.Put simply, Hackett dropped out of this race.  Anyone who understands politics knows that you are never forced out of a race.  Look at Howard Dean, he wasn’t forced out of the race.  In fact, he stayed in the race through Wisconsin and on through Ohio.When he withdrew, he announced his whole hearted support for the democratic victor.Let’s really look at this.  Assume that A) Sherrod Brown was calling the same donors Hackett had reached out to and recieved contributions from.  B) That rumors were floating around about Paul Hackett and his service in Iraq to encourage voters to support Sherrod Brown.A) When I worked for John Kerry we called Howard Dean supporters day in and day out.  It’s called a primary.  Call your primary opponent’s supporters and encourage them to support your candidate.  Anyone who thinks calling a primary opponent’s donors and encouraging them to support your campaign over your opponent’s campaign is backstabbing is insane.  Tt’s the way you win campaigns.  You convince your primary donors that you are the better candidate, that you are going to win (By showing them polling results with you 30 points ahead), and that having a primary would save your campaign 1-2 million dollars, better used to defeat your general election opponent.  This argument is moot.B)  There are a ton of rumors that fly around every single day about every single candidate.  That is the nature of the beast, politics.  Paul Hackett denies any truth to these rumors and claims that Sherrod Brown’s campaign was spreading these rumors.  He notes this as his main reason for dropping out of the race for the democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate.  Of course, he didn’t note that he was 22 points down in the polls, that he didn’t fundraise on the phone much, and that he didn’t like to do meet and greets with certain factions of the democratic party.But did Hackett really have to drop out of the race?  Could he not have exposed these dealings and used it to fuel his campaign war chest.  I mean, why not put it out there that There are these rumors flying around, and it’s being spread by Sherrod Brown, and I need your cash to help me defeat this Son of a Bitch! But Paul Hackett didn’t do that.  I believe he didn’t do that because he couldn’t make baseless accusations without being called out by the mainstream media.  Release these details after you’re out of the race, after you have quit and let your supporters down, release these details then   and then the whole focus will be on how Sherrod Brown forced you out instead of polling that shows you 22 points down, shows that you do not have the financial resources to make any sort of gain, shows that you did not like and did not do much one-on-one fundraising, etc etc etc.There are some thoughts.  But as long as you folks continue to whine and complain you will get nowhere.  It is time to focus on the future, on defeating Mike DeWine, on focusing on the real enemy.Paul Hackett did not get forced out of this race.  He quit, and quit like a sore loser.  If someone accused me of war crimes, I sure as heck would not quit.  I would fight back, I would have my voice heard and I would destroy whomever made those claims.Paul Hackett did not do that.  He quit.  He ran.  And then he blamed the Democratic Party for not openly embracing him when he had a tough primary opponent.  Paul Hackett wasn’t the annointed candidate for the U.S. Senate, no one is annointed when you run in a primary.  And the whole time, everyone just whined and complained about Sherrod Brown entering the race late, or after he said he wasn’t running at that time.Well you and others are just continuing the tradition of whining and complaining when things don’t go your way.  I’ve had enough of divisiveness, it’s time to move on, it’s time to support our democratic candidates and it’s time to mend the wounds of a primary.One addition:  Look at Petro v Blackwell.  It’s getting dirty and will only get dirties.  Think how dirty it would have gotten between Paul Hackett and Sherrod Brown.  We know Paul Hackett was going to go negative big time on Sherrod Brown (Read: Toledo Blade), there’s not proof that Sherrod Brown was going to run any campaign than what he has run for the past 12 years for congress   one based on ideas and plans, not negative attacks.