Will Democrats Step Up?

It's still the economy, stupid. The President gets it. The victory balloons from 2002 were still afloat when he sacked his economic team and named a new batch of former CEOs and Ford Administration retreads to "sell his economic program." And new Democratic House minority leader Nancy Pelosi gets it, as she convened 150 members in Washington to begin putting together a plan to get the economy moving.

Democrats of all stripes understand that the absence of an "economic message" cost them dearly in the last election. Bush wanted it to be about national security and "rolled out" the debate on Iraq and turned "homeland security" into a partisan club. Democrats wanted the election to be about the economy, but offered nothing but a reminder that it was lousy. The vast majority of voters wanted to vote on the economy, but two-thirds said they had no clear idea from either party of what it would do about it.

Pelosi is intent on not making that mistake again. She wants to draw clear contrasts, starting with the upcoming debate on the stimulus plan. With the Administration putting together a new batch of tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy as the centerpiece of its plan, a Democratic program that "puts people first" would offer a stark contrast to this "trickle down" rerun.

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