Q. What have we seen here at this conference?

Borosage: I think you see a number of things.

You see the opposition that's brewing and the revolt that's brewing against the really extreme policies of the Bush administration.  The energy and numbers in this room across many groups--unions, environmentalists, women, citizen activists--is an expression of how dangerous those policies are, and how they're breeding an impassioned opposition.

The second thing I think you see is the increasing sophistication and capacity of the progressive wing and activist base of the Democratic party as it develops new capacities to enlist people and to mobilize them and to speak to them, so in Moveon.org and other operations you see a kind of sophistication that's new and exciting and the capacity to mobilize people and engage them that's very promising.

And then I think what this thing was about really was when you have 1,500 activists drawn from around the country, the people who are trying to vie for a presidential nomination have to come and figure out how to speak to them.  And to speak to them they have to talk about a progressive economic agenda and they have to-- you saw it with Edwards, you saw it with Kerry, you saw people moving more than they've moved before.

Q. For example--?

Borosage: Well, Kerry's speech, the first half of Kerry's speech, which was on economics, was much more-- where he was talking about organizing and he was talking about CEO and worker pay and he was talking about the need to build bottom up economics was a much tougher, more progressive speech than he has given on those questions.  When Edwards decided to really lay out a prescription drug plan that focused on price controls, which was an anathema to the Democratic caucus a year ago, I think it reflects an understanding both about the problem and about you've got to get serious, you've got to talk to this audience.  So I think it has a nice, sobering effect on the candidates, both attracting them and then forcing them to toughen their stands.

Q. You've kind of avoided responding to the DLC memo thing.

Borosage: My sense of the DLC is that when they're writing open letters to us, it's a statement of how out in the cold they are.  I mean four years ago when we didn't even exist and they were--  The activist base of the party is here, the energy is here, the people who are going to decide, provide the activists, and the mobilizing energy for both the candidates and the election in the fall are here, and if you go around and talk to people they are intent on beating Bush.

This argument is almost irrelevant.  The thing that's dangerous about the DLC is they constantly have this desire to, wherever there's energy they want to suppress it as dangerous.  So the peace movement is dangerous and the unions when they get mobilized are dangerous because they're going to distract from this mythic conservative middle swing voter that they're trying to appeal to.

The reality is politics is based on passion.  You build passion and you mobilize your base and you get people excited and understanding what the threat is and engaged.  And then from that you build, from that passion you're able to build a majority movement.  So they get it exactly wrong and their memos here are on the one hand and example of how wrong they are and on the other hand are easy to ignore because they're not here.  They don't have a base, except money.  I don't find it an interesting argument.

Q. Can somebody like a Kucinich or a Sharpton or a Dean win a national race?  People often cite the example of McGovern in terms of how a progressive candidate might fare against Bush.

Borosage: It's a very different situation that the '70s.  This election's not going to be about the war; it's going to be about how do you make America safer after the war.  The war is over, unlike when McGovern ran.  And it's going to be about this amazing assault the movement conservatives are making on really middle class families on health care, on education, on the environment, on women's right to choose, on civil rights, on the whole range of mainstream values.

And the reality is objectively they are out of step with where the majority of Americans are.  The question is will Democrats find and nominate a candidate who makes that case.  Now that candidate will make a very progressive case; it will be the case that Dennis made, that Sharpton made, that Dean made, and I think you see the other candidates moving towards making that kind of case also as Sharpton mentioned in his speech.  The one who gets the nomination has to draw that difference.  If they draw that difference I think they can in fact win the election.