Inappropriate Content: The Democrats' Dilemma

OxBlog quotes a Dean TV appearance where he discussed abortion:

I guess Dean should've said something like "Safe, legal and rare." But I think it's significant that Dean attempted to ground his position in a broad philosophical principle, i.e. the exclusion of government from family life, only then to back off from the logical application of that principle to the issue of abortion.

One might say that Dean's position is admirable. He is trying to return tolerance and civility to an issue plagued by divisiveness and resentment. Yet as a result, he comes of looking confused and/or disingenuous.

This is the Democrats' dilemma.

That's pretty much it in a nut-shell. Me, I think "safe, legal, and rare" is an excellent position to have. But Dems have this tic: they insist on pointing out how complex an issue is and complaining the Republicans are dumbing-down an issue--when there is a perfectly reasonable and relatively complete way to simplify the Dems position!

For example, in life, you often get something like this:

GOP: Patrick Fitzgerald is criminalizing politics.

DEMS: Well, politically motivated leaks that reveal classified information pose a great risk to American blah blah blah...

Which is bull, when it should be this:

GOP: Patrick Fitzgerald is criminalizing politics.

DEMS: Scooter Libby is a crook.

See how simple that is! This way the terms of the debate have been set and are easily understood, and each side can set back and present the evidence—and which of those two points do you think is easier to prove?