"We've got a few voices out there who would be a little bit more on the fringe," Bayh said. "Unfortunately, too often they define the entire party."
No, Senator. Too often, the GOP's spin machine and their all-too-willing accomplices in the media allow these so-called "fringe" figures to define our party. One wonders who Bayh is referring to, anyway? Is he talking about the 99.5% of the House Democratic Caucus that voted to authorize the war in Afghanistan after 9/11? Or is he talking about the Democrats who warned that the Iraq War was an ill-advised and ill-timed diversion from the campaign against Al Qaeda?
I'll admit that Bayh's got a point when he says that our party has an image problem. But the image problem is just that -- an image problem. A recent letter to the editor in the Wall Street Journal from Wesley Clark went after this same perception.
I and others have offered our plans again and again. We called for a diplomatic strategy in the region -- rather than relying wholly on threats and warning -- more and better equipped U.S. forces focused on training the Iraqis, and a more intensive effort to promote political and economic development in Iraq.
Bayh gives weight to GOP claims of a weak, idea-less Democratic Party by repeating them and handwringing over how to neutralize them. What he doesn't do is simply refute the claims. By contrast, Clark's strategy is to take the charge that Democrats are "fringe" and lack "backbone" and upend it. No, you're wrong, here's why. And that is what we need more of from party leaders -- not a nervous shift to the right to appease the Republican Party.
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