After all -- if the country is in relatively good shape and the Surge is working, how can they run on a platform condemning the party and president that presided over all this good news?

How do you make a Cambridge liberal cry? Tell him some good news.

Mention the amazing state of the American economy - low unemployment, rising wages and record-setting per-household wealth - and he’ll angrily fling his $4 bottle of Fiji in your face.

Show her the new NASA numbers debunking the “it’s the hottest decade on record” panic, and she’ll kick you with rain forest footwear.

Quote USA Today’s report that large al-Qaeda style attacks in Iraq are down nearly 50 percent since the troop surge began, and he may punch you with a “Peace Now” bumper sticker.

You won’t read it on the front of the Boston Globe-Democrat, and you sure won’t hear it from cranky Keith Olbermann, but there is actually good news in the world. And it’s putting the left in a foul mood.

Take Karl Rove’s resignation. After years of demanding the Evil Genius’ head on a pike, the Bush-bashers are finally getting a Rove-free White House. He’s leaving Washington, his reputation in tatters. Great news for the left - and they’re miserable about it.

The answer, of course, is simple -- good news for America is bad news for a party that needs things in America to suck in order to achieve success. It is why, for example, one local blogger who leads a major Democrat organization here in Houston spends much of his time arguing how bad life is here in Texas -- even as our population is growing and our economy is booming. Why? because anything else would call into question the notion that the Democrats have anything to offer the state or the nation.

It must suck to have to tear down your state and nation in order to grab hold of political power.