Out here in populist California, political infomercials are a dime a dozen.   One vested interest group runs an ad screaming "the Governator is stealing from your children!" and the other group shouts back ad nauseum.  I don't pay too much attention to this stuff and eventually the whining dissolves into the background din.  

But this ad from the PFA VoterFund really did resonate.   Now, don't get me wrong - PFA is about as partisan as a PAC can get without officially registering itself as, well, a front organization for the GOP.   When Hillary et. al. speak of the "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy", PFA is almost precisely what they're thinking of.    

For Bush haters, that fact alone is probably enough to dismiss the content BUT, I pounced on it because it echo'ed an arg I first saw clearly articulated in this blogpost by Zimran Ahmed at Winterspeak.   Ahmed is responding to a blogpost by Brad Delong & states -

I wonder if Brad even recognizes how ridiculous he seems when arguing that Democrats have anything approaching an idea, never mind consensus, on social security reform....

I beleive that Democrat obstructionism is more a feature of them being currently out of power than the idea that "the Left is out of ideas". I think, given the intensity of emotion against Bush on the Left (as Brad himself demonstrates a few lines down), it's easier and more pleasant for them to chant "not in my name" than actually come up with real alternatives. Given Brad's description of the Democrat position, it does not seem like they actually know what an "alternative" looks like any more. This is unfortunate.

Amen.  Zimran is probably a bit more charitable than I in rationalizing obstructionism.   But we both agree with the PFA Voter Fund that simple obstructionism is all they're serving up in lieu of real discussion.