Carville is right about one thing.

The Democratic Party should cease with their " litany of policy proposals". We are going to increase funding for college education. We are going to give you $1000 more with which to pay your high insurance premiums. We are going to increase the special forces by 40,000 troops. We are going to invest in new environmental technology so we will not be dependent on Arab oil. We are going to fund homeland security to inspect cargo ships, etc. This is all empty rhetoric for the "average" American voter.

We need a more generic narrative, as James has mentioned. We need to speak in more general terms. We will stop sending jobs overseas. We will do a better job at providing healthcare for Americans. We will do a better job at defending this nation. We will bring down the cost of gasoline at the pump. We will fight for the working man and the middle class, not the wealthy. Your children will be better educated under a Democratic president. No sense into getting into "a litany of policy proposals".

more than Kerry did in his stump speech -- "Hope is on the way" should have been the narrative we were looking for, but MEDIA is the root of the problem

Edwards does have the right idea - in that he speaks in terms of a broad theme - give everyone the chance to reach their full potential - make capitalism work.

This means: fighting for civil rights, education, restore inheritance tax, health care.

'Reward work not Wealth'

Republicans are eroding capitalism. Ending inheritance tax, dividends tax, stopping market forces on prescription drugs, reducing access to college education, outsourcing stem cell research, encouraging farming monopolies.

The Republicans don't simply have a war on work, they have a war on Capitalism.

The Republican agenda is anti-capitalist.

Capitalism has always been about wealth & power, not 'rewarding hard work'. Bush Republicans are about the maintenance of the investor class, all else is lip service.

"The Republican agenda is anti-capitalis" may be a useful talking point, but it obscures the nature of american capitalism.

Capitalism is about competition bringing out the best.

Anti-trust laws increase competition - monopoly reduces competition and market forces. Republicans are all about barriers to entry - either for workers or for small businesses. Republicans reward big business over small business in order to decrease competition and increase Republican power. Republicans reward people who inherit wealth over people who produce wealth.

Really, think about this, they are inherently anti-Capitalistic.

Democrats need to restore competition to Capitalism. Republicans talk social-Darwinism but they don't live it - they are afraid that if everyone has an equal chance they will fail. All of their policies are aimed at holding on to what they have because they are incapable of producing more.

competition. They want guaranteed outcomes and guaranteed wealth at the cost of greater net social wealth, innovation and opportunity.

Capitalism worked best after FDR made sure a lot of Americans had an opportunity to participate in the economy, and it gets killed every time Republicans engage in their fascist anti-capitalist agenda.

Revolution and Alternative Energy.

Never happened.

It's leftward bound or down. No more repub lite.

Rich freeloaders who want serfs to pay the bills for society are bad, pure and simple. From a purely unemotional vantage, the shrinking of the working- and middle-class will bring our economy crashing around our ears, and if we burden them even more with higher taxation, that's just less they can spend to sustain the economy.

We have to make "conservative" (or even better, "reactionary") an extremely dirty word, just as it was in the sixties, and just as they did to "liberal".

Class warfare and social darwinism on the part of republicans needs to be acknowledged up front. It is a mistake to avoid the reality most of us know is the real issue.

Seems like you've simply proposed replacing one list with a less specific list (and I still remember the complaints that Kerry left things vague with his "I have a plan.")

We will create more jobs is different from we have a "plan" to create more jobs...The delarative states the plan is already in place and will work...

Without a wider perspective, many of these entitlement proposals only scare people. Kerry's plan for the government to cover catastrophic health insurance. There are good sound business reasons to support this idea, but most Americans didn't see that as helping THEM, but as just another give away to those who can't provide for themselves. Basically, the middle class supports any program that benefits them, like Social Security, but are afraid that Dems are just trying to take their hard-earned wages.

ing.

That narrative, my friends, is going to be about how transferring economic, cultural and political power down to the middle and working class makes America wealthier and stronger.

And John Edwards is a fantastic medium for delivering that narrative, becuase he has lived it.

Until we get in tune with middle America's cultural values, we're in for a world of hurt.

What could be more cultural than these foundations of rights?

The person we choose for 2008 is not currently on the DNC roster.

Obama's speech at the DNC was a good antidote to the mindless enumeration of policy. Progressive candidates must learn to connect first, confuse later. ;)

...EVERYTHING!!!

Bruce talked compellingly about a "deeper patriotism". Kerry's stump speech was basicly a list of programs and complaints with no overarching theme. I think that one thing that the Democrats need to do concentrate a little more on the poetry and a little less on the programs.

I have a feeling that most people feel this stuff will never get done anyway.

Until that happens forget about it!