As Democrats continue to sort through what went wrong on Election Day and how to remedy it, many have been tempted to blame John Kerry. He was, they say, an unappealing candidate, with an unpersuasive message, surrounded by unthinking strategists (see Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, silence on). But those who point the finger at the candidate are only prolonging the destructive dance of denial the party has been engaged in since Bill Clinton left office, where we spend most of our post-election energy making excuses and finding scapegoats (see Ralph Nader) instead of confronting the painful reality that too...