Pride Cometh Before The Fall (of 2008)

Reuters ran an interesting article on October 24th about Democrats possibly being overconfident about the 2008 elections. The story references the recent election of Massachusetts Democrat Niki Tsongas over Republican Jim Ogonowski by 51-45% in a special congressional election. It may have been a victory, but Democrat strategists were expecting the margin of victory to be much wider than it was. But that's not quieting the "Democrats are gonna win" talk coming from politicians and grassroots Democrats.

I've said for a while now that the Democrats are ignoring a problem coming from their left flank. People who would normally be marching right beside them, like Cindy Sheehan, the Daily Kos-monauts, and the MoveOn crowd, are starting to demand action from Democrats to impeach Bush and Cheney and to end the Iraq War, among other things. Democrats, being politicians and, thus, wanting to hold onto what power they have, aren't so keen on wading hip-deep in the Soros-controlled waters. Naturally, this gets the "freak left" as I call them upset. After all, MoveOn said they bought and paid for the Democrats, and they're going to start demanding a return on their "investment."

Of course, pandering to the Soros folks doesn't appeal to the more mainstream Democrats. They may want to end the War on Iraq, but they're not looking for an immediate pullout. They may want to hold Bush and Cheney accountable, but not impeach them. That's going to create friction, which will in turn create fissures in the Democrat Party. That means the party is going to have to walk an exceptionally fine line to not alienate voters. If they want to keep the power they have, they will need every vote they can get by trying to please as many voters as possible. The problem with that, however, is that it's next to impossible to do, even with the promise of Bill Clinton being back in the White House as a selling point.

Plus, Politico had a story about Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi being at odds with one another over national security issues. Granted, Politico called Hillary an "authentic hawk," but the overall point remains. If such a division exists, even if it's a slight division at this point, it can grow if not addressed and resolved. If that wasn't bad enough, people to the left of Hillary are starting a PAC to stop her from winning the Democrat nomination.

If taken separately, the Democrats wouldn't have much to worry about. Put together, it signals a bad trend for Democrats at a time when they're in a relatively good spot politically. And the longer they ignore the potential problem of a challenge from the left, the easier it becomes for their dreams of taking back the White House to go up in smoke.