Lightning strike! Kazamm!

Good old Alexander Cockburn. Sure, it's a bit out of date, you probably don't want to hear any more about it - but I've only just discovered the article and with current Democratic Leadership Council noises about shifting the Democrats even further to the right - his caustic tone eats away at some of the more self-righteous posturing that apparently passes for self-criticism out there.

A distraught young person called me in tears on the morning after and I tried to console her by saying that in 1980 things looked pretty dark after Ronald Reagan and the Republicans swept into power, yet only twelve years later we had a draft-dodging adulterer ensconced in the White House and the Democrats back in control of Congress for a couple of years.

This didn't help so I rushed her back to 1956 when Eisenhower was reelected and the skies looked dark. But only four years later we had a Democratic war hero-adulterer on the parapet of Camelot and the summer of love only seven years down the road.

By this time she was crying so hard she could barely hold her cellphone, an instrument owned by all those millions that hopeful Democrats kept explaining the pollsters were overlooking. I told her I'd call back in an hour or so as soon as I'd rounded up a silver lining.

Read the rest here.