MSNBC: Dems plan 2006 & 2008, encouraged by Bush's dropping poll #s

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Iraq dilemma stymies Democrats
Encouraged by dropping Bush poll numbers, party leadership meets in Washington to chart course for 2006 and 2008 campaigns

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8194578/

WASHINGTON - At a meeting of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, party activists were hoping to hear one of their leaders denounce President Bush’s Iraq policy.

One rose to the occasion, electrifying the crowd by asking: “What I want to know is why in the world the Democratic Party leadership is supporting the president's unilateral attack on Iraq?” That question, in February of 2003, helped make Howard Dean the frontrunner for his party’s presidential nomination.

The DNC executive committee met this past weekend, again in Washington, and again Iraq was on the minds of party activists.

At a time when opinion polls show increasing public uneasiness about President Bush’s Iraq policy, no Democratic leader — not even Dean himself — has unleashed the kind of rousing rhetoric Dean used two-and-a-half years ago.



"Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean speaks to the DNC Executive Committee on Saturday."

[katinmn]

1. Still timid after all these years. HEAVY SIGH

If Dem leaders want to win support from Dems, liberals, or Greens (again) they better start talking about Iraq and election reform! If they don't its just a repeat from 2004. Kerry was a good candidate but he and Bush were on a similar page as far as Iraq.
:mad:

'Backed into a corner'
“I think Democrats have largely been backed into a corner on Iraq,” said Judith Hope, a DNC executive committee member from New York. “While most of us believe we should never have gone in there in the first place, many of us believe that now that we’re there, we have no choice but to finish the job. It would be both immoral and dangerous to bail out of that part of the world, given what we know today.”

She added that the day may come when “the political leadership of this country has to say, ‘Not only was it a mistake to go in there, it’s a failure, and we’ve got to get out,’ but I don’t think we’re there yet.”

Another DNC member, Karen Marchioro, the former co-chair of Dean’s campaign in Washington state, said, “Once we’ve gotten ourselves into a mess like this, I’m not sure what I think we should do — and I was opposed to this thing from the get-go. I don’t think it’s a fair question to ask of people who opposed this war to figure out how to get out of it.”

If a 2008 Democratic presidential contender proposes a plan to withdraw American forces by a specific date, “God knows we’ll be united behind such an idea. Whoever does it, is going to get a leg up” on clinching the party’s 2008 nomination, said Marchioro.

Dean, who is now the DNC chairman, didn’t speak about Iraq at this weekend’s meeting. He did say Democrats will appeal to voters as the party that will provide universal health insurance, build “national defense based on international cooperation,” and buttress parents’ moral authority.