Two leading Democratic analysts conclude that the Howard Dean approach to national politics will prove damaging to Democrats over the long term, and that a return to centrism provides the only realistic way for the opposition to compete for power. The two former Clinton aides claim that celebrating the base may mean more funding, but it alienates the mass numbers from the center needed to defeat Republicans:

Since Kerry's defeat, some Democrats have urged that the party adopt a political strategy more like one pursued by Bush and his senior adviser, Karl Rove -- which emphasized robust turnout of the party base rather than relentless, Clinton-style tending to "swing voters."

But Galston and Kamarck, both of whom served in the Clinton White House, said there are simply not enough left-leaning voters to make this a workable strategy. In one of their more potentially controversial findings, the authors argue that the rising numbers and influence of well-educated, socially liberal voters in the Democratic Party are pulling the party further from most Americans.

On defense and social issues, "liberals espouse views diverging not only from those of other Democrats, but from Americans as a whole. To the extent that liberals now constitute both the largest bloc within the Democratic coalition and the public face of the party, Democratic candidates for national office will be running uphill."

In other words, people like Ted Kennedy and Chuck Schumer, who lecture the Bush administration and its judicial nominees for being out of the "mainstream" have themselves abandoned mainstream thought some time ago. Instead, they rush to fill the void with radical ideas while attempting to tell their constituents that their opinions don't count towards "mainstream" thought. Hillary at least understands the strategy of appealing to the center, although her movements towards those positions remain obligatory, inconsistent, and half-hearted.

This hypocritical approach also gets critized by Galston and Kamarck, who warn against using rhetorical legalese to confound voters into buying a heavily-leveraged "centrist" position. They also reveal that the GOP base comprises a significantly larger segment of the population, which is why Rove's strategy worked so well in 2000 and 2004. A motivated GOP base easily outstrips a motivated Democratic base -- and therefore the Democrats need to beat the Republicans for the center.

In other words, the DNC picked the worst possible national figure for its chair that they possibly could select. The creation of Mad How and his International ANSWER minions as the Democratic Poster Boy may go down as one of the most inept blunders made by a major party. His vile smears and reckless rhetoric repels the very segment the Democrats sorely need to return to power, and every day he has the DNC as his pulpit, he makes it that much harder for Democrats to win elections.

This report did not make the front page of the Post. One wonders if the DNC will ever bother to read it.

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