Leadership Quote by Tom Daschle

A sentence like this is politics in its most careful, self-erasing form: all posture, no fingerprints. Daschle is announcing loyalty while refusing to specify what loyalty required, to whom, or at what cost. The phrasing is padded with soft qualifiers ("important", "as supportive as") and a distancing construction ("would have us be") that shifts agency away from the speaker. Support isn’t a choice; it’s an obligation imposed by the candidates themselves. If anyone is unhappy with the level of support, the blame can be rerouted: we merely complied with what they asked.

The subtext is intraparty triage. As a party leader, Daschle had to balance competing demands: help challengers without starving incumbents, protect vulnerable seats without alienating the base, and do it all under the scrutiny of donors, activists, and the press. "Our candidates" gestures toward the broader ticket, the folks who need resources and visibility. "Our incumbent senators" signals the real power center: sitting members who control committees, fundraising networks, and internal leverage. Pairing them in one breath is a tell. It’s coalition maintenance disguised as principle.

Contextually, this kind of line often surfaces around campaign committees, endorsements, or resource allocation, especially when the party is accused of playing favorites or being insufficiently aggressive. Daschle’s intent is to present the party as unified and responsive while keeping every door open. It’s a rhetorical noncommittal that still sounds like commitment, which is exactly why it works.