He Who Has Ears

Bull Moose (a.k.a. Marshall Wittman) has some excellent advice for the Donkey:

There has been more attention lately to energizing the Democratic base than expanding it. It is important to motivate "the grass roots", but thought should also be given to enlarging the Party's membership.

The growth component of American politics over the past couple of decades has been self-identified independents. While some of these indies lean to one party or another, there are also many up for grabs. Kerry did moderately well with this group - but obviously not well enough.

The Moose recommends that the new DNC launch an "Independent Project" that both analyzes the motivations of this group and develops innovative ways to appeal to them. Money and staff should be dedicated to this effort.

The Republicans lost me once Bush showed his near total hypocrisy. But I vote for Democrats only under duress. If the Democrats actually tried to lure people like me, they might pull the growing pool of alienated citified centrist/moderate voters to their side. But that's assuming they want to win elections....