Have the policies of President Obama been good for the Democratic Party? The answer, in the short term at least, is a resounding no.

During the summer of 2006, when Rahm Emanuel and Howard Dean were engaged in a strenuous fight over the future direction of the Democratic Party, I stumbled upon a very astute op-ed in the New York Times by an emerging politician scientist, Daniel Galvin, entitled “How to Grow a Democratic Majority.”

In case you didn’t know, George Bush is still the effective President of the United States. The title of the New York Times lead article inadvertently proclaims this truth: Bush Tax Cut Deal with Jobless Aid Said to Be Near.

When the votes were tallied on the night of November 2, 2008, I was at a bar in Moab, Utah – the one rabid Democratic stronghold in a rabidly Republican state – to enjoy the hysteria as Barack Obama was summoned to lead the country out of the disaster of eight years of George W. Bush. People shook hands, hooted, clinked glasses, got drunk, raised fists, wept. The good liberals had elected a visionary Democrat to the presidency, who, blessed with a Democratic majority in Congress, would fashion “hope” and “change” into a palpable policy. I was told that in parts of Brooklyn, my hometown, voters ran through the streets banging pots and pans. The feeling was of religious jubilee – the new dispensation was upon us, and 2009 would mark the emancipation from the old rottenness. Corruption and fraud and deceit and war and oligarchy would be washed from the body politic. It was the beginning of the restoration of the republic.

I went around knocking on doors for the state Democratic Party last weekend. Does this make me a traitor to the progressive cause?

In Herding Donkeys Ari Berman tells a compelling story about how the Dean campaign sparked a grassroots resurgence and laid the foundation for the Democrats’ improbable success over the next 4 years. He captures some of the untold stories from the 2004 campaign and Howard Dean’s years at the helm of the DNC where, despite the ire of Rahm Emanual and other establishment Democrats, his 50-state strategy helped lead the Democrats out of the desert and back into the majority.

Good news for Oregon’s Measure 74, a ballot initiative that will regulate medical marijuana supplies in the state: the Democratic Party of Oregon gave its endorsement to the medical marijuana measure. This is big news for Measure 74, which if passed, would create nonprofit clinics like pharmacies to supply marijuana to patients. While Oregon has had medical marijuana since 1998, patients have had to either grow their own or have someone else grow for them. With Measure 74, patients with have better, safer access to medical marijuana in a regulated system.

Lawrence O’Donnell ropes FDL Newser David Dayen into some high-flying hyperbole, announcing the battle for the soul of the Democratic Party is joined! Between, according to Lawrence, the Leader of the Free World and his Vice President of the United States on one side — and a blogger on the other. Good luck, David!

Will Democrats let Republicans co-opt their progress on gay rights?

Some advice for Democrats about voter turnout this coming November.