defeat

A study in contrasts.

Right at 10 p.m. at tonight's Republican Party election celebration at Bloomington's Sheraton Hotel, GOP Chairman Ron Carey and Gov. Tim Pawlenty got a roomful of Republicans rocking.

"We've got a lot to be thankful for tonight," Carey told the crowd, which had already been shaken out of its earlier doldrums by news that U.S. Rep. John Kline had easily retaken his seat. Carey predict other victories would be coming in the next hours.

Carey made the house explode when he told the party faithful that the numbers they were seeing on the big-screen TV sets in the corners of the room, which showed the U.S. Senate race deadlocked between U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman and DFLer Al Franken, were wrong.

"When we look behind the scenes at where the votes are coming from, this is very similar to 2006," Carey said. "Were looking at the counties and the areas that haven't come in yet and we're very encouraged by the fact that we're at where we're at when we have a lot of really strong Republican areas yet to report."

The place really lit up when he announced that Rep. Michele Bachmann was running ahead of Elwyn Tinklenberg with Wright County and Sherburne County showing almost no returns. "There is reason for cautious optimism there, as well."