An unflattering portrait of a Democratic political consultant

From dday on DailyKos:

[...]In increasingly out-of-touch fashion, he claimed that there will be another terrorist attack between now and next November, that the public will run into the arms of the Republicans as a cause of that, and that Democrats are essentially helpless to do anything about that. This, of course, completely neglects what has happened in this country since the war in Iraq, and how America has given up on the idea of "strong on defense" Republicans, particularly given the facts of today's NIE, which suggests that, nearly 6 years after 9/11, precious little has been done to protect the homeland. Consultant X (I'm going with Consultant X from this point forward) argued that none of that matters, that people will trust Republicans more on security. This is a DEMOCRATIC consultant, mind you. Apparently he's made a conclusion that it's impossible for Democrats to argue that the imperial adventure in Iraq, that ignoring our allies, that engaging in horrific acts like suspension of habeas corpus and torture, that inflaming the Muslim world, has made us less safe. In fact, he said that any Presidential candidate basing their campaign out of "getting us out of Iraq" will lose. First of all, that's not really even what any of the leading candidates are doing. Second, he's essentially saying that Iraq will NOT be a major issue in 2008, echoing the sentiments of Karl Rove and others. So he would squander the historic, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to capitalize on a trashed Republican brand by utilizing the one significant issue on which Democrats and Americans are in perfect agreement. This guy is PAID to advise Democrats.

It struck me that this guy was simultaneously claiming that we cannot impeach because we would lose the election, but that we're going to lose the election anyway. In fact, he believes that institutional forces make it nearly impossible to elect a Democrat President. He said "Look at history. You guys haven't been around long enough. Carter barely won in 1976 because of Watergate (an IMPEACHMENT! The logic is air-tight!). Clinton is a once-in-a-lifetime politician, only comes around every 30 years." He neglected to mention Gore, a bland politician (at least in 2000) who won. Or the fact that we've taken 3 out of 4 Presidential elections, and lost the other one by a football field's worth of folks in Ohio. Or that America in 2002 and America in 2007 are completely different. But never mind that. He's saying that it's nearly impossible to win the Presidency, but we shouldn't impeach because that'll cost us that Presidency that's nearly impossible to win.[...]

This mentality is what the progressive blogosphere is struggling against, when we're not struggling against Republicans.