So far at the convention we have heard Democrats doing lots of lamenting about subprime mortgage victims and people without health insurance and so forth. You heard this from Joe Biden. You heard it from the Clintons. This is an important part of their message and an important part of the national dialogue. The mortgage companies did abuse people. We need health care reform.

But once again the Dems risk making the hard-working people who haven't defaulted on their mortgages, who didn't irresponsibly run up huge credit card bills etc. feel left out. There are millions of them. If the Democrats neglect them and concentrate on the victims without any acknowledgment that many individual Americans went overboard in the irresponsibility department along with the mortgage companies and other lenders, they risk losing the election.

Democrats can bill themselves as the party of responsibility in Washington, in corporations and among individuals. Especially after how the folks in power have performed. Howard Dean put it well four years ago:

There is a Party of fiscal responsibility... economic responsibility.... social responsibility... civic responsibility... personal responsibility... and moral responsibility. It's the Democratic Party.

This is a resonant, appealing message. But we haven't heard it yet.