I'd advise that people listen to Steve Benen on Chuck Hagel. Hagel's a charismatic guy who gives great speech, is breaking with the GOP, criticizing his own party, and calling for withdrawal from Iraq. All that has the possibility to make him this election's McCain -- the Republican Democrats could tolerate. But he really, really isn't. Like many critics of the modern GOP, his rhetoric is broadly similar to the opportunistic attacks Democrats have adopted (as when we accuse the right of contravening their small government principles), but the substance of his accusations is that the modern GOP is not conservative enough and they need to spend more time slashing Medicare and eating orphans and so on.
