Not trying to rain on our parade, but something to think about

Now that Rahm Emanuel has succeeded in driving Howard Dean not just out of the DNC and the Administration, but also out of public life altogether, and Tim Kaine is alluding to some sort of return to the Emanuel doctrine of "Can't Win, Don't Try" where red states are concerned (because the Emanuel doctrine worked so well for us in the past, right? See also: Tammy Duckworth, who is NOT in Congress despite being Rahmmy's "sure win" candidate in 2006).

But it occurred to me yesterday while watching the extraordinary crowd reaction to the new president-to-be that the only way Democrats have won the White House in the last twenty-eight years is to run extraordinarily charismatic candidates -- the kind that don't come marching into politics every day. When we don't have candidates as with the kind of force of personality that Barack Obama has, and that Bill Clinton had, we lose. And I'm sorry, folks, but that means that we still aren't getting the message out. Republicans voted for their messenger even though he was a doddering, incoherent old man and his lunatic Mooselini. When presented with less-than-movie-star Democratic candidates, independents tend to either stay home or vote Republican and sometimes enough Democrats will vote for Ralph Nader to make the difference.

We have a lot of work to do over the next four years to continue to repair the Democratic brand. I loved hearing Pete Seeger restore Woody Guthrie's old outrage anthem, but that doesn't change the fact that the Disciples of Robert Rubin are going to be running Treasury and Bob Gates is still going to be running Defense. We have to keep Barack Obama's feet to the fire, and we have to find a way to remind people that most of the programs for which they have a new appreciation now that the economy is tanking, were implemented by Democrats and liberals; and that Republicans would dismantle that if they could. We have to do this without the help of the Party apparatchiks, because Obama's nature is to try to placate the other side, and Tim Kaine's leanings are strictly DLC.