UPDATE: Kos/Atrios on the lack of leadership. I don't know how to diagnose the problem ("the consultant class" feels too vague and simple), but the inability of prominent Democrats to actually get infront of the Public is crippling.

Jerome read it in the stars that the race is Hillary's to lose. Maybe he's right. I still think a lot can change between now and Thanksgiving, and I hope to hell that it does.

The 2008 political cycle has thus far been a near universal bummer for me. Nobody seems to be responding to the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans think the country is on the wrong track. People think this for all sorts of reasons, sure, but the universality of dissatisfaction suggests a real consensus on the part of the Public that, in the words of Dwane Allisandro Comacho, "shit's bad right now."

The Republicans are almost comically trying to one-up one-another with the severity of their proscriptions and solutions for the nation's ills. Nuke Iran! Double the size of Gitmo! Identify all illegal immigrants! It's mostly ridiculous fearmongering, but at least it's responsive. Democrats, in contrast, are running a laconic race so far, afraid to disagree with one another, largely unwilling to suggest that anything is really all that wrong, or that anyone could be at fault.

And if that remains the theme, then yeah, HRC has the upper hand. I'm not one who says she'd be a terrible candidate or even a bad president. She can win, and even with her culturally oblivious crochety old man schtick and moronic notion of "ending the occupation" while still "keeping 10s of 1000s of US troops in Iraq," she's better than any of those angry white men on the opposite side, and a clear improvement over what we've got going on now.

But it sure would be nice if one or more of these people actually displayed some sense of urgency and a belief that they could, you know, measure up to the task of leadership. I still have some hope that the grim desperate pressure will force someone's hand and break the race open, but given the tone of the news coverage and the complete and utter lack of any real spark or initiative on any of the campaigns so far, that hope is dwindling.