See, right now is what baffles me about Dems and the general election..

[HardWorkingDem]

Why aren't they planting the seeds of doubt about people like Guiliani?

My view is that elections have two cycles of battle. The first is the primaries and the second is the general. What I mean is, during the primaries, each party has the opportunity to lob little bomblets out there regarding the opposing party. Then, later, during the general election, there is another chance.

So why aren't the Dems doing a little bit of preemption when it comes to people like Rudy? I mean, where are the references to the 9/11 Rudy love nest and ties to Kerik? Where are the questions of judgment when it comes to a man who places the command center in the lower levels of a building that has just been struck by a fuel filled airplane?

And shit, this doesn't even start to bring up the dreaded comb over!

[Kagemusha]

1. Because it's preaching to the choir.

Basically that's what it is. All that stuff can come out later but.. what would this be trying to do, make Republicans not vote for him in the primaries? What?

[HardWorkingDem]

3. In election cycles, you get two chances...

What I've noticed is that in presidential elections, you get two chances to bring these things up and the Dems just aren't taking the body shots to the Rethugs that they need to.

We all know that the media needs to be led to water to make it drink and the Dems, as usual, are blowing another good opportunity to do so.

[pinto]

2. The primaries are a Dem event, fwiw. So internal shuffling is SOP. Yet,

in the last debate, there was plenty of reference to the current administration 'midst it all. Biden had a great Guiliani line, directly pointing out the 9/11 pandering.

[Trajan]

4. IF we want to face Rudy ...

We would lay off of him for now, as you claim we are doing (and you are right).

But who DO we want to face ? ... Would it be Rudy or Mitt ?

With all Rudy's negatives for the RW, some of those negatives can be accepted by southern conservatives (swallowing hard) .... Mitt, on the other hand, cannot mitigate Baptist hatreds of Mormanism ..... It is yet to be determined WHICH one would have the hardest time in the primaries and which will be our best matchup come 2008 ....

In any case ... I dont think the Democrats have ANY strategy whatsoever .... There is no defined platform ... They present no philosophical imperative .... There is no overarching narrative that explains WHO we are and WHAT we stand for .....

We have no VISION ......

The Democratic party is nothing but a collection of egos without a larger purpose that we know of ..... I blame the party leadership for this lack of organization, communication and mass marketing savvy... One redeeming factor is that the GOP appears to be in the same poor state ....

[Basileus Basileon]

5. Yes, let's fire our all ammunition now.

Maybe if we're really lucky, some of it will hit, and then we'll get to face someone else in the general.

[jgraz]

6. The general election will be 10 months long.

They need to focus on each other for the moment.

[HardWorkingDem]

7. Define opponent before he/she defines himself/herself..

All one has to do is go back and re-examine presidential elections of the past. One thing Dems never seem to get is that it's not always a knockout blow, but a practice in nicks and cuts. It's a slow process and the Dems are not taking advantage of it.

For example, right now not all reporters who are following this race are following it now, so there is a chance to get stories, narratives and other things out in the open twice in presidential cycles.

Not only that, second tier candidates can successfully toss these grenades and all the front runners to seemingly avoid them right now and remain to appear more dignified.

And proof of this is Biden's remark the other night about Guiliani's love of a verb, noun and 9/11. See, this is a narrative that has the possibility of sticking, if used. Further proof is to remind people that the origin of questioning Al Gores exaggerations DID NOT start in the campaign between Bush and Gore, but in the PRIMARIES!