Reply #5: I gave him money, voted for him, put up a lawn sign,

[swag]

but didn't expect him to win.

I think he is a great policy analyst, but an extreme introvert who has difficulty connecting with people. He would rather be left alone to thing about things than be trying to win people over to voting for him. A great chief of staff, maybe, but not a candidate for an electorate seemingly averaging down every cycle.

Merkley is not so much worse than Novick, and Merkley is so much better than Smith.

Still, I'll be astonished if Merkley can beat PolluterGordonSmith's money machine.