Quote of the Day

Talking Points Memo gets an email nailing a major issue Democrats should run on in 2008.... namely that the era of the Bush Republicans has destroyed our ability to believe that we as a nation are capable of great things. They have destroyed the American dream and spirit.

But it can be rebuilt by people who care enough about government and its people to do it right (the overarching lesson of the Walter Reed scandal, for instance). That can begin in 2009.

It's on that note that I am reminded of Bobby Kennedy-- the Democrats' great President who never was. Bobby Kennedy said the following in 1968-

"I do not want--as I believe most Americans do not want--to sell out American interests, to simply withdraw, to raise the white flag of surrender. That would be unacceptable to us as a country and as a people. But I am concerned--as I believe most Americans are concerned--that the course we are following at the present time is deeply wrong. I am concerned--as I believe most Americans are concerned--that we are acting as if no other nations existed, against the judgment and desires of neutrals and our historic allies alike. I am concerned--as I believe most Americans are concerned--that our present course will not bring victory; will not bring peace; will not stop the bloodshed; and will not advance the interests of the United States or the cause of peace in the world. I am concerned that, at the end of it all, there will only be more Americans killed; more of our treasure spilled out; and because of the bitterness and hatred on every side of this war, more hundreds of thousands of [civilians] slaughtered; so they may say, as Tacitus said of Rome: 'They made a desert, and called it peace.'...

The reversals of the last several months have led our military to ask for more troops. This weekend, it was announced that some of them--a 'moderate' increase, it was said--would soon be sent. But isn't this exactly what we have always done in the past? If we examine the history of this conflict, we find the dismal story repeated time after time. Every time--at every crisis--we have denied that anything was wrong; sent more troops; and issued more confident communiques. Every time, we have been assured that this one last step would bring victory...

....You are the people, as President Kennedy said, who have 'the least ties to the present and the greatest ties to the future.' I urge you to learn the harsh facts that lurk behind the mask of official illusion with which we have concealed our true circumstances, even from ourselves. Our country is in danger: not just from foreign enemies; but above all, from our misguided policies--and what they can do to the nation that Thomas Jefferson once told us was the last, best hope of man. There is a contest on, not for the rule of America, but for the heart of America. . . . I ask you to go forth and work for new policies--work to change our direction--and thus restore our place at the point of moral leadership, in our country, in our hearts, and all around the world."

He challenged his party's leadership in speaking those words. Who among the President's dwindling supporters will have the courage to do the same? None, it seems, who have the credibility to lead... or would get the base's support.

And so we all wait for our respective political saviors to come.