Where is the "sell" message to the occasional voter? Where is the "pep rally" message to disaffected or distracted activists of 2008? These people couldn't give away candy to a 10 year old.

Democratic insiders should spend a year in advertising, promoting stuff like toothpaste or processed cereal.

I guess enough of us didn't want a single-payer health system, even though I don't remember the poll numbers reflecting our disinterest; I certainly don't remember us urging the president and the Congress to please, whatever you do, take single-payer off the table and feel free to lock up anyone who has the, um, audacity, to try.

I guess we really wanted the insurance companies to get a four-year head start on jacking up insurance premiums, trimming coverage and increasing our cost-sharing, so that they could raise the bar on what the "market" would bear.  And, shoot, we may have said we wanted more access to actual care, but seriously - can you believe anything we say?

I guess we didn't really want a HOLC-type program to help homeowners underwater in their homes, but clamored instead for a program  - HAMP - that would sucker thousands into what was billed as a loan modification program but was really a way to totally ruin one's credit, get farther behind on the mortgage, and be on the fast track to being summarily dumped on the street; I guess we really wanted something that would be even more help for the banks in their hour of need.

I guess we didn't really want comprehensive jobs legislation after all - those who don't have jobs are having the peachiest-keen time trying to live on unemployment checks - I mean it's like a vacation, for pete's sake - and who should just get to be on vacation all the time?  So what if they have to eat peanut butter and learn to love cat food - I mean, have you seen the kinds of things Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern eat and call "food?"  Sheesh.

And speaking of Cat Food...I guess we haven't really been demanding that our president and his fellow deficit hysterics live in the real world where facts should play a role, and end their quest to "fix" social safety net programs by planning to cut benefits.  I think what we really wanted all along was someone to cut the legs out from under the old, the sick and the poor who are such a drain on us that the sooner they all die, the better for all of us, right?

I could go on like this on issue after issue, but it's Monday, it's raining again, and I have a splitting headache - one that has not been helped by the constant stream of condescending and disrespectful drivel that ushers forth now on a daily basis from the lips of the Very Serious People in charge in Washington.

Of course, that result only happens in salespeople's dreams - and is the reason 90 percent of people who go into sales never make any money at the job.

There is also a (real life) tried and true technique in sales and marketing that the democrats could try: the top sales producers in any industry constantly critique themselves and ask themselves "If I'm not getting the results I want to get, what am I doing to get the results I am getting?" But this would involve self-examination, so....