The current leadership of the party have strong conservative credentials and stand in stark contrast to the increasingly unpopular Obama who has been deserted by his own party and certainly the enthusiastic youthful idealists who elected him.  It’;s perhaps a sign of the lack of both political and intellectual leadership within the Democratic Party that the Iowa Caucus saw many of those same young enthusiasts who supported Obama switch dramatically to Ron Paul in pursuit of a consistent ideology.  The consistency of the Republican Party in making the argument for lower taxes and smaller government stands in stark contrast to the ever shifting sands of the Democrats.