Some progressives in this country are too scared of being labeled liberal (and therefore, by implication, 'weak'). The way I see it, when the American public is ready to pull out, and that day is bound to come sooner or later, there is a good chance they will want the Democrats to be running the show, if recent opinion poll trends are anything to go by. The same 'liberals', who the likes of Oreilly and Coulter view as imbeccile, could very well have the last laugh at Bush and Co who, according to Pat Buchanan himself, have precipiated the decline of American power world-wide in the long run. Howard Dean put it best : "the democrats can never come to power by trying to become Bush-Lite" . If it's Bush the public wants, there's no reason to vote democratic. Democrats can only get elected on their own merits and by being themselves. PS: I am not a Democrat (not that it would matter one bit to me if I was one)