Two Things (At least) That the Dems Should Learn From This Debacle

First, they should fire McAuliffe as soon as the election is over. Since he has come aboard, Bush became the first Republican incumbant whose party seized control of the Senate and extended their lead in the House. Also, the Republicans extended their lead in governorships and now have the majority of the State Legislatures. Now, it appears that Bush's coatails will extend the lead in the Senate and the House. In short, McAuliffe has been an absolute disaster.

Second, they have to amend their primary process. The Iowa primary voters basically decided the race before it ever started. They realized that the favorite, Dean, had no chance nationally because of his dovishness so they jumped on a War hero instead. This was a huge, huge mistake. Not for rejecting Dean, per se, but for choosing a man with indefensible positions. He was for the Vietnam war before he was against it, for the Patriot Act before he was against it, for No Child Left Behind before he was against it, for the Iraqi war before he was against it. He is possibly the worst national candidate I've ever seen in my lifetime, with the possible exception of Dukakis. What were they thinking? This is not, as the pundits want you to believe, a referendum on the incumbant. This is a referendum on the challenger. We're not going to hand the keys to White House to someone who has contradicting positions on fundamental questions of war and peace. Better the evil we know than the one we don't.

He says that he is for broad international coalitions with UN approval but he voted against the first Gulf War. He was a strong proponent of unilateral disarmament during the Cold War. He was a strong opponent of Reagan's Central American policy. He's voted against every major weapons system that we use today. He voted against funding our troops in Iraq. As Seth likes to point out, this is why it's almost impossible to go from Congress to the White House. It's too easy to pick apart your record.