Democrat Conundrum

Peter Beinart of The New Republic has skewered the democrat conundrum: how can the democrat party aspire to the White House without convincing the American electorate that they are serious about, and have a plan for, international geopolitics in the world of American military dominance. As he puts it in hisTNR column on the subject:

Yet, now, with the Bush administration finally recognizing that defeating terrorism requires making sure Iraqis have electricity and clean water, the Democratic presidential candidates are looking for any excuse to avoid saying yes. Pandering to public isolationism may make short-term political sense, but, in the long-term, it will simply confirm what many Americans already believe: that you can dress up the Democratic Party in whatever uniform you want, it still doesn't have a strategy for the defining challenge of our time.

He shows the vacuousness of the positions of the democrat candidates for the White House, whether Kerry, Clark, or Dean, and points out the obvious contradictions between what they are saying and what a leader of this nation will have to do. Kudos to Peter for pointing out the obvious.

We seem to be seeing a raft of democrats who are willing to concede some obvious truths lately. Can these few comments coalesce into a plan that will unseat Bush and Co? We shall see, as the campaign unfolds in the next 13 months.