The Boston Globe also recognizes the empty rhetoric of Bush’s benchmarks:
The most obvious deficiency of the benchmarks is that Congress provided no penalties for failing to meet them. Bush opposed such penalties; the absence of any explains why he felt free to praise the bill as reflecting “a consensus that the Iraqi government needs to show real progress in return for American’s continued support and sacrifice.”
Even if Congress had persuaded Bush to agree to punishments for unmet benchmarks, however, the belief in benchmarks as instant therapy for Iraq would still be obtuse.
Real progress comes from bold leaders who have identified not just near-term benchmarks, but a robust plan for achieving visionary, progressive change. 21st Century Democrats has supported real leaders in the past – leaders like Ted Strickland, Keith Ellison, and Sherrod Brown. We’re proud of the men and women that we helped in 2006, and we’re looking forward to helping more progressive leaders in the 2008 elections.
At 21st Century Democrats, we believe that there are too many people in government who are more concerned with meaningless benchmarks than real progressive change. We’re looking for more visionary progressive leaders, so if you know a great progressive candidate that could use our help, tell them to fill out our candidate questionnaire. If you believe we need proposals instead of benchmarks, sign up for our email newsletter and stay in touch with us as we move forward towards real progressive change.
From 2004 to early 2006, I was getting fundraising appeals from Democratic organizations, including 21st Century Democrats, who just could not mention, spell, or think the word “Iraq”. Iraq was the crucial issue of the Bush Administration and in writing to the Democratic base, these groups dared not whisper the word “Iraq”? What would happen when the big meany Republicans did? Were they planning to shift the subject to banalities about jobs?
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Why did that finally change? I don’t know. Was it Lamont’s victory in the primary over Lieberman? Whatever the cause, I was particularly disappointed with 21st Century Democrats for falling into the ranks of the timid. They seemed like progressives.
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The farther away one is from the Great Orange Satan, the more plentiful the Democratic candidates who read today’s polls, espouse whatever seems to be hot in those polls, and then annoint themselves leaders. As Edwards has lately been pointing out, that’s not leadership. Leadership is changing public opinion, moving the polls, speaking truth before it polls at 55%. Last cycle, I felt my money would be better spent by VoteVets.