HotShot Blog

The blog is back up and running after spam comments crippled it in the fall. I upgraded to the newest version of Movable Type, which supposedly blocks spam. Let's hope it works.

You may have noticed the look and feel is different. I tried to keep the stylesheet as similar to the original as possible, but it will not be the same.

I noted in this posting that the Democrats were taking no leadership on the issue of Iraq, which would be the single most important issue of the 2006 campaign. For months so-called party "strategists" had instructed candidates to ignore the war altogether to avoid being painted as weak.

But over the summer, a funny thing happened. Joe Lieberman, who had been the party's VP choice only 6 years prior, was soundly rejected by a majority of Democrats. There were other reasons for his demise, but the chief (and often sole) reason voters elected Ned Lamont as their candidate was Lieberman's unequivocal support of the Iraq debacle. The depth of the anti-war sentiment shocked the Washington establishment and sent a clear message to candidates running across the country. Oppose the war or lose.

Over the next several months, just about every Democrat spoke out against the war. Polls tilted sharply in their favor. By the end of October, Republicans abandoned their "stay the course" rhetoric, and Bush toured the country claiming that they were "constantly changing tactics" to win in Iraq. By then it was too late. Democrats swept both houses of Congress. In the House of Representatives, they won a larger majority than the Republicans ever had in their 12 years of power.

Despite these gains, I think an opportunity was missed. Many Democrats did not show true leadership. Rather, they simply benefitted from voters punishing Republicans. They did not articulate anti-Iraq positions until it became clear that it would be popular. As we look towards 2008, it is important that we find a candidate who inspires and leads this country in the right direction, not one who waits to see what the voters want and molds him/herself appropriately. That is the candidate who will win big and, more importantly, deliver a strong progressive America.