The politics of defeat

Bob Herbert addresses the Dem's uncanny ability to lose elections in his NYT column today:

The Democrats have become so psychologically battered by these many decades in the leadership wilderness that they consider the Clinton years, during which the president was impeached and they lost control of both houses of Congress, to have been a period of triumph.

I'm pretty sick of hearing that the Republicans are better at winning elections. Maybe if the Dems stop encouraging this learned helplessness--or, at least, spoke out against Clinton's use of right-wing talking points to attack the likely Democratic nominee--they'd actually win the presidency.

You don't defeat the Republicans by becoming even more Machiavellian than they are. You defeat them by putting forward a real agenda for change, and rallying the support of the people.

I should say that, in spite of all the negative press, I still believe that Obama will win this election.

I prefer hope--yes, even false hope--to cynicism and division.