Peter Daou correctly notes today in the Huffington Post about the flop that was yesterday's Democratic National Security Plan announcement. There is absolutely no question the media (and the Democratic Party) was owned on this. It's really rather sad, as I wrote yesterday because "The Democrats have never put anything out like this before." Finally Democratic politicians are taking this seriously.

Or so it would seem.

The Bush administration played the Democrats like a schoolyard bully. That should have been expected. The Democrats telescoped the fact that they were going to announce their new policy way in advance. What'd they expect? A free pass? From Karl Rove?

The more serious issue is that the Democrats seemed unserious about this. And the fact that no Congressional Democrat reached out to a blogger on this?

It appeared ( especially based on the lack of blogger and politician follow-up) that they thought, "hey, we'll do a press conference and then the public will take us seriously. And we'll ride it out 'til November!" No wonder we can't win on this issue.

Another part of the problem is bloggers themselves. We bloggers often criticize the mainstream corporate media's focus on the horse race to the detriment of all other political reporting. Well, we bloggers (including me) often focus on what the media avoids talking about rather than, you know, actually talking about it, creating momentum and buzz.

Seriosuly, name me five progressive bloggers talking about the plan?

The only bloggers who addressed this issue positively were us here at The Agonist and Georgia10 at the Daily Kos. Atrios and Think Progress (a post that quickly vanished--second thoughts, perhaps?) blasted the plan because it didn't call for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Look, I want the troops out now too, but sometimes we have to support the party on these issues--and that means giving them room to maneuver. If we help shape a media environment whereby progressive Democrats are taken seriosuly on issues of national defense and security it'll be a lot easier to call for withdrawal.

To do that will entail an important first step: quit whining about the treatment we get in the media and start talking about the critical issues. In the last few months I've watched progressive blogs shift the debate in a handful of issues. And then, only after the politicians have been engaged, has it finally made it into mainstream media circulation. It's hard work, but we desperately have to get national security policy right and as I said once before, "The best way to sound serious and well informed is to be both."