chambliss smear campaign was only part of the reason cleland lost.
cleland's liberal voting record was waaaaay out of step with the average georgian.
While I would be the first person to argue that the Republican campaign in the 2002 Georgia race was at times bordering on the despicable, Zell Miller was right when he said that Max Cleland voted in such a way as to make him a big fat target for the GOP, and Zell Miller stumped for Cleland throughout his campaign.
Cleland voted the liberal ticket on abortion, gay rights, affirmative action, genetic research, the list goes on… and his voting record on more substantive issues such as health, education and foreign policy was not much better.
Despite having good reasons to vote against some of the Bush administrations’ home land security measures, due to hidden clauses, in an election year it was a foolish thing to do with an already liberal voting record… that left him wide open to defeat.
The real surprise in the 2002 races in GA was Roy Barnes’ defeat a popular and effective governor was brought down largely thanks to an aggressive republican campaign across the state which was so successful that in bringing down Cleland it successfully brought down Barnes a more popular politician at the top of the ticket. If any Georgia Democrat deserves to be rehabilitated it’s the energetic and effective Barnes not Cleland who while a patriot of the highest order is out of step with his state and does not perhaps possess the greatest political instinct in the world.
