Pardon me, but I'm a bit confused here...

First, we have this poll that not only says things are going badly, but that only 27% of the population thinks we're even headed in the right direction. Whyever could that be? Well gee, part of the reason might be that the highly respected American Bar Association concludes that "President Bush's use of so-called 'signing statements,' which, the report concluded, 'weaken[s] our cherished system of checks and balances and separation of powers.' " Or maybe it's that even a prominent neoconservative now concludes that the Iraq War, Bush's signature foreign policy initiative, one that defines his presidency more than any other, is hopelessly lost.

So what is the response of Hillary Clinton, the current frontrunner for the Democratic Presidential nomination? What exactly is she planning to do about these horrible policies that so obviously, desperately need to be changed?

Both Clintons think that it is more important to focus on beating Republicans than it is to have intraparty litmus tests over Iraq, choice, and Supreme Court judges.

This might, concievably, possibly be a defensible choice. Of course, we'd have to have something dramatic to attract the attention of the voters, something that would make them sit up and take notice that there's a new game in town and that the Republicans are gonna lose.
So what've we got?

On government spending, do the Clintons and the DLC challenge the waste and growth in the Pentagon budget? Nope. Instead, they offer this:

-Create an independent, non-partisan commission to scrutinize and propose the elimination of wasteful, outdated business subsidies.
-We should increase transparency over government by making information on contracts and grants available to the public so they have a better sense of whether their tax dollars are being spent wisely.

Good grief!!! More studies?!?!? Still more studies?!?! We have no idea as to what to cut right now?!?! I mean, I have zero objection to doing these things, but these are preliminaries, these are precursors to taking any real action. Remember too, that the much-ballyhooed National Task Force on Health Care Reform (PDF) in the beginning of Bill Clinton's first term was also preceded by a great deal of study and finally landed into the public sphere with a dull thud, never to move anywhere. 'Fraid I have zero confidence that these fine words are going to lead anywhere.

On retirement security, do the Clintons and the DLC start from a point of insisting that Social Security be protected from privatization and strengthened in its current form? Incredibly, nope. Instead, we hear about new mandates upon employers for required IRAs

Now consider that President Bush spent pretty much all of 2005 trying to dismantle Social Security, consider that he got nowhere, consider that Senator Joe Lieberman's failure to strongly support Social Security is one of the many charges against him that challenger Ned Lamont is beating him fiercely about the head and shoulders with and I'm just absolutely flabbergasted as to why Clinton is taking such an incredibly weak position here.

LeftCoaster continues:

This is a preview of the Clinton/DLC domestic policy agenda for 2008: relatively small, bite-sized initiatives that will not displease Corporate America too much.

There is nothing here about public financing of congressional campaigns.

There is nothing here about election reform.

There is nothing here about actually closing personal or corporate tax shelters or abuses, or real tax reform.

There is nothing here at all on preserving the environment.

There is nothing here on expanding health coverage to uninsured adults.

Immigration reform is never mentioned. Neither is infrastructure investment on a day when the nation's power grid is collapsing.

Hillary Clinton has nothing to offer Democrats. She has nothing to offer liberals who are considering becoming Democrats. Personally, I'm not sending her campaign a penny. Why bother? What's the point? What is it that she plans to change? Are we just going to get more of the same-ol', same-ol'?