Blogswarm - Online Political News Magazine

Democrats must stand up for our beliefs and take risks.  Democrats must be defiant in defeat.  When we lie down, we get run over [...]

Democrats must remember that voters don't live in Washington. Conventional wisdom and an aristocracy of consultants have created a national party that has lost the handle on what is truly important to voters and what is really happening in their lives. Local people know better. Let them lead.

The Democratic Party must increase its communications capability. Democrats must communicate year round with voters where they live, through their local news outlets, and by using trusted local opinion leaders. Regional political and communications offices plus a true understanding of new media and new technologies are essential.  

We must form a shadow government. The DNC should coordinate the Party's leadership, not just our congressional members but also our governors, party chairs, DNC members, and leading thinkers. The Democratic Party needs a single entity, acting as a clearinghouse, so that the resources and message of the progressive movement do not duplicate each other or directly conflict.

Meanwhile, Trippi argues that the netroots are the vehicle to a new Democratic majority in this powerful WSJ op-ed.

The staggering defeat of the Democratic Party, and its ever-accelerating death spiral weren't obvious from the election results. Two factors masked the extent of the party's trouble. Without the innovation of Internet-driven small-donor fund-raising and a corresponding surge in support from the nation's youngest voters, John Kerry would have suffered a dramatically larger electoral defeat. And the true magnitude of the Democrats abject failure at the polls in 2004 would have been more clearly revealed.

Mr. Kerry raised nearly half of his campaign war chest over the Internet. He was so successful at online fund-raising that he actually outspent the Bush campaign in this election. But it was the outsider campaign of Howard Dean, reviled by most of the Democratic establishment, which pioneered the use of the Internet to raise millions in small contributions; Mr. Kerry was just the beneficiary as the party nominee.

And it was the risk-taking and aggressive Dean Campaign that forced the risk-averse Kerry campaign to opt out of the public financing system. Had that decision not been forced on Mr. Kerry, he would have been badly outspent by George Bush; he would not have been competitive at all throughout the long summer of 2004.

While I am a fan of Frost -- a tough Dem in red Texas -- he's status quo. As for businessman Leo whatever, he's an unknown with no chance in hell.

Simon Rosenberg isn't actively campaigning for the job. If I had to guess, I'd say he's laying low, ready to emerge as a concensus candidate if the DNC battle gets ugly between Dean and the anti-Dean consensus candidate.

Kerry, after being spurned by a Vilsack who suddenly lost his taste for a brawl (was he promised an easy ride by the presumptive leader of the Democratic Party?), looks to be boosting his old NH ally, Jeanne Shaheen.