As I listen to the fairly shrill responses from the Democrats, it seems to me that the Dems are in a really bad place. Because they are out of power, they have no obligation to lead. Because so many Democrats are running for president, there’s a powerful gravitational pull to the left. Many diehard Democratic primary voters are devoutly anti-war and hate Bush with a passion that transcends their dislike for Saddam Hussein (I mean this purely on an emotional level, not an intellectual one). In short, the Democrats are unconstrained by any responsibility to govern and motivated to appease constituencies well outside of the mainstream. That’s a perfect recipe for minority party status.