The bad news is Bush's down in the polls.

The good news, according to Howard Kurtz:

In my humble opinion, the Democrats need to do more than just criticize the bungling of the past. They need to lay out a compelling vision for the reconstruction of New Orleans. There's an important debate to be had here, but my sense is that voters don't have much patience for the usual partisan bickering.

It's similar, in a way, to the Democratic dilemma over Iraq: Yes, we know it's a mess, but what would you do differently in the future?

I wonder if they wouldn't do better to just have an MSM party, as Howard Fineman posited. The Democrats don't have a single candidate I can even listen to. The MSM has lots of good looking folk who know how to read teleprompters. They're well practiced in negative campaigning. Their only problem would be coming up with a credible platform. "No defense. More environmentalism," isn't likely to convince people.