And reform will not come without credibility.
This is what so few people seem to understand.
The Democratic Party has no credibility with voters. To be precise, it lacks credibility with the centrists.
So to assume that if we choose a Vilsack or whomever and reach out to those centrists - without reforming ourselves - that they will believe what we say is to not be aware of reality.
If we choose a Vilsack, engage in no effort to remake our voice or our language or our organization or our image, and instead assume that a moron who could not deliver his own state to Kerry can reach out to centrists, we will lose more seats in '06, and more seats in '08.
This is because many, many voters who share our values, share our ideals, mistrust the party. To them, Dems speak with a forked tongue.
That's why Rove ran the campaign he did - his whole goal was to remind enough voters that Kerry was some liberal elitist, and as such, he cannot be trusted.
It worked. Many people, who distrust the radical right, voted Bush out of fear of liberal elitist lying conniving deceitful Democrats.
How do we move beyond that? With more of the same?
No. We need a fresh start. We need new people at the helm - people who are committed to true reform. Not people who simply want to preserve the failed DLC centrism of the past. And certainly not someone whose only issue is making sure Iowa goes first.
If we rebuild our message, our outreach, but send up the same old people to sell it, it will be all for naught, because nobody will buy it.
Can Dean? Who knows. What we do know is that he is at least credible when he says he wants to rebuild the Democrats. People will believe that. And once that is achieved, we can nominate whomever we want in 2008.
