I'll stay away from politics for a while after this. Paige and I are represented by Brad Miller in the US House. I wrote about him before. Apparently he's upsetting some of the local media guys by refusing to appear on shows that ask unscripted questions. Miller's spent the last four years as a DailyKos darling. His constituency isn't likely to be DailyKos fans. In fact, his constituency is largely African American Southerners who vote Democrat only because they don't get any good alternatives. Miller's current opponent is an African American Republican, and he's connecting with the voters.

What's Miller to do? What's the entire Democratic party to do, now that one of their reliable voting blocs is tired of being taken for granted? One option is to take positions popular with African Americans, which are more conservative than the positions the Democratic has taken. However, I don't think that's going to happen.

Another problem is that the DailyKos fans aren't likely voters. Apparently Robinson is withing 10 points in the polls, and those polls have an error margin of plus or minus four or five percent (meaning an eight to ten point lead isn't really a lead).

Additionally, Miller is still unable to get his message out. Robinson has defined Miller, and Miller's silence and refusal to take any public positions (outside of DailyKos) hasn't helped him with the voters. "He voted to let gay Americans bring their foreign gay lovers in to the country on a marriage visa?" (which, it turns out, is a fair description of what he voted for) Welcome to the world of politics, Brad.