By AP/KWMU
Washington, DC – Missouri Senator Jim Talent says the national tide against Republicans and the war in Iraq were too much for him to overcome in last week's election.
In his first public remarks since election night, Talent says he doesn't see anything more he could have done that would have made a difference. Democrat Claire McCaskill defeated Talent by 2%.
Still, Talent said he ran what he called "a very good race."
Asked if would do anything different, he said: "Yeah. Run in a different year."
"I don't have any reason to believe it wasn't the national trend," Talent said in a telephone interview from St. Louis. "It was so pervasive and the election was so close. It was just too much to overcome."
In complete but unofficial results, McCaskill won 49.5 percent of the vote, compared with 47.4 percent for Talent, a margin of about 46,000 votes out of more than 2.1 million cast.
"I just think there were a lot of votes based on what they wanted to see nationally rather than focused on the race in Missouri," Talent said. "I thought we ran a very good race, but the Democrats did a good job of positioning themselves to take advantage of the national trend. They knew Missouri was going to be close."
Talent has remained a strong supporter of the Iraq war and stood by President Bush's decision to invade Iraq throughout the campaign. McCaskill criticized Talent for not challenging Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during any of Rumsfeld's appearances before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Rumsfeld resigned his post the day after the elections, which gave Democrats a majority in both the House and Senate. While some Republicans criticized Bush for not forcing Rumsfeld out earlier, Talent said there's no way to know whether it would have helped GOP candidates in close races.
"Had it happened earlier, I don't know how it would have been seen," Talent said of Rumsfeld's resignation. "Obviously a lot of voters were concerned about the war."
He and his staff plan to "look at the numbers in a very detailed way" to assess how the votes came out precinct by precinct. But he said there's no way to look beyond the national mood and voter discontent with the Iraq war.
"I don't see any reason to inspect the bark on the trees minutely when there's a forest fire going on," he said.
McCaskill won the race by pulling in a solid majority in the urban areas of St. Louis and Kansas City and cutting into Talent's support in rural areas and traditionally Republican cities such as Springfield.
On election night, Talent said he could tell things weren't going well as the vote started coming in. "There were some areas where we were running at or above where I'd hoped to run, but enough places where we were 3-5% off that I sensed there was a problem," he said.
Talent said he has "no regrets" on making an issue of whether McCaskill and her husband had paid all their income taxes. McCaskill has called the charges a "personal attack" against her family that had no foundation.
"I think our overall strategy, including that, was what kept the race so close. If we hadn't done that, I wouldn't have done as well in that aspect of the voters' thinking," Talent said.
Talent says he hasn't thought about what he wants to do when he leaves office in January. He has been calling supporters and trying to help staff members get new positions.
He worked briefly as a lawyer and lobbyist when he lost the Missouri governor's race in 2000 and says he hasn't ruled out that or any other line of work, including teaching. Talent taught a political science course at Washington University in St. Louis after losing his last bid for office.
Meanwhile, Talent will be back in Washington on Tuesday to finish business in the last weeks of the congressional session. He plans to help McCaskill get her office running and answer any questions.
"I certainly wish her well," he said of McCaskill. "I'm going to do whatever I can to help the country and the state."