Choose Your Poison!

James Pinkerton has a good article about some new books out.

"Michael Tomasky argued that his fellow Democrats need to develop "a politics of the common good," the sort of majoritarian thinking that "made liberalism so successful from 1933 to 1966." Today, Tomasky observed, Democrats lack "a big idea that unites their proposals and converts them from a hodgepodge of narrow and specific fixes into a vision for society." Ouch. But Tomasky aimed still more rhetorical punches at his own team: Dems "don’t even think in philosophical terms and haven’t for quite some time. … They’ve all been trained to believe—by the media, by their pollsters—that their philosophy is an electoral loser."

"We might add that a philosophy of raising taxes, hiring more bureaucrats and multiculturalists, keeping the borders open, endorsing gay marriage, cutting defense, and putting more trust in international organizations would seem to be a political loser. Yet Republicans are concerned, and rightfully so, about their party and its prospects. The neoconservatives who dominate the White House have put forth policies on Iraq and immigration that have demoralized and divided even hardcore GOPers. And over on Capitol Hill, the majority party is sick with a different malady, incumbentitis."

Joe Klein's book, Politics Lost, is the last book Pinkerton writes about. Pinkerton says what Klein implies, the Dems are much farther left of the American public than the Republicans are to the right of the average Joe. And so the Dems try media manipulation and polls and consultants to somehow divine what the magic formula might be to win back majorities without revealing their ultra-left beliefs. Pinkerton believes the Democrats may regain the House and Senate this fall because of massive Republican confusion on key issues like immigration and the unpopular war in Iraq.

"So what will happen if the Democrats come back to power without doing any soul-searching, let alone soul-rediscovering? How will Democrats behave if they are restored without deserving restoration? Right now, Bush makes the Democrats look good. But if the same-old-same-old Democrats are left to shine on their own, based on their own merits—quick, what’s the Democratic position on Iraq? on immigration? on the ACLU vs. Christianity?—then the next Republican comeback might not be far away, and that will be a heckuva story for the Republicans, even if most of the books are still likely to be written about the Democrats."

If the Democrats have Pelosi and Harry Reid as their policy chiefs, they will have a hard time winning the Presidency in 2008, as both are not leadership types. Nor is Howard Dean, whose chronic serial blunders make a 2008 presidential victory for the Dems very improbable.

So I am personally in favor of ousting the Republicans for a couple of years, to give the Dems a chance. Because the odds are heavy that their lack of a leader [Obama is the only one I think would have a real chance] would lead to a McCain or Giuliani victory in 2008.[And since Giuliani can't get the nomination, McCain might finally get the brass ring.

Or maybe not!