Professor — regarding the glove-offing, I respectfully submit that I think vitriol is so 2004.
Now that the war is over (to take Phil Ochs out of context — since both pro- and anti-war people are working to figure out the best way to bring the troops home, for all intents and purposes the war is basically over) and Republicans no longer have an ideology, all Democrats have to do is play a prevent defense and slide right in to power.
At the risk of sounding all George Tenetty about it, even if Congress doesn’t flip this year, it’s basically a slam dunk for the Democratic agenda in the years ahead. I’m not talking anything crazy like universal health care or anything, but long term, expect something Kerry-like or Clinton-like. And I think a majority would be cool with that.
Not to get contradictory, Mr. C, but I find it odd that you equate the trumped up Dean Scream to the word vitriol, when the substance of that speech pales in comparison to anything the right pulled during the 2004 election.
Dems kept playing the high ground in the months that followed, equivocating and pooh pooh-ing and not engaging the other side, and where did that get us? A Kerry victory during the first presidential debate.
Whooop-de-crap.
“it’s basically a slam dunk for the Democratic agenda in the years ahead.”
Complacent and self-congratulatory talk like that scares me. It has led to things like the Contract on America and the current administration. The war is far from over, both literally and figuratively.