Digby, in a post today, is fairly negative about the Democrats "reform package". Like some other folks, she makes the point that the Dems are focusing too much on the "rules" and not enough on the "mobsters" and corruption that are the Republicans. Norm Ornstein and Tom Mann made a similar but slightly different point today saying that reform needs to be focused inside Congressional rules and operations, not on lobbying rules. Personally, I think both are right. Yet, I'm somewhat less negative than Digby about the Democrats prospects. As usual, messaging needs to improve. But there's time and I hope it will.

But Digby made another very, very important point that I would like to amplify:

The problem is that Democrats listen to conventional wisdom and bad strategists who all insist that you have to have a positive agenda or people will hate you. This is because when they do focus groups people always say they hate all the negativity and they just want politicians to tell us what they are going to do to fix things.

That is bullshit. People say that because they think that's what they are supposed to say. They don't know how much they are being manipulated by all the negative images and so they simply say they don't like them. It doesn't mean they don't respond to them. It's subliminal. The Democratic party needs to hire a top psychologist to explain this to them --- or find a politician who has good instincts.

This is so true. I have never personally heard anyone say they like negativity in a campaign. Yet over and over and over again, negativity is used quite successfully in campaigns. I've gotten to know a local political consultant who says exactly the same thing, nobody admits to liking "going negative" but it works. And sometimes, candidates and leaders are the last to sign on. That is, unless you're a Atwater/Rovian Republican who's thrill knows no bounds every time he thinks of how to draw blood on a candidate.

It's certainly been used enough on Democrats, you'd think they'd get the idea. But then again, it's Senators who are the most senior party leaders right now. And all that proper decorum and comity crap gets in the way of, like, winning. Howard Dean and Paul Hackett get it. Harry Reid mostly gets it. But people like "Lady" Di Feinstein and Joementum Lieberman are likely in the Democratic caucus cautioning against making an rash charges.