I finally finished my advance review copy of former Senator Gary Hart's Courage of Our Convictions: A Manifesto for Democrats.

I'm not a big fan of political books. I find most of them to be trite, long on buzz words, short on substance and largely irrelevant to current events almost by the time they hit the bookshelves. Courage of Our Convictions pretty much lived up to my preconceived notions about the genre.

Gary Hart wrote this book with lofty goals in mind. It is supposed to be a road-map for Democrats to find their way back to power in government. Hart goes to great lengths to tell us how Democrats have failed the American people by allowing President Bush to get us into a "catastrophic" war in Iraq. He talks a lot about how Republicans are giving the short end of the stick to minorities, farmers, small business people, and the elderly just so that they can give tax cuts to their super-rich cronies. In short, you will find a whole lot of very sharp criticism for Republicans in this book and a lot of calls on Democrats to do something about it.

What you won't find in this book, however, are these two things:

1. An explanation why any of his suggestions are different from what Democrats are already doing. Seems to me that a day doesn't go by when someone like Howard Dean or Nancy Pelosi is telling us about the disaster in Iraq or the way Republicans allegedly mistreat one demographic or another.



2. Actual policy suggestions for Democrats. Hart is long on Republicans-are-stinky rhetoric and short on ideas for how Democrats could be running this country better.

If you ask me, Hart's "manifesto" for getting Democrats on the road back to majority political power sounds like more of what we're already getting from Democrats. Lot's of "oppose the Republicans at any cost" rhetoric, few actual suggestions for policy alternatives to what the Republicans are doing.

Which is a problem the Democrats have had for some time now. They're long on reasons to vote against Republicans and short on reasons to vote for Democrats.

If you're a hardcore liberal, or just anti-Republican, this book is right up your alley. If you lean to the right or are somewhere in the middle politically you're going to be left knowing that Hart wants you to hate Republicans but not really sure why that should translate into support for Democrats.