A bad quote hidden within a good idea:

Democrats consider grass-roots campaign, starting with eating at Applebee's to be more like the common man

And then there's this:

"The Democratic Party is at risk of being taken over by the far left,"
- Sen. Evan Bayh, D-IN

'at risk'? Senator Bayh, I don't think you understand. The Republicans have already been taken over by the Far Right. If you think that the Far Left is Michael Moore and Dennis Kucinich, you've got your head on backwards. The "Far Left" is Stalin or Castro.

Granted, the left needs to stop whining about the right. Screw the right! Don't tell me about how Bush broke all his toys in Iraq. Don't continue to harp on the fact that the enconomy is a shit sandwich that we're all enjoying a hearty bite from. Give me solid answers!

Here are my ideas on how to talk to red-state voters:

To all the people who are pro-life : Tell them the FACTS. Abortion is going to happen. Deal with it. It's legal, and it's not going away. You can be pro-life until you're blue in the face, it's not going to change. If you want to vote for a candidate based on how they feel on a subject that's already been decided, then don't complain when you can't afford a new alternator for your 1983 Ford Ranger.

To all the people who are pro-War in Iraq : We need to rethink our strategy there. We need to get everyone in the world to a table and figure out the best way to fix this thing. Yes, we broke it. But we don't have the right kind of glue to fix it.

To all the people who are pro-gun : We've been trying for years to bring about gun control reform. Even when we had the right political atmosphere to do so, guess what? We managed to ban 18 SPECIFIC weapons. Know what that ban did? Nothing. Therefore, you can rest assured that there's not much of a chance you're going to be holding out with cold, dead hands.

To all the people who favor lower taxes : You want a tax cut, Florida? We gave it to you in the form of billions of dollars in relief aid that came from the taxes of people in New York. The people who scream the loudest about taxes are those that pay the least and benefit the most. We need to pay the bills, too. I don't know of any good American that doesn't want to help their country, and the help we need is to get the deficit down. Once we've got that down, once we're running a surplus, we'll hook you up. We've done it before, there's no reason to believe we won't do it again.

To all the people who favor smaller government : Which would you rather see? Janet Jackson's breasts, or smaller government? Because we'll try to cut as much red tape as possible, but if you want us completely out of your life, then be prepared for gratuitious sex on the six o'clock news.

To all the people who favor fiscal responsibility : We've got you covered already. You say 'tax-and-spend', we call it 'pay-as-you-go'. We'll spend money on programs that help you, but only once we've figured out where the money's coming from.

To all the people who favor a bigger military budget : We've got a big military budget. If it gets any bigger, we'll need to start a world war to justify it. There is no cold war. We don't have to worry about Russia invading us or starting a nuclear war. There's no need for that technology. We've put our efforts into fighting 21st century battles, because we've adapted to the times to better serve you.

There you go. A big list of talking points without attacking the 'Other Party'.

-pb