Jim: Boldest political tactic: I had long believed James Carville’s mantra that “you can’t beat somethin’ with nothin’.” And yet the Democrats did not have much of a unified agenda in 2006 beyond raising the minimum wage, instituting all of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and ‘we’re not Republicans.’ And it worked. Bob Casey practically hid from the press during most of his run. Didn’t hurt him at all; the state of Pennsylvania was ready to replace Rick Santorum with a ham sandwich. It turned out that in 2006, having a vague agenda was the most popular agenda of all; having no political tactic was the boldest tactic of all.

Runner Up: Michael Steele’s commercial in which he explained what he didn’t like about both parties. It didn’t work, but a Republican candidate saying “We’ve got problems in both parties. Education – Republicans built a system that teaches to a test.  Ben Cardin and Democrats put bureaucracy ahead of our kids. Some Republicans forget folks still climbing that ladder.  Cardin and Democrats – just raise their taxes.” in an ad is nothing if not bold.

Cam: I think Mark Foley reaching out to the fringe “sex with boys young enough to be your son” crowd was a pretty bold move. That and Cynthia McKinney courting the “I’d secretly like to punch a cop” crowd.

But no, the boldest political move had to be Ned Lamont featuring Markos Moulitas Zuniga in a campaign commercial. I know it’s hard to believe, but most people watching that commercial either thought Jon Cryer or Jarod from Subway had endorsed Lamont. They have no idea who Kos is. It was the culmination of pandering to the Netroots, and boy howdy did it ever pay off.

Marshall: Still a day behind…

I thought about this one a lot through the day yesterday. And in the end, I think the answer is: nothing.

2006 will be remembered as the year of “Whatever you do, don’t screw this up,” for Democrats and the year of “How many different ways can we find to screw up?” for Republicans. Neither of those lends itself very well to risk taking, and, indeed, we saw little. There wasn’t much in the way of groundbreaking tactics from either side. Just an effort — mostly by Democrats — to sit on the ball, run out the clock, and, “whatever you do, don’t fumble.”