Democrats find a way to lose

David Paul Kuhn:

Democrats tend not to be optimists about their political fortunes, both by nature and by the lessons of history.

But there is an emerging consensus among party veterans that they have a greater likelihood of retaking the White House in 2008 than at any time in the past 40 years.

Yet for nearly every expression of confidence, there are private admissions of anxiety by key Democrats. In backroom conversations throughout Washington, influential partisans still nervously mutter a warning they have learned the hard way: Democrats could still snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

In short, there is a gnawing fear that somehow, some way, they can still screw things up.

“We are a little bit of a shellshocked political party. We somehow or another always figure out a way to blow it,” Democratic strategist James Carville said. “Democrats have to talk their way out of winning.”

That Democrats believe their time has come is clear.

Yet even among those liberal strategists, like Carville, who were vital to electing Bill Clinton, the only two-term Democratic president of the past half-century, their sanguine mood is soon betrayed by a lingering trepidation that Democrats could fumble their historic opportunity.

“No matter how the stars are aligned now, the stars keep moving,” said Mario Cuomo, the former New York governor and almost presidential candidate.

Liken it to the paranoia of a boy who has been beaten up too many times on the playground.

Democrats are haunted by the fact that they have not won a majority of the presidential vote in a quarter-century and have often seen seemingly insurmountable fourth-quarter leads (remember President Michael Dukakis?) evaporate in the blink of an eye.

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Democrats lose because they deserve to. They would have lost in 92 if a third party candidate, Ross Perot had not let Clinton get elected with 42 percent of the vote.

They should lose in 2008 because they have been dead wrong on Iraq all year and the public is starting to see how wrong they were. If Democrat policy had been adopted last year Iraq would have been lost and al Qaeda would be crowing about defeating the US. Now al Qaeda is on the run in Iraq and a grassroots movement is bringing reconciliation to the country. Their attempt to split Iraq has been rejected by all factions.

The Democrats are also wrong on the SCHIP program and the Republicans need to refine their message to demonstrate how the Democrats are putting people who pay the Alternative Minimum Tax on the "rich" on the medical benefits dole. Republicans also need to bring the horrors of rationed health care to the attention of the country so that people will understand the pig that the Democrats are trying to sell.