Evaluating the other side

With the Democrats in the spotlight these days, the best place to turn to get a gauge on how they're doing is not to Democrat-friendly sources, but rather to Republican-friendly sources. It's good to watch the first-hand news- the convention and the speeches- but to get analysis from the opposition, to see how they're responding to things and how they're countering the arguments put forth by the Democrats.

Rush Limbaugh is ranting and raving about the silly photo of John Kerry in his "sperm suit". No discussion of issues based on the audio clips posted today on his site- just blatant mockery of John Kerry and the silly photo of him in a funny-looking position during a tour of NASA.

Anne Coulter is talking about how the convention is over-run with teachers, and how the Democrats are doing such an effective job of discussing issues at their convention because they have stolen their ideas from Republicans.

Anne does, however, rightly claim that "The only 'issues' Democrats dare discuss publicly are the things everyone can agree on: They are for 'jobs,' a good economy and the middle class. None of their blather ever touches on any issue on which Democrats and Republicans could possibly disagree.

"The issues on which the parties differ are: pre-emptive attacks on terror-producing nations, gay marriage, gun control, partial-birth abortion, taxes, letting non-citizens and felons vote."

All right, Anne, good point. The Democrats are currently showing that they are, in fact, in agreement with most Americans on the major issues of our time- which is something that many Republicans, in an attempt to make Democrats appear out-of-step with average Americans, have claimed is not the case.

But once we turn away from the obviously-we-all-agree-on-these issues, I- unlike Anne Coulter, apparently- believe that the majority of Americans support the Democrats' take on pre-emptive attacks on terror producing nations (assuming the intelligence prior to such an attack is accurate), gay marriage (maybe not for it, but more opposed to ammending the Constitution to outlaw it), and taxes (informed voters, I believe, would be shocked to truly understand Bush's tax policies, given the fact that we're at war, if nothing else).

The other few issues that Anne mentions- gun control, partial-birth abortion, and, quote, "letting non-citizens and felons vote", are open to debate and are probably pretty evenly split.

But, at the end of the day, more Americans clearly support more of the Democratic positions than they do the Republican.