On The Trail: Sleepless In Washington

What about this election cycle keeps Hotline editor-in-chief Chuck Todd up at night? Could it be the fed-up voter, immigration, or the legacy of Terri Schiavo? Here's number one -- The Democratic GOTV machine.

This is at the top because it's probably the biggest mystery of the cycle. It's not clear who is funding get-out-the-vote efforts for the Democrats this year, or more important, who is running them. Is it a coordinated state-based campaign with a loose connection to the Democratic National Committee? Is it labor, and if so, which part -- John Sweeney's the AFL-CIO or Andy Stern's SEIU? And where did all the money from America Coming Together go? Will even half of it make it back into Democratic coffers in some capacity? There are still lots of unanswered questions, and Election Day is less than five months away.

and here's number 10. Missing a wave?

This point may be last, but it is probably just as important as any on this list. Many analysts failed to predict the GOP's wave in '94 for a variety of reasons, most notably a lack of confidence in the Republicans to actually pull it off -- even as polls showed otherwise. This cycle has a similar feel. The reason many analysts aren't ready to jump on the Democratic bandwagon just yet is the lack of confidence in the strategic leadership of the party. This is, after all, the party that messed up '00, missed the issue matrix of '02, believed Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry was the most "electable" candidate in '04 and has shown little evidence in '06 of truly knowing what's necessary to win now. But sometimes, the voters roll the dice.

Read On The Trail.

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