Kos Whiffs in His First At-Bat with Newsweek

If you want to know what's wrong the political approach of the angry left in this country all you need do is read the first offering for Newsweek by Markos Moulitsas, the proprietor of DailyKos.com, the home of the angriest of the angry left:

Make the Bush Record the Issue

Times are tough for the Republican Party and its candidates. Earlier this month, according to Gallup, more people strongly disapproved of George W. Bush than any previous president since the advent of polling—and, really, how could things be any different? Bush can boast of an unwinnable quagmire in Iraq, a decimated housing market, economic instability and a collapsing dollar, a dysfunctional health-care system, a still-devastated Gulf Coast, a wealth gap of a scope unseen since the Great Depression and a pervasive and disturbing image of America as a hapless, blundering giant, rather than a beacon of freedom and morality in the world.

Yet despite this dismal rap sheet, Republicans refuse to distance themselves too far from Bush and his record lest they take a hit from the fringe voters who still support his presidency. That is, after all, the Republican Party base, and no presidential or congressional candidate can get far without its help. It's why Republicans refuse to break from the president on Iraq, despite the lack of political progress in Baghdad. It's why Republicans voted to support Bush's veto of the wildly popular State Children's Health Insurance Program, denying health care to millions of needy kids. Time and again, GOP leaders have forgone sensible and popular policies in favor of catering to a shrinking and increasingly isolated base.

Consequently, to stand any chance of winning next year, Republicans must pray for a national amnesia to erase the previous eight years from the minds of voters. But amnesia only happens in soap operas—and that's why Democrats will win in 2008. As long as Democratic candidates remind voters that the Republican platform and Bush's record are one and the same, victory will be assured.

Memo to Kos: George Bush will not be on ballot. If you guys plan to keep campaigning against him, you're in for a rough election night.

The voters are smart enough to know the difference between George Bush and Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, John McCain or Fred Thompson - whomever the nominee will be. None of them are running on a platform of copying the policies and approaches of Bush. The 2008 election will not be about the past, but about the future and who offers the best programs designed to deal with it.

John Edwards is currently trying the tactic of running against George Bush and his numbers are falling. The same will happen to the Democratic Party nominee should he or she try the same. The voters aren't interested in fighting yesterday's war.

For the Democrats to win they will have to articulate a plan for the future, not just a promise to undo the past.