Summary
The Democratic Party finds itself in a difficult position these days: groping toward something it can spin as a coherent alternative to the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war. The party faces a difficult if not impossible task, because it is trying simultaneously to appeal to two constituencies with dramatically different world views: 1) the left-wing Democratic base which hates President Bush and would like to see him impeached; and 2) moderates and centrists who have been deserting the party in large numbers since the late 1960s because they associate the party with foreign- policy weakness. The defection of these Democrats spelled political doom for presidential stand-bearers such as George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Michael Dukakis and John Kerry. The task facing the party leadership is finding a way to reassure the centrists it really wants some form of "success" in Iraq (however defined), while reassuring the MoveOn.org crowd that they will get of Iraq as soon as it becomes politically possible to abandon the Iraqis to their fate.
To be certain, there are prominent Democrats who have behaved responsibly on the war: Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut has been a true profile in courage, a modern-day version of the late Washington Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson. But like Mr. Jackson, who ran unsuccessfully for president in 1972 and 1976, Mr. Lieberman ran afoul of the left-wing activists, found himself increasingly marginalized within the Democratic Party and losing in the presidential primaries.See the full content of this document
Extract
Redeployment, Retreat and the Democrats
Among those who are likely to seek the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has commendably avoided trying to set a deadline for withdrawing troops from Iraq, for which she is frequently exc...
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