Dems must decide which faction will revive them

Walter Shapiro of USA Today continues the Democratic Party post-election moping. After reading his article, I see that they still don't get it.

In theory, the Democrats might take comfort that the Kerry-Edwards duo was nipped at the wire by the incumbent Republican ticket. George W. Bush's 286-252 victory in the Electoral College was the third-narrowest finish in more than a century. For all the glib talk about Bush's mandate, the president's 51%-48% victory in the popular vote represented a smaller winning margin than in 23 of the 28 elections dating back to 1896.

But such statistics provide scant solace for the Democrats as they look out at a political environment in which the Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress. For the Democrats' leadership generation, which grew up during the 1950s and 1960s, it is sobering to contemplate how the Democrats have gone from America's natural governing party to across-the-board minority status. Al From, the founder of the Democratic Leadership Council, said at a Tuesday afternoon conference organized by that centrist group, "The election was another chapter in the Democrats' 40-year slide since Lyndon Johnson's landslide in 1964."