The Democrats' Branding Troubles

Good diary at Kos by Rippe, whose career is in branding and finds ours badly lacking. A few thoughts:

1) Yes, yes. We all know the Republicans have a better brand than we do. What Rippe doesn't tell us is what is the next step towards achieving that good brand. It seems to me that all the Democrat's efforts at better branding or framing has come across as clumsy and counterproductive. How do we fix it instead of making it broker?

2) It seems like choosing a political party over another due to their branding is a lot more disasterous than choosing one's soda or athletic shoes. Is there some way of bypassing the bad branding conundrum alltogether by more consistently calling bullshit on the other guy's branding if they don't deliver? Of course, this should really be the role of the press as much as that of the Democrats.

3) The possiblity of playing possum -- if it's too late to fix our brand, and too hard to tarnish theirs, maybe the best strategy for the Dems for '06 is simply to lie low? Obviously, this cannot be a long-term plan, but for now, if we can't fix it, at least lets not make it any broker. Things are going badly enough for the Bushies right now that any diversion of attention from them would be tantemont to providing cover. Let them twist in the wind for a while...meanwhile, we need to regroup bigtime.