Reply #5: Good point especially about the Democratic Establishment

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Paul Wellstone and Dean's campaign should teach us one important lesson.

You do not have to be a corporate whore to win money to run an election.

Grass organizing combined with clever use of the new media is crucial.

Damn the establishment when it comes to the most important thing in running a campaign, money. It is not worth it.

We have to be careful about taking the lessons of the 2002 election too far. We cannot win by being repuke-lite or old-school intellectual leftists. There is nothing wrong with being old-school and most the ideas are, of course, obviously, don't frickin' flame me still relevant.

It is where we compromise that is important. You have to go for those irrational issues like guns and the death penalty. Compromise there.

I am sorry you cannot win on the national stage without compromising on these two issues. Those are the pansycrat liberal weakling issues. Got to look tough there. It is sad and crappy but true.

Everything else can stay straight up left of center. Healthcare can be argued convincingly using populist terms and so can the tax debate and well everything else.

It is the language that you use.

Understand Michael Moore is right. You have to explain to the selfish people why the left's policies are good for them. To put in another less caustic way, most people are just trying to fight the good fight and make ends meet. That means they will vote for their own self-interests. Progressive policies are in their best self-interests.

You have to let people know that they are being cheated by this administration. You can't just blindly paint them as radicals. You have to have the guts to expose the lies and not take the cheap shots.

If shrub questions your patriotism you out the missing in action for a year from the National Guard thing in a national ad and bash him for wanting to cut veterans benefits and combat pay. Where are the ads on this? Thought so, they are not there.

We have to speak to the people in a voice that not only can they understand but they can't even begin to ignore. That is key.