What was funny was what our local paper, The Roanoke Daily Worker (oops! That was my outside voice. I meant "Roanoke Times.) ran the day of the SOTU address, to prepare us all for Kaine's planned response. The word was, according to the paper, that Kaine was a maverick, that Kaine wasn't going to hold to a strict party line, that he was his own man.....

Yah. You can say anything you want but the reality is, look at the guy's actions. He was hand-picked by the Democrats to give this little address. If he's not a party guy, why on earth would this happen?

Honestly, I think it's just because they've run out of faces.

The key to Mr. Kaine's speech is from Dr. Dean's interview with Tim Russert:

"We have no control in the House. We have no control in the Senate. It’s our job to stop this administration, .... "

OK, so they don't have control. Everyone understands that. But it's not enough to just bang one's spoon on one's high chair and whine "no." There comes a time when if one doesn't agree with what's being proposed, one offers up another idea. And that's what is missing from the Left's agenda. Seriously, if they wait to get "control" in the House or the Senate, their party's death knell has already rung.

(And as a VA resident, I can tell you that Kaine's election platform here was much along the same lines as his "response" to the SOTU the other night. He was all about being "better" than the Republican alternative.

Note what a useful adjective "better" is.

The pity of it is, people fell for it. That being said, his Republican opponent wasn't any great shakes either. His platform consisted of nothing more than ad hominem attacks on Kaine. (And personally, I think his campaign manager should be taken out and shot for that. What a waste.) This last election was a thorough disappointment in many ways.)

(*sigh*)

Waiting for the next election,
-- kd
 

John Kerry explained this in more detail during the 2004 campaign: Democrats would do things "smarter", and "the right way".

Does that help?