There are a couple of themes I'm picking up on from the comments:

Media's fault
Low Dem Turnout
Absentee Ballots

Media's fault - I think this really means an issue poorly managed by the campaign (It wasn't the media's fault for piling on the Swift Boat lies, it was Kerry's for not responding quickly and aggressively)

Low Dem Turnout - Is this better or worse than losing on the issues? I know I lost my own race last year because the Dem's didn't vote (I had plenty of Republicans vote for me). I can say that I didn't lock in my Dems first before I went to the Republicans (lot's of RINO's in my area). Why are congressional campaigns making the same mistakes I am?

Absentee Ballots - I see a lot of people saying "The Repubs always get more absentee ballots than the Dems" This happens in my area as well. Ummm...why the hell is this? Is this some secret we Dems don't know about? Why would they always have more (way more) absentee ballots than us? You look at what Busby lost by, it looks like she lost because the Repubs got more absentee ballots in than she did. If someone was to argue that this wasn't the case, well then the Repubs got more voters to the polls on Election Day than the Dems did.

And I'm sorry, I don't mean the NJ or VA Governor races.

I'm biased in writing this because I'm running for local office myself. But there's about a  
month left until Election day (November 8th) and I thought it was a good time to remind people  
(not that everyone needs reminding) about their local elections.

When I first posted about my race here, I got very kind words of encouragement and some very  
kind donations. I've spent the summer and the fall trying to earn every dollar and kind word  
given to me. 98F and 85% humidity? It was still sunny! So I was knocking on doors IN LONG  
PANTS despite the heat and the perspiration.