Dem pols are handed Bush's head on a platter IMO and no one is picking up the ball and running with it. David Ignatius sums up this phenomenon.
Nutshell of WaPo's David Ignatius' article: Dems need to "take a leaf from Newt Gingrich's GOP playbook and develop a new "Contract With America:"
The Democrats should put together a clear and coherent list of measures they would implement if they could regain control of Congress and the White House. [snip]
America doesn't need more of the angry, embittered shouting matches that take place on talk radio and in the blogosphere. [I, the diarist, am guilty as sin of this myself.] It needs a real opposition party that will lay out new strategies: How to withdraw from Iraq without creating even more instability? How to engage a world that mistrusts and often hates America? How to rebuild global institutions and contain Islamic extremism? How to put the U.S. economy back into balance? A Democratic Party that could begin to answer these questions would deserve a chance to govern.