Kate O'Beirne on why the Donks lost

This piece really puts into words what I've been feeling the last few days: that the Donks can't just learn to talk like they care about the heartland. Their positions on a range of issues, from abortion to gun control to foreign policy to Janet Jackson's booby, are simply unacceptable to most Red Staters.

Couple of quotes:

The election was won because neither Bush nor his party pretended to be something they're not. George Bush was the Real Deal running against the Great Pretender....

Republicans find themselves on the majority's side of the cultural divide because they don't display the Democrats' condescension and hostility to the moral sentiments and concerns of most Americans....

Kerry, on the other hand, glibly declared in the final debate, "My faith affects everything I do and choose. . . . And I think that everything you do in public life has to be guided by your faith, affected by your faith, but without transferring it in any official way to other people." Had Bush made such a declaration, it would have signaled to liberals an underlying intention to usher in a theocracy; but secularists were unconcerned about Kerry's pledge because they knew he didn't mean it....

Republicans don't talk patronizingly about the issues that matter to voters by telling average Americans to "vote their pocketbooks." Rich Hollywood liberals might put aside their own economic interests to support a candidate who pledges to raise their taxes, but the little people leading small lives in small towns are not expected to look beyond their parochial concerns about overtime pay or health benefits....