Signs o' life

While moderate Republicans began to feel their spines grow rigid again, there have been some encouraging signs that the Democratic party is not itself imminently heading into the abyss. Henry comes away impressed with Obama.

Between this and John Edwards' work on poverty, I'm actually feeling hopeful about the US Democratic party. Centrists in the party actually seem to be getting interested in inequality again, and to be finding a language that can link it to moral values. It's the kind of hope that knows it's going to be disappointed, if not dashed completely, by experience -- but still, that's more than I've had for years.

Meanwhile, Joe Klein finds that, gosh darn it, Dems are capable of forming ideas!

Congressman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois had a nice moment on Meet the Press about a month ago. He said Democrats would run on their "ideas" in the 2006 congressional elections. "But what are the Democratic ideas?" moderator Tim Russert asked skeptically. Emanuel proceeded to rattle off five big ones, which seemed to shock Congressman Tom Reynolds of New York, his Republican debate opponent. "Those are the first solutions that have come out of (any Democrat's) mouth," Reynolds said.

No doubt "solutions" was a slip -- but the notion that "Democratic ideas" might not be an oxymoron represented one small step forward for the perpetually benighted Donkey party.

Also in Time this week, and most encouraging of all, is the mag's list of the nation's five best governors. Three of the five -- Napolitano of Arizona, Sebelius of Kansas, and Warner of Virginia -- are Democrats, with Warner a likely candidate for the presidential nomination in 2008. And the two Republican governors on the list, Huckabee of Arkansas and Guinn of Nevada have actually successfully battled their Republican base to do things like expand child care and Medicaid and raise taxes to pay for it.

And the flip side, two of the three "worst governors" listed are Republicans, Taft of Ohio and Sanford of North Carolina. Not surprisingly, Blanco of Louisiana gets the nod for Democrats.