Very well put

From Matt Yglesias

It's not as if the opposition party has nothing to work with here. One might note the fiasco in Iraq, for example. Or OBL's still-at-large status. Our bizarre herky-jerky stumbling into wider regional conflicts that will further take the focus off of al-Qaeda and others directly trying to kill Americans. This isn't brain surgery.

On the other hand, it's not so easy that voters are going to believe it if Democrats don't even try to make the case. What's more, ducking security fights looks weak. It looks weak because it is weak. It demonstrates a lack of confidence in the party's own ideas and people. It re-enforces everything the GOP is trying to say. Democrats need to knock this off and engage with what's pretty clearly the central issue of our time.

I think this is a good example of the Dems being more centralized (having a smaller collective brain if you will) than the Reps. Rather than picking on any of the weak points in the Republican platform, they charge groin first into the capable fists of the Republican party.

I've said this before, the Democrats have situated themselves so that they don't have to win elections to make money.