I found this interview between George Strouboulopoulos and George Stephanopoulos on CBC's The Hour. (Hat-tip to Gay and Right for the original link to the Hour) First, a personal bias alert. I quite like Mr. Stephanopoulos. I enjoy his "This Week" program and I find him to be a charismatic guy. I read his book, "All too human" and enjoyed his insight. The main message I get out this exchange is that no matter how much Canadian Liberals want to think so, the Democrats are not the same as the Liberals. If anything the Democrats most closely resemble the defunct Progressive Conservatives. In fact, as Mr. Stephanopoulos alludes to, the reason the Democrats lost is they appeared to be too much like the Liberals and until they shed this image they are unelectable.
Stroumboulopoulos: What do the Democrats have to beat the Republicans next time?
Stephanopoulos: No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 is to prove the country that they can be trusted with National Security issues. I think that is the reason Democrats/John Kerry lost last time around. Even though he had a lot of advantages, having served in Vietnam. Fundamentally the country trusted President Bush more with fighting the War on Terror, with protecting our borders, with protecting our National security and unless the Democratic Party can convince the country that it does have an assertive, strong National Security policy I don't think they can win the White House back. Listen, it's no accident that when President Clinton won back in 1992 it was after the fall of the Berlin Wall when National Security issues had receded. It becomes much more difficult for Democrats to win in an environment where people are worried about another strike against the United States.
...Democrats can exploit [the fact the Americans want out of Iraq] but they can't do it in a way that seems like they are going to be weak when it comes to taking on tyrants, when it comes to taking on terrorists.
Stroumboulopoulous: Isn't that the ridiculousness though of the political system that we have where it so much about the way you get the message across rather than what you're about?
Stephanopoulos: Well, no...but I think people get it. I guess I do disagree with that. I think that people, more often than not, understand what's at the heart of what parties are trying to do. And I think one of the things that the Democrats communicated was that they weren't as certain about when they stood on National Security and how to fight the War on Terror and what to do in the War in Iraq as President Bush was.
I love how quickly Mr. Stephanopoulos dissected Mr. Stroumboulopoulos. Mr. Stroumboulopoulos went down the fake "War on Terror" path and marketing versus the message and Mr. Stephanopoulos stopped in straight in his path. Sorry, there is a War on Terror and sorry the Democrats are week on this. From a Canadian perspective it is, you Canadians can afford to be weak, but in the United States you can't.
