Not unlike his old boss...

...Joe Trippi has a way of making my feelings run hot and cold. I've grown to appreciate the contribution his insights into online fundraising, and to a lesser degree online organizing, have made to the Democratic Party. I was proud to have a minor role in some of his work with the DCCC in the closing weeks of the campaign season, and enjoyed the opportunity to speak with him on the phone, both in personal and conference calls. In general, I'm more a fan than not.

But sometimes...

Like his latest op-ed for the (wow!) Wall Street Journal, where offers this lede...

The staggering defeat of the Democratic Party, and its ever-accelerating death spiral weren't obvious from the election results. Two factors masked the extent of the party's trouble. Without the innovation of Internet-driven small-donor fund-raising and a corresponding surge in support from the nation's youngest voters, John Kerry would have suffered a dramatically larger electoral defeat...

First of all, "staggering defeat" is a disappointing bit of hyperbole from someone who puts himself forward as a spokesman for Democratic Party interests, if not the Party itself. It ignores some genuine bright spots, including gains in state legislatures, the capture of some previously Republican Congressional seats, the fact that more Americans voted for Democratic Senators than Republican Senators and some dramatic advances in the kind of Democratic Party infrastructure that will be essential to future gains.

Joe may be staggered, but I'm not.

As for his insistence on taking yet another cheap shot at John Kerry, one of the most regular targets of Joe's antipathy, well, he seems to be saying that if Kerry hadn't done so well, he would have done much worse.

Well duh...

Of course, Joe, now a TV commentator and WSJ guest editorialist, has taken to referring to the Democrats in the third person, and perhaps it's fitting, as this gem reveals...

Democrats can't keep ignoring their base. Running to the middle and then asking our base at the end of the campaign to make sure to vote is not a plan.

Makes me wonder when the last time Joe went to an actual Democratic Party meeting (insurgent campaign events excepted) or walked a precinct. I go to lots of Party meetings, and meet lots of Democrats at their door, and my experience tells me that the middle is our base, or a big part of it. Contemporary liberalism is a centrist political stance in the American ideological spectrum. Most people agree with most of our issues. Really.

Sure, there are some structual issues, some marketing problems and a continued need for advances in our campaign infrastucture, but there's plenty of reason for hope, too, and a lot of it is that we are the mainstream, no matter how poorly we may be communicating that. Bashing that critical element of our base isn't helpful. We've got lots to do, and we need all hands on deck to get it done.