The new democrats

Last Monday, the Clinton Presidential Library opened to much fanfare. As I sat and watched the proceedings I started thinking about the legacy of Bill Clinton. I can't help but wonder if those democrats out there that still think he hung the stars and moon have taken stock of the very mixed record of the Clinton administration and wreckage the Democratic Party has been left in in his wake. Terry McAuliffe, a Clintonista, has got to be the most deserving person in America to loose his job. And he has, but not before he lost the presidency twice to George W. Bush, lost seats in the House and lost seats in the senate. Clinton associates have lost almost everywhere they have run. Governorships and senate seats; Bowles, Reno, Ickes, Gore, etc. The notable exceptions are Bill Richardson and Hillary Clinton. I believe the reason is that the Clinton agenda was framed by the Morris strategy of triangulation. Clinton moved the ideology of the party to the center but failed to move the ideology of the rank and file. They were happy that they had a winner and let him get away with programs and policies that they would have lynched a Republican President for implementing. But when Bill left the scene, he left an utterly fractured party. Realists and idealists, divided on fundamental questions like national healthcare, tax policy, the wars, gay rights and harmonic convergence. Kucinich voters will get that joke. Anyway, I fear that the democratic party will be a minority party until enough of them can agree on what they believe in. The republicans know exactly what they stand for on cultural issues, tax policy and our new constant state of war. The democrats know they can't win as the pro-gay marriage, pro-big government and anti-war party, but they can't move the base away from those positions to make a creditable argument to the center and the right. They better get their act together quickly or this country may be facing many more years of one party rule.

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Does anyone else wonder if George Bush still thinks that Vladimir Putan is a democrat?

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Read a fascinating article about the letter's of Josef Mengele here.