[plain talk]

The weekend before the election, he was out of town attending a Notre Dame game.

... which probably made little difference to the election outcome. The damage had been done. Moore wasn't known as much of a public speaker anyway. What Moore had was his solid reputation of being moralistic and taking actions to defend the 10 commandments. He was a one trick pony and all that got tarnished by the allegations. No one knew if they were true or not but the fact he dated teenagers as a 30 year old added the creep factor.

Before the election I did not see anyone admitting they were voting for him as he had become somewhat of an embarrassment. He was attacked on the one thing that was his strength. If all of it was a planned scam against Moore they sure executed their plan well.

[Zhang Fei]

“... which probably made little difference to the election outcome.”

---

It always makes a difference. Voters have to take an hour out of their schedule to vote. It helps to motivate them if you take a few hours out of *your* schedule to ask for their vote. Moore’s principal problem was that he was lazy and sat out most of the election. If you want your supporters to get off their butts, you need to show the flag. And that means campaign events galore.

[DiogenesLamp]

And you summed up the situation quite well.

The media/Washington DC attack machine took him out because he was a reformer. Among the ranks of Democrats, it's easy to find sleazy lunatic kooks to make up accusations against someone.

[deport]

I don't disagree with your observations at all. I still believe that Moore
could have won had he changed his approach during the last ten days of the
campaign. The approach I think may have got him elected is as follows.

I think using a down home approach by taking his trailer and loading up two horses
and him and his wife hit the small towns across the state. Pull up to a parking
lot, get the horses out and ride thru the main street of the town saying hello to
all, waving and acting neighborly. Let the locals see him and his wife up close
and have a word or two with them. It doesn't have to be speeches, just conversation.

JMO