In the spirit of the Strickland post earlier today, Charles Kuffner of the Texas-based "Off the Kuff" blog chimes in with a similar appeal on behalf of Ron Kirk.

While there are many competitive races nationwide, many of which could determine the fate of the Senate, House, and many a governorship, only a handful can be deemed larger than life. Those are the governor and senate races in Texas (Bush's home state) and the governor's race in Florida. A loss in any of those races would be considered a fundamental weakness in Bush's armor, and would herald more skeptical, more critical media coverage in the latter half of his term.