Rick Perlstein, writing in today's LA Times, analyzes the shift by Kerry and the Democrats to redefine their platform so that it conforms to the perceived wants of the christian base, as dictated lately by the Republicans. Instead, Perlstein writes, the Dems should stick with success:

....A more morally sound strategy — and also, quite possibly, a more politically sound strategy — would be for Kerry to point up the way the president fails to honor the faithful and trifles with them by turning them into cogs in a political machine. Remind Americans that Bush has lectured Catholic cardinals like they were precinct captains — complaining to one in Vatican City, "Not all the American bishops are with me." Point out how he has arranged privileged White House briefings on Mideast policy with apocalyptic Christians who are more interested in fulfilling the divisive conditions they say will hasten the Rapture than actual peace in this world. Put on display the way the Bush campaign has walked the razor's edge of campaign law by instructing conservative churches to send their membership rosters to Bush/Cheney headquarters. Or, if that's not what Kerry feels in his heart, he can just keep doing what he's been doing: rehearsing the same familiar invocations of the Almighty that presidential candidates always have (even if it isn't really fair to nonbelievers, who hardly deserve the implied second-class citizenship).

Democrats: please stop with the knee-jerk politics.