Most people don't interact with politics the way you and I might. They don't even know about Politico, First Read, Swampland et al. They watch neither Keith O or Bill O.
They get what politics they care to watch through the most mainstream of channels: Network news, maybe a major paper, or perhaps a youtube link from a friend.
Its both easy and hard to shape "the story". Back in 04, the Kerry smears took hold and stuck. The attacks on Bush managed to backfire. Strict factual basis doesn't ultimately matter in the odd world of politics-media.
Perception is reality.
When I was campaigning for Obama, I didn't watch the debates the same way some of my fellow supporters. I watched reaction. I watched LV tracking polls. Ultimately it didn't matter what I thought; instead what truly mattered was the perception of the collective mass of voters, via their MSM press filter.
The whole torture debate, for the Dems, has become tortured itself because Pelosi was imprecise with her words. Now, conservatives have shifted the public perception away from the "are conservatives torturing bastards?" to "what did Pelosi know and when did she know it?" - this is now the question asked by the national media.
Republicans despite what you post here, or think in general, are not playing defense on torture. They are playing offense and the Democratic establishment is playing defense.
President Obama is making a speech, Wednesday, on security to try and change the narrative... somehow.
Sun Tzu in his seminal work, The Art of War, states that, among other things, you should not fight unless you both have (and understand your) advantage, and choose your battlefield.
To this point the Democratic party, and netroots especially have ignored these truisms.
We, as a whole better get a whole lot more strategically sound, or there is a very real possibility something of real import.. EFCA, Banking reform, Climate policy and so on... will get neglected in the fallout.