Yeah, I know…

…there's a critical Congressional election between now and the next Presidential election, and that's where our main focus belongs…unless, of course, you want to run for President. Although he makes some of the boilerplate 'it's too early to talk about it' noises that makes me wonder if he knows how good his point is, Eli Pariser makes a very good point in a Salon interview with Tim Grieve…

When I woke up on Nov. 3, the feeling that I had was that while it was a real blow, it was also a moment of extraordinary opportunity to get some of the things right that the campaign showed were wrong. One of those things is that Kerry not only had to cobble together a presidential campaign but actually make the ideas for that campaign, all in the space of the six months leading up to the election.

All while under attack from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Exactly -- while responding to the president's punishing assault. I think he may have done the best job he could given what he had to start with. The opportunity we have now is to recognize that there's an infrastructure that needs to be built, a movement that needs to be fed and nourished and tended to that will ensure that whoever is the candidate in 2008 or 2012 doesn't end up in that same predicament.

People who are complaining about John Kerry's reluctance to dwell on the last campaign in favor of building for the next one by maintaining his fundraising network, issuing calls to action to his email list, distributing his surplus dollars in key locales (and big thanks to the Senator for the quarter million he dropped into the WA State Democrats' Governor's Defense Fund) and issuing a series of bold domestic initiatives for Democrats to identify with should keep in mind that most of those efforts will ultimately accrue to the eventual 2008 nominee, whether it's John Kerry or not.

And those folks who say in May of 2005 that John Kerry can't win the 2008 nomination? What do you suppose most of them were saying in December, 2003.

No matter who you like for '08, this is a good time to hold your fire and let Kerry help build the Party. We can fight it out later…