The funny thing is the Dems've never caught onto the Rove playbook, which lies hidden in plain sight. Every election cycle since Bush was elected, the White House refused to engage the Dems for whatever charges hailed at them, until everyone, even the mud slingers, got tired of the insults, and the Dems overplayed their hands, then Bush pounced. It worked every time. Like clock work, comes Nov. the Dems will be at each other's throat blaming each other for the opportunities lost. The far left will get nuttier, and will push the Dems further into unelectable neverland.

Saw elsewhere a cite where the generic control Congress poll went from big Dem lead (over 10pts) to very small Dem lead (2 pts) over the past few weeks. The author fished about for reasons (Iran, Iraq, etc) but decided on that polls before September are useless and that polls are now starting to show people paying attention which will help the GOP.

It took every bit of self-control the Democrats had within them not to lash out at Bill Clinton in 1992, when he based his campaign on running to the right of his party's past and in some areas, to the right of GHWB. But as the venom directed towards the missus and her '08 hopes right now show, there's no way they can counter the Republican playbook with an offensive strategy of their own, even one built on deluding the voters about their actual intentions, because the far left of the party thinks any hint of agreeing with Bush on anything is akin to treason.

There are Democrats who understand their weaknesses on foreign policy and know the PR methods to counter them, but while they may not take some of their own statements seriously, the folks on the left would, and they would be faced with (at leastr short-term) political purgetory within their own party if they pushed those ideas to the public.