always been like ted kennedy a leading person in the accomplishment swing of the democratic party. she knows how to get things done. i think the american people were sick and tired of leaders in washington, the culture of corruption that had just overtaken washington and across the country in states, the last time democrats won, flipped seven gubernatorial seats in one cycle was something like 40 years ago. that s a big deal. and that is going to enable us in the next redistricting cycle to level the playing field. and that s so critically important. so we won in a nutshell we organized early, we organized every where. we feel good candidates who were good listeners who fought for the issues that people cared about. they tried to put nancy pelosi on the ballot and as you correctly pointed out that was an absolutely abysmal strategy. that really didn t work too well. willy is here and has a
we balanced the budget for the first time in a generation and balanced it four years in a row for the first time since the 1920s. a century ago. that was the work of republicans and democrats alike. and i worked for ted kennedy, as you know. ted kennedy i think was one of the charter members of what i call the accomplishment swing of the democratic party. he wanted to get things done. he understood idealism and pragmatism wasn t mutually exclusive. he had great respect for the institution of the presidency. which is why he would work with george herbert walker bush and later with george b. bush. that didn t mean they didn t disagree but understood it was bigger than any one individual in washington, d.c., and when we say these tributes to president george herbert walker bush we remember that. the fair housing act was a dicey