WAS BRODER EVEN AT THE DNC? David Broder's invention of anti-military sentiment at the DNC winter meeting has even more flaws than Oliver Willis notes. For one, the fact that his column centers around a first day speech from retired general Wesley Clark is, in itself, a refutation of Broder's central claim. Clark is a subpar campaign with absolutely no experience in elected office or even history of support for Democratic causes. The entire reason he's on that podium is that Democrats admire his military service and the gravitas it lends his opinions. Chris Dodd recounted a heartbreaking tale of a fallen soldier in Iraq, whom he kept calling "his friend." John Edwards -- who Broder names as the hit speaker of the weekend -- told Democrats that "We are here because somewhere in America a mother wipes her hand on a dishcloth to go answer a knock on her door � and opens it to find an army chaplain and an officer standing there with solemn faces and her boy�s name � her patriotic son who enlisted after September 11 � on their lips." Moreover, the entire meeting was kicked off by a presentation from the local ROTC color guard, in which fully uniformed recruits presented the flag in the traditional way favored by the military. The entire audience stood for the presentation, many of us with our hands on our hearts. Such displays and speeches, of course, didn't fit Broder's narrative, and so he didn't report them. But that doesn't mean they weren't there. --Ezra Klein
