Yglesias is clearly right that they punch above their electoral weight within the Democratic party–although they may punch below their electoral appeal. His categorization of Kerry and Edwards as liberal hawks, and of the Democrats’ strategy in 2002 as a liberal-hawk strategy. In both cases, Democrats were torn between liberal hawks and plain-old liberals, and the straddle hurt them as much as anything. Resolving that straddle in favor of hawkishness would be a good idea, but it would require changing liberals’ minds.