Almost everyone's heard the proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child." Hell, Senator Hillary Clinton loves that saying so much, she used it for a book's title - and in stump speeches! Well, if that adage proves true, then one could say it takes a nation to birth a party platform. And it may be as painful.

As we speak, operatives and politicos on both sides of the aisle are hammering out their final philosophy, the document that will guide them to November and, they hope, to the White House.

Rather than keeping the drafting internal, both party's are trying to reach out to voters, the Republicans with a website and the Democrats with community drafting committees. These structures, set up by Barack Obama and spread across the land, give ordinary citizens a bit more say in the matter. But, as with all civil negotiations, everyone wants a piece of the political pie.

Too bad no one ever said democracy's fair - or, if they did, had never heard of the Rolling Stones.

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