I assume everyone at this point is aware of the recovery of Ms. Betancourt, the 3 American contractors, and 11 other captives from FARC guerillas in  the jungles of Colombia.

I bring this up because I can find no conspicuous mention of this dramatic story anywhere on TPM. For the record, it's certainly possible I missed it -  I only did a brief scan of headlines and titles, and a cursory search. It DOES seem fair to assume from my efforts that this has not been a major subject of discussion here at TPM, in the sense that it is not nearly that difficult to find references (for example) to FISA, or to Obama's Iraq position: These subjects are actually hard to AVOID.

It seems  to me (in sincere good-faith) that this revelation really MATTERS (at least a little), because it's another example of the tone-deafness of a certain important segment of today's Democratic Party. This would seem to be the ultimate, genuine "feel good" story: Good besting evil, in a potentially violent cloak-and-dagger  operation we'll surely see replayed in a Hollywood movie - a risky, complicated, audacious plan, executed to perfection, with the perfect Hollywood outcome. It has REAL action heros. It has inherent "grab",  in its fundamental appeal to so many aspects of our complex and diverse American character. 

I think our relative silence on this story gives a clue as to one of the reasons we've suffered so many recent ballot-box disappointments, in spite of having the best of the intellectual argument: We have become progressively and increasingly disconnected from too many of the things that excite the hearts of ordinary people. I think it is entirely possible to be appropriately RESPECTFUL of this dramatic development, without going completely over-the-top into Fox News hyperbole.

 I'll admit, I don't know it that dynamic still holds. The Bush Administration and its many enablers have made such a mess of things,  that we have a good chance to win by default, if for no other better reason. Still, I think it remains a potential source of danger for progressive thinkers. I can only imagine what the great communicators of our recent past would have made of this story - Reagan, or even Clinton. They would have grasped INSTANTLY that this is "win/win" in every sense of the word, and would have acted immediately to get ahead of the parade

It seems to me it would be not only a GOOD thing, but a SMART thing, if Sen. Obama and his supporters would unleash some of his considerable rhetorical skills to address this matter. It may not seem exciting in the classroom or at the policy seminar, but there are only so many votes you can get in those places. Many more are available in places where this story has positive power to legitimately stir people.