It's the Deficit, Stupid

I've just started getting into Andrew Sullivan's blog. Having been drawn to his site for his latest scathings of Dan Rather, I've gone through the archives and determined that we are kindred spirits in our position on the Bush presidency. I might have written this myself:

I endorsed Bush in 2000 but cannot do so again for three main reasons: a) his endorsement of the Federal Marriage Amendment (an unnecessary, massive over-reaction to a small and beneficial social change); b) his stunning expansion of government's power and spending (if a Democrat had this appalling fiscal record, no Republican would defend him); and c) his mismanagement of the war (the missing WMDs, the under-staffed invasion, the lack of post-war planning, Abu Ghraib, the botching of the sieges of Fallujah and Najaf).

(I haven't read enough to get a read on Sullivan's taste for a Kerry presidency, but I imagine he's about as lukewarm as I am about the candidate and his campaign so far.) There's a lot of fodder in that block quote, but forget about a) and c) for now. Most discerning voters are not one-issue-takes-all, but I guarantee there is no shortage of fiscal conservatives out there who are appalled that Bush never saw a spending bill he didn't like. Get Kerry to flip the Schwarzenegger convention speech on its head: "If you believe in small government, you are a Democrat. If you believe Congress shouldn't spend money like drunken sailors on leave, you are a Democrat. If you believe government should not intrude in the everyday lives of individual Americans, you are a Democrat." The Republicans have turned doublespeak into an artform. Why can't the Democrats figure it out?