As badly as Democrats need good rhetoric, they need much more than that.

With a few exceptions, they offer no well-defined alternatives, no straight talk and discussion of the very real trade-offs that will be required to achieve these goals — just platitudes like “We can do better” and “We need to involve our allies.”

Even Barak Obama, in his remarks in Iowa the other day, descended into the all-too-common combination of Bush-bashing and platitudes, as if he were reading from the party talking points.

If these guys (and gal) ever expect to lead again, they need to be honest about the difficulty of achieving any of the objectives in Kerry’s list — and show us why we should believe they have the experience, will, and leadership to do what the Bush Administration cannot. Bush-hating and stating the obvious problems are not enough.