I give you the inestimable Speaker of the House, John Boehner, political strategist extraordinaire:
[T]he small part of the reason we didn’t win [in NY's 26th] clearly had to do with Medicare.
And the small part of the reason Gen. Custer didn't win clearly had to do with the Sioux.
I started to go on with other historical analogies framed in utter ineptitude, but why slow such a helpfully delusional mind on such a magnificent roll?