Commentaries appear at regular intervals. If you would like an invited commentary for your publication, please let me know!

When the stock markets started plummeting in 2003, Democrats took solace in the fact that they could use the misfortune of the average investor to attack the Republican plan to allow people the freedom to invest their retirement funds in the stock market if they desired to do so. The fact that Democrats were using the economic misfortune of their purported constituents—the average voter—to attack their political opponents is not a new tactic. Democrats have happily used the misfortune of the average voters as a political tool for years. Even when it has backfired, as with President Carter's "malaise" speech, Democrats have not been shy about trumpeting an economic downturn, natural disaster, war or terrorist attack as an opportunity to try and advance their political agenda.

Dow Jones Yearly Performance

It must be terribly depressing for Democrats to see the market rally this year. It has taken away one of their campaign issues: that the stock market is unfair and allowing people to "risk" their money is foolish, cruel and needs to be prevented by the government. That may have won a few votes when the markets crashed in 2000, but not now. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up over 2000 points so far this year (from its low point), which is more than a 20% gain. Such advances have not been seen since the heydays of the Internet Bubble economy. Sadly (for Democrats) this means they can not use the stock market to attack freedom in retirement investing, except perhaps in desperate, last-ditch attempts to use the crash of 2000 and hope no one checks the current level of the stock markets.

For Democrats, their attacks on the stock market went hand-in-hand with their attacks on the economy. They were successful in spinning a largely positive economy into a problem for the first President Bush in 1992 and hoped to do the same in 2004 against this President Bush. (No doubt another round of "giant sucking sounds" protests would be launched next year as well, once again hoping to capture some "America first" votes.) Now, however, those hopes appear to have been dashed upon the economic reality of the current expansion and stock market rally. The only remaining areas of concern are new unemployment claims and the deficit. Those issues did not mean a victory for Democrats in 1984 when President Reagan faced similar charges from Democrats.

The point of this column is the story behind the story, as it were. The stock markets are up because corporate profits are up. When corporate profits rise, corporations hire more people to take advantage of the increased sales. This is even worse news for Democrats. If unemployment claims drop (as they will eventually with an expanding economy) before the 2004 elections they will be left with only one issue to attack President Bush and the Republican Party: their silly, unsubstantiated claims that President Bush "lied" about Iraq. (But that President Clinton, who said the same things and based his attacks on Iraq on the same intelligence, did not lie about Iraq!)

The first Gulf War was undeniably a success, and the major criticism that would come out of that war, that we should have "finished the job" and gone after Saddam, would not arise until years after the war when it became clear that Saddam had not learned his lesson about playing nicely with his neighbors. Now, however, with Iraq still in flux and Americans still dying at the hands of terrorists and Saddam loyalists, Democrats are increasingly relying on their negative spin machine to attack President Bush on foreign policy. Their story is that Iraq is a disaster and President Bush should be voted out of office (if not impeached immediately) because of it. Of course, you are not supposed to remember that Democrats voted in favor of action against Iraq, nor that the United Nations voted to first sanction Iraq, then allow any member state to use all means necessary to force Iraq to comply with United Nations resolutions. Pay no attention to that! Instead, believe the Democrats when they say that Bush Lied!, and for heaven's sake, don't ask for proof because there isn't any.

Democrats made a mistake with their stock market attacks when they did not realize the stock market decline was a consequence of people chasing phantom profits. Once that correction was made, the real profits of companies would capture investment dollars and the markets would soon start rising again. Because the underlying foundations of the markets were strong, the setbacks of the Internet Bubble were temporary. Similarly the Democrats are misjudging Iraq. They believe that since Iraq is currently in flux, it will be the same (or worse) a year from now. However, the foundations of Iraq are strong. The people of Iraq want freedom and do not wish to return to the days of being ruled by totalitarians. They welcome United States protection and want the opportunities allowed by economic and political freedom. Unless President Bush badly plays the rebuilding process, Iraq will be far better in a year. Thus the Democrat "Plan B" of attacking President Bush is doomed to the same failure of their "Plan A" economic attacks: refuted by reality.

Of course, there is still a chance that the economy will sink into recession, or that the stock market will crash, or that disasters in Iraq or in the United States will cause massive suffering. Any of those tragedies would hearten Democrats, who never met a tragedy they could not take advantage of. Nor are Democrats picky about tragedies: bad times for Americans or bad times for Iraqis...either will do. Preferably both.

...Democrats took solace in the fact that they could use the misfortune of the average investor....

It must be terribly depressing for Democrats to see the market rally this year.

...you are not supposed to remember that Democrats voted in favor of action against Iraq....

Any of those tragedies would hearten Democrats, who never met a tragedy they could not take advantage of.