Ditto.

Michael Hood has some "great hopes" for Darcy Burner. I share them, pretty much exactly.

First: despite you gave up so much to make this sacrifice, we hope that through some miracle or extra-natural calling you will have redoubled the commitment to your son's future that inspired this race. We hope you run again. You'll be even better at it next time, and your opponent's vulnerabilities will still be be there. Remember: politics are never over.

Second: we're hopeful and convinced that the 8th District is only an election cycle away from turning as blue as the Republicans' noses. Your near miss shows your abilities as a candidate and a policy thinker, and also that the 8th is within reach.

Third: we hope your use of the net roots will be a model for liberal campaigns everywhere. This new techno/political medium was only beginning to gather its strength- many of us in it didn't know yet its potentials- but you'd already got it. You used us to raise some significant money, do some focused organizing, and get out your message in a way that's the old order's attention. The right-wing blogs haven't caught onto the concept yet, preferring to stand off to the side, and be snide.

While thousands helped and millions were raised, the most outstanding feature of the campaign was always Darcy herself. None of the rest would have mattered if she hadn't been so damn good at doing what she was doing, whether it was doggedly pursuing the generally humiliating duty of dialing for dollars to charming the bejasus out virtually every crowd she came across.

She was a first-time candidate and, some scoffed, 'third-tier' to boot. Seemingly by force of will, but certainly on the shoulders of many, she turned WA-08 into a high profile race, and forced the national GOP to spend millions in defense of the local icon they'd entrusted this supposedly gerrymandered seat to.

Darcy did us proud.

Add my voice to the chorus of thanks, and my name to an early endorsement for '08.