The Steven Pearlstein column in the Oct. 25 Business section incorrectly said that Rep. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) has been the House Democratic leader for six years; it has been four years. Also, the column should have noted that the latest version of the Democrats' legislative agenda, "Six for '06," was based on an earlier version released in July.
Democrats May Be Poised to Win, but They're Still Lost
Wednesday, October 25, 2006; Page D01
There are lots of reasons why businesses run into trouble, but a few pop up with remarkable regularity.
Misreading or ignoring market signals.
  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, far right, with fellow Democratic members of Congress, has not evinced the skills of a true leader. (By Michael Robinson-chavez -- The Washington Post)
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Syndicate/SubscribeFocusing more on competitors than customers.
Confusing management with leadership, tactics with strategy.
Promoting leaders who misunderstand their jobs and surround themselves with blind loyalists.
It should be no surprise that these business missteps are also common in politics.
They are the key mistakes that led Republicans to overplay their hand and perhaps throw away the chance to renew their political lease on Congress and the White House.
Though the election is still two weeks away, there are signs the Democrats, if they win, are determined to make the same mistakes.
Let's start with the "Six for '06" plan that Democrats promise to ram through the House in the first 100 hours, or 100 days -- I'm a bit confused as to which. The very premise of the document represents a fundamental misreading of the political marketplace.
First, there is no mandate for a Democratic agenda because until last week, there wasn't one. Like most political turning points, including the one in 1994, this election is fundamentally a referendum on the party in power rather than on the promises of the opposition. The voters are angry at Republicans, dissatisfied with their programs and disenchanted with their governance. It's less that Democrats will have won this election than Republicans will have lost it.
Second, if Democrats want to show they are different from Republicans in how they would govern, it inspires little confidence that they want to push a Democratic version of former House speaker Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America" through the House without consulting the Senate, the White House or the other party. That's precisely how the House has been run for the past four years, with little to show for it.
Worse still, the Democrats' six-point program is more a compendium of political slogans and ideological hot buttons than a serious policy agenda -- again, the very thing the customers say they don't want.
