Thoughts on the Democratic Party

• I don't think Republicans are naive enough to demand that Democrats wholesale unite with them, kowtowing as it were on all the issues, just because they now have a mandate. I do think that they wish the Democrats would unite _themselves_ around responsible, thoughtful leaders who can help take the party back to its roots
  

• Macauliffe has got to go. Obviously. How much more failure can one party tolerate ?
  

• I'm starting to hear this talk of "figure out how we could have been so wrong" being answered with "we need to develop and own some issues by 2006". NO !!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's the Kerry approach: focus-group to find out what positions to take. Look, even Gore had a core issue, an issue he really believed in: the environment.
  
  That's the resounding message that Dems should take away from this election, people voted because THEY REALLY CARE ABOUT THE ISSUES AT STAKE. They care about unborn children. They care about who's leading soldiers in Iraq. They care about the issue of letting gay civil union be called marriage.
  
  Dems must intimately understand the existing issues from their opponent's viewpoints INSTEAD OF ISSUING KNEE-JERK, CONTEMPTUAL REJECTIONS (how can you believe in that ? Obviously religion trumps science for you. You're so stupid and wrong I won't even bother arguing with you).
  
  To understand the defeat, you must understand not only WHAT your opponent thinks, exactly, on the issue, but WHY. From there you can move on to owning the issues.
  
  Gotta do that before you start "developing new issues to own".