Why we lose, and what we can do about it

The Republicans have a slick marketing strategy built around a mix of issues that they use in every election cycle. God, guns and gays. And don't forget abortion. An upstart Republican can run for dog catcher in a remote region of the Sahara Desert. You can be sure they are going to be against abortion, hate gays and insist on cutting taxes. Period.

Virtually no Republican candidates run in opposition to the national GOP positions on these issues. That's almost as good as having name recognition. You pretty much know what you're getting.

I'm not knocking the Republicans on this one. They've been clever. Meanwhile, they have run a concurrent marketing strategy to brand us as well - only in a negative light. So that virtually every Dem candidate has a hurdle to climb. Even well known Dems have to explain themselves on a variety of issues of the Republicans' choosing.

Why does this not work in the reverse?

This GOP strategy was honed in the 1990s while my idol, Bill Clinton, stood by and watched. The thinking in the Clinton camp was to use whatever means were available to win the next election. Sorta like an athlete who's told to focus solely on the next game and not to look ahead. But this ain't football. This is politics. We have to look ahead at all times. We haven't done it.

After well over a decade of getting hammered by the GOP marketing machine, some in this party, most notably Howard Dean, are getting it. Until we fight for our party identity, and until we attack their brand at its core everywhere in this nation, and until we fearlessly promote our own party identity, we are always going to be at an electoral disadvantage. We'll always be praying for the GOP to have a bad year so we can win, rather than having voters choose what our party stands for over what their party stands for.

Some in our party leadership have been convinced that we should support electable candidates and help them run on whatever is convenient in their districts. Say whatever you have to say to get elected. Do whatever you have to do. That type of short-term thinking leads voters to believe that we as a party don't actually stand for anything. That we will say anything to get elected. So while they may agree with what we are saying at the moment, they often still vote GOP because they know for sure the GOP candidate is strong in his beliefs and isn't playing games with them.

We need to have a standard set of ideas that we stand for as a party. And we need to stick with them even when its not politically convenient. And, like the Republicans, we need to back candidates that stand for that national set of ideas. Its isn't enough to elect Democrats. We learned that from the 2006 election. We need to elect Democrats who strongly believe in what we believe in. Otherwise, we get what we have now - Dems voting to condone torture, illegal wars, illegal wiretapping, kidnapping, etc.

My disagreement is describing Bill Clinton as your idol.

Bill has many good and great qualities. But unfortunately he was largely responsible for the muddled message and lack of core principles that you are decrying. Alas, we are seeing a replay of that by his spouse and the DLC machine today.

I can't understand how he didn't grasp what was going on.

How can you not understand. Money & Power.

the last TWO races for President, these Boys and Girls of "The Clinton DLC" have to have THEIR #1 pick as the Democratic Nominee. Because they have $$$ and political power, any candidate who doesn't *insanely triangulate* a shade to the left on Gingas Khan (especially on war talk) is shot down with smear campaigns by the DLC's media arm.

Does anyone truly believe that "The Dean Scream" would have amounted to SQUAT if it wasn't punked by the whorish media who played it every FIVE minutes with negative commentary?

Hello? I don't think that the third time will be "a charm" for their shamelessly pandering candidate. In other words, NOBODY is one each, Bill Clinton. That type of persona and skill doesn't rub off ... not even on his wife. :(