He made a terrible mistake early on by taking a position on Iraq which essentially agreed with Shrub's. He should have said, "Regardless of how I voted as a Senator, I now see that the war should never have happened, and that there is no use for the U.S. military there." Now he can't respond to all the demands people are making that he launch an attack on that issue without repudiating his early position of staying in Iraq "as long as it takes" and proving conclusively that he's a "flip-flopper."
He seems to have mush in his mouth when it comes to making any fundamental criticism of Shrub's term in office. His health care and other domestic issue positions are either terminally wonky, such that he can't explain them to the voters, or once again basically the same as Shrub's positions, such as his tax cut for business.
Either he loses big or just squeaks through. In either case, there has to be a thorough shake-up of the Democratic Party, busting up the DLC once and for all. Otherwise, the party will be an appendix to the GOP, who at least understand what politics is about, forever.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ A gentleman haranguing on the perfection of our law, and that it was equally open to the poor and the rich, was answered by another, 'So is the London Tavern.' -- "Tom Paine's Jests..." (1794); also attr. to John Horne Tooke (1736-1812) by Hazlitt