Is that it has become the 'Mee-Too' party. They are trying to sell themselves as 'Republicans, but nicer and more sophisticated!'. They have failed to offer any competing agenda, have failed to outline any credible and principled opposition platform. They simply endorse outright any ad-hoc any republican program that comes along and then natter at the edges when it looks like its failing [Iraq, for instance] about how they knew it was a Bad Idea all along. They have given the agrarian and labor base up to the Republicans, and there simply are not enough middle-class educated liberals out there to form a useful voting block.

If you want the DNC to follow the republican play book, then by all means, declare yourself a Republican. While you are definately a must-read on this board, I can't remember reading you articulating a stance here that was even a hairs width removed from the neo-con agenda.

Right now, Dean is the only politician on the national scene who has held a principled, defined and consistent opposition stance and managed to get a lot of popular support from a new base (young educated and young blue collar). If thats what it takes to get this party rolling, then lets go with Dean.

Beyond that, Dean knows how to out-internet the republicans, and is light years ahead of the rest of the DNC in using modern media to get his message out and get money in. Good. And its about time we had a DNC chair that had a high national visibility.

Since Reagan, the republican party has been pushing this notion that the democrats were 'too far out there' and that 'Liberal' was 'Wacko'[*]. Under the 'Daschile-Gephardt' model of the Democratic party, we somehow decided to internalize this nonsense and somehow decided that the way to a healthy party was to 'roll over' on every issue. The effect has been quite opposite. In 12 years we went from running washington to marginal players. Time to spit-up the koolaid and get back to basics.

Frankly, for me, Dean is a win-win.

Davin :.

[*]when 'Liberal' politicians planned and won WWII, built NATO, Ended the great Depression, Brought real Civil Rights to america and built a social safety net, I think thats hilarious. Its basically saying that exactly those policies that brought america to total global ascendency are 'wacko', whatever.