The Maalox is flowing at DNC headquarters

Ah-nold is almost certain to win the governorship of the most populous state in the Union, overturning Terry McAuliffe’s single boast of the 2002 midterm elections that “'The good news is, 52 percent of Americans are waking up today and they now have a Democratic governor.”

The Democrats’ fervent hope that the economy sours was dealt a setback: “Productivity Soars, Jobless Claims Drop to Six-Month Low”

America's business productivity soared in the second quarter of 2003 and new claims for unemployment benefits dropped to a six-month low last week, a double dose of good news as the economy tries to get back to full throttle.

Meanwhile, conservative columnists are tagging the Dems as the party of anti-Bush vigor and not much else. Washington veteran Bob Novak notes:

Dean's campaign is a remorseless assault on George W. Bush, far exceeding his opponents'. Humorless and unsmiling, the country doctor with upper-class roots pummels the president. He has tapped into pure hatred by rank-and-file Democrats of the reigning Republican that I have never seen in 44 years of campaign watching. Not Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan or even Bill Clinton generated such animosity.

And George Will calls the Dems “The Venting Party” in the Washington Post:

Dean, who believes that extremism in denunciation of George W. Bush and all his works is no vice, has made himself the vehicle for venting by Democratic activists. They comprise the big bleeding liberal heart of the party's nominating electorate, whose detestation of Bush is a witch's brew of hatred and condescension.

Its three main ingredients are lingering resentment about Florida (they believe the U.S. Supreme Court should not have settled the 2000 election; that Florida's Supreme Court should have), fury about Bush policies from tax cuts to war and, most important, a visceral, almost aesthetic recoil from Bush's persona -- his Texasness, the way he walks, the way he talks. They would not like the way he wears his hat or sips his tea, if he did such things.

This is what happens when you have no ideas of your own: you reflexively lash out at those who do. Poor Dems - such disarray.