Putting aside the dismal state of the conservative movement's influence on the current political class, including far too many Republicans, and what must be done to remedy it, one hopes that so-called swing voters are paying attention to the leftward lunging of all Democratic presidential candidates.

If -- and this is a big "if" -- Republicans eventually get their house in order on immigration and other major issues, they might be able to capitalize on the extreme left's stranglehold on the Democratic Party.

The far left is not only calling the shots, it is boasting about it, and at this stage, the competing candidates don't dare step out of line, much less fight back against the extremists. For now, they are just doing as they are told.

If things had gone as Hillary Clinton had planned: dispensing with the annoying primary competition and proceeding to the crowning, she might already be pretending to be a reasonable centrist again. But curse Obama and John Edwards, who are forcing her to be honest to her true leftist convictions.

We witnessed the left's cockiness and the candidates' pathetic sycophancy toward it during this week's "Take Back America" conference in Washington, D.C. The event is being sponsored by Campaign for America's Future, a far-left group devoted to the recapturing of America for unmitigated liberalism.

Though Hillary has done a 180 on Iraq since she fell flat at this conference last year, she wasn't able to win over the audience this year by nodding to the troops even as she dissed the war effort and pledged "to end the war in Iraq and finally bring home the troops."

National Review Online's Byron York reports that while receiving kudos for indicting the Bush administration for its "stunning record of secrecy and corruption," Hillary was roundly booed when she said, "The American military has done its job" and "the American military has succeeded." She dare not praise the military in earshot of the "we oppose the war but support the troops" left.

Robert Borosage, the conference organizer, spoke the obvious, "We really do believe we're driving the debate right now. It's a historic turn, a repudiation from the last 25 years of conservative dominance." Continued...