This is Ed Kilgore, the new Managing Editor at TDS, and soon to be the primary blogger at The Daily Strategist. Some of you may know me from my personal site, NewDonkey.com, or from my blogging at TPMCafe, or from media appearances, or from articles I've done for The Washington Monthly, Salon, Blueprint, or other publications.

If not, all I'll say is that I'm a veteran political and policy writer, with a background in state government, the U.S. Senate, the Washington think tank scene (I was vice president for policy at the Democratic Leadership Council a while back), and political speechwriting and ghostwriting. I'm a southern Yellow Dog Democrat, with a distinctly progressive bent, some anti-Washington prejudices, and cordial relations with every element of our party, including netroots activists. I am passionately committed to TDS' mission of party unity and civil, fact-based intraparty debate.

More importantly, I've been asked to help make TDS a livelier place to visit every single day, and the go-to site for long-range strategic discussions among Democrats, including academics, practitioners, journalists, policy wonks, and activists.

On the daily front, we'll be featuring more useful links to the strategically important developments that are often buried in the headlines and buzz, and more interesting and provocative posts about emerging issues for Democrats this year, next year and beyond.

In terms of articles and roundtable discussions, we'll be focusing systematically on those bedeviling questions that sometimes divide and confuse Democrats (and political journalists), where empirical evidence can sometimes bring resolution or at least cast new light. These include demographic and regional trends in the electorate; the significance and characteristics of "swing voters" and unmobilized voters; the salience of particular issue clusters; and various theories of political communications. We'll also find ways to foster independent discussion of the strategies of Democratic (and sometimes, Republican) presidential candidates, and of the evolution of campaign organizations. In all these efforts, we will draw on the already impressive list of past TDS contributors and advisors, and constantly reach out for new voices.

On a more mechanical level, we'll soon have a new look, and will deal with some technical issues (e.g., comment threads on Daily Strategist posts) that have inhibited discussion.

To those of you who have already discovered and value TDS, please stick with us; all the qualities you've found in the past will be maintained and enhanced. If you're new to TDS, stay tuned. We're working to make sure every visit to this site is rewarded with fresh insights.

Will Marshall and Ed Gresser of the Progressive Policy Institute discuss intra-Party trade politics and make the case for a new progressive approach to international trade in:

Populist, Social Democrat or Progressive? The Democrats' Choice on Trade

In our first featured article, TDS editor William Galston and his Brookings Institution colleague Pietro Nivola present a revealing discussion of political polarization in an excerpt of their introduction to the Brookings volume, Red and Blue Nation?

Polarized Politics?

The second featured article, by pollsters Anna Greenberg and Amy Gershkoff, explores the preferences and voting of younger Americans and finds that while they lean progressive, their loyalty to Democrats is anything but assured.

Forging the Ties that Bind: Reaching Out to the MySpace Generation

Rounding out the issue, we feature a series of articles that consider overlooked dimensions of the Democrats' reinvigorating 2006 victories.

Chris Bowers of MyDD.com and BlogPac on the role of the netroots

Cornell Belcher and Donna Brazile of Brilliant Corners Research & Strategies and Brazile & Associates on the Black and Hispanic vote

Amy Chapman of Grassroots Democrats with a close-up look at state legislative victories

Michael Davies of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee on the extent of those victories

What do people mean when they say that politics in the United States are polarized? Polarized in what sense? How pervasively? The U.S. Congress is more polarized ideologically than it was just a generation ago..   more >

In the wake of the 2006 elections, advocates for youth engagement trumpeted the increase in turnout among young voters: voters under 30 years of age turned out in higher rates than 2002, making it the second election in a row with increased turnout among the younger voters.   more >

The 2006 midterm elections brought about monumental change in the nation's power structure when Democrats, bolstered by the support of Black and Hispanic voters, took control of both chambers of Congress for the first time since 1992.   more >

As someone who spends a great deal of time both reading through and writing "meta" commentary on the impact of the progressive netroots and blogosphere on the Democratic Party and broader progressive ecosystem, I think I can safely state, without setting up a straw man, that one of the most common lines of thought in these discussions is how the netroots and the blogosphere are a destructive force upon the Democratic Party.   more >

The months since the election have been filled with a variety of polls and opinions explaining why Democrats were able to sweep both the House and the Senate.   more >

While the state legislative elections are not covered to the extent that control of the U.S. House or Senate is, control of these 98 state chambers has a long-term impact on national Democratic success.   more >