The Oregonian's Steve Duin hit the nail on the head with this take on Steve Novick's concession speech, which closed out his unsuccessful primary campaign (45-42% to Jeff Merkley) that could have put an honest-to-God (and much needed) iconoclast in the U.S. Senate.
An Eloquent, Graceful ExitI don't know a single Novick supporter who isn't extremely proud of having been a small part of Novick's campaign. He made us proud of our support right through to the end.
At the bittersweet end of an audacious campaign, Steve Novick gave the most entertaining and uplifting concession speech I've ever heard.
I've been in a lot of hotel ballrooms when pathetic candidates heard the death rattle they so richly deserved, and campaign staff and the obligatory lobbyists, embarrassed to be seen with one another, melted into the nearest bars. That was not the mood at the Benson Tuesday night when Gov. John Kitzhaber introduced Novick, even as the jukebox cranked out, "I Fought the Law and the Law Won."With 30 of his most fervent supporters, including his parents and girlfriend, on the stage behind him, Novick received an electric ovation, prompting him to quote an ol' Mo Udall line: "If this goes on much longer, I might have to accept the nomination.
"Well, my friends," Novick continued, "we thought we were going to stick it to the man. But in the end, as usual, the man stuck it to us. But for a while there ..."
He was the Democrats' best hope to unseat Sen. Gordon Smith in the general election, and in the end, it took hundreds of thousands of national Democratic Party dollars to turn the tide of the primary toward his opponent, the lifeless Jeff Merkley. "The last days of the campaign reminded me of nothing so much as the last scene of 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,'" Novick said. "A couple of outlaws against the entire Bolivian army. But now we're hearing the endless rattle of gunfire ... and the movie is over." (emphasis mine)
Novick expressed the hope that his supporters would be proud of being part of a campaign that would "go down in history with the great losers of all time ... like the 1975 Boston Red Sox." Underdog campaigns like his, Novick reminded a room still filled with several hundred supporters, are "a self-selective community. You didn't join this campaign out of resignation, because it was what you had to do."
No, as Kitzhaber said, people supported Novick because he "had a message, a heart and a brand," or everything that Merkley lacks. And they remained with him to the end.
Novick likened his supporters to "a group of guerrillas who came down from the mountains and almost took out the establishment. This group made me feel like Castro. The young Castro."
And he expressed the hope that in years to come, those guerrillas -- whose efforts helped Novick carry Multnomah County and the city of Portland -- would still feel a bond with one another "when you realize you were both for Novick in 2008."
Novick and his competent, creative crew almost pulled it off, despite the stacked deck.
Hey, we're overachievers -- although I would have preferred that "the movie" end at this scene (below), with Novick's "couple of outlaws" overcoming the seemingly insurmountable...
...But we all know the movie didn't end that way. And so it was with this campaign. We got this (below) at the end instead ...
...A great old tune, for sure, but as Duin wrote, bittersweet. So all that's left is to slice up a lime, crack open some of the remaining Left Hook Lager and, of course, a salute: Here's to ya, Steve. Thanks for a great ride. You can bet we'll be there for the next one!
UPDATE; 10:09 a.m.
Looks like the folks at MTV News are feeling it as well.
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