One theme running through the Republican National Convention is if Sen. John Kerry loses in the fall, what must the Democratic Party do to recover and beat a Republican in 2008. "There is a real question of when we win, where does the Democratic Party go," said Bush campaign strategist Matthew Dowd. After spending nearly half a billion dollars in party and independent advertising on Kerry's behalf, he said the party is going to have to find another way to win.
"If they couldn't do it this year with the resources they threw at it," he said, "it's going to be difficult" to comeback with a winner. If it goes the Republican's way, he said, the GOP would try to use the victory to expand Republican support to build a "lasting majority." Several Republican strategists are suggesting in New York that the Democrats have turned into the "party of protest" and that they need another figure like Bill Clinton who can turn the protest into support of the Democrat. –Paul Bedard, U.S. News
