I'm personally not one for party politics... but I think the one point that people are forgetting when it comes to the Democrat's lack of message, is how much harder it makes advertising for candidates.

These scattershot messages reflect what officials in both parties say are vulnerabilities among Republicans on Capitol Hill, as well as President Bush's weakened political condition in this election year.

But they also reflect splits within the party about what it means to be a Democrat - and what a winning Democratic formula will be — after years in which conservative ideas have dominated the national policy debate and helped win elections.

And they complicate the basic strategy being pursued by Democratic leaders in Washington to capture control of Congress: to turn this election into a national referendum on the party in power, much the way Republicans did against Democrats in 1994.

Via Ann Althouse. Everyone is talking about the parties needing "a message" as if that somehow resonates in and of itself with voters. But you also have to remember how important it is in advertising. Candidates with smaller treasure chests can always piggy back onto national party campaigns and simply say, "I'm with them." But when the party lacks a coherent message, there is no them to join with. You then have to take on a much larger burden in advertising yourself, with depletes your campaign coffers much faster.

Whether this is a problem from the voter's perspective or not, I don't know. But its certainly going to be a problem for the smaller candidates out there.