<p>May 19, 2004 -- ANYONE who doubts that the Democratic Party is seriously lacking in ideas and any core set of principles in this election need look no further than the never-say-die effort to run John McCain as the party's vice presidential candidate. Clearly, this is a news media dream: The New York Times last weekend front-paged a story about Democrats close to John Kerry who long to make McCain his running-mate. CBS News hailed Kerry-McCain as a "dream team," while Tim Russert on "Meet the Press" pleaded with McCain to hop on board Kerry's bandwagon.</p>