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The Dems lost because they picked the wrong guys to win!


Exactly.

The fundamental problem the Democrats have to solve in the next three years is the disconnect between the kind of candidate who has a chance to win the nomination and the kind of candidate who can win the election.

To win the primaries and the nomination you have to win amongst fundraisers and party activists, not the general electorate. The Republican activists are close enough to the general electorate that candidates that can win the election can also win nominations, and Republicans raise funds from amongst their activists, not a small group of big donors.

But this is not so for the Democrats. They rely heavily on large donors for startup campaign funding, and their party activists tend to be much too liberal - they don't resemble the electorate - and far too single-issue oriented, unable to make any sacrifice on gay marriages, guns, etc, to actually win an election.

Paradoxically what I think would help Democrats the most are real and strict campaign finance laws, shutting out big donors even at the start of the primary process. This would hurt the Democrats at first because they are so depend on a few large donors. But by forcing them to appeal to a broad group of potential voters right from the start in order to raise money I think they'll get moderate and electable candidates. They'd still have the problem of leftist activists, but they'd be at least competitive (and I suspect Democratic activists would tolerate a lot more moderate a candidate than most believe, in order to win an election in their lifetimes).

(most people think of Republicans as having fat-cat donors but has not been true for a long time - in 2000 DNC didn't even bother soliciting individual contributes, operating solely off fat-cats! RNC has operated off of grass-roots fundraising for years)

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In Kerry's concession speech we saw a more presidential looking guy than the one spewing angry mindless rhetoric for the past year.


Remember Bob Dole? Exactly the same situation - a tight-ass during the campaign, and a genuinely likeable, and electable, guy afterwards.

What this election means for 2008 is unclear. At first it would seem the Democrats should just all commit suicide - if you can't defeat Bush who CAN you defeat? - but it may also be that they'll finally fire MacAuliffe and trash the entire DNC and start over. If they dynamite the entire process and start over they should make a better showing in the future.
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"If they can't picture me with a knife, forcing them to strip in an alley, I don't want any part of it. It's humiliating." - windsock