November 2nd, 2004- 11: 45 PM PST: We lost. There were no WMDs, the budget surplus was replaced by the largest deficit the country had ever seen, the economy was unstable with jobs being shipped overseas, and the Republican candidate was vulnerable to critique on many fronts. But we lost. As the shock of our failure wears of and Democrats attempt to chart a bold new direction, we need to be brave enough to assess why we lost and strong enough to accept the answer. In the end, we lost because we couldn't talk the talk. Our messages are often out of synch with the way average Americans think...