Metamorphosism

"I was talking to a nice guy..."

In our sixth grade class, we held a mock election that year. I knew we were doomed when I was one of only six kids in our room (maybe 30 kids) who voted for Dean. Er, McGovern.

Salon just wrote a "Dean is McGovern" article, which I despised. Worst quote maybe on Salon ever:

"The Democrats would be much better off in that case with a blander, more faceless, less exciting Kerry, Gephardt or even Lieberman (perhaps with Edwards, Florida Sen. Bob Graham, or retired Gen. Wesley Clark as running mate) than they would be with a fiery, controversial Dean."

Yeah. Blander, more faceless, less exciting. That's the ticket. (grrr)

The Salon article is spot-on. Not saying that I like the idea of the Democrats going with a bland candidate, but if they want to even consider putting up a good fight against Bush they're going to need to.

I love Dean. I'm going to vote for Dean in the primaries out of sheer hope that America will catch on that he's a cool guy and not the crazy left-winger that the media makes him out to be. But I am under no illusions here... Dean is going to have a real damn hard time finding the centrist vote. And without support from moderates, he doesn't have a chance.

Political science calls it the "zone of acquiescence," and many brilliant politicians have seen their hopes fade away because they fell outside the zone. Sadly, I think that Dean will be another.

Dean is an NRA supporter who is pro-death-penalty. He's fiscally conservative and socially liberal (pretty much). Plus, he's a plain-spoken governor who says what he believes and stands by it. I think that's just the recipe to get both moderates and "crazy left-wingers" like me to vote for him. I think the challenge is to get people out to vote - a high turnout, and the Democratic agenda, the real one, is a winner in this country. The hard-core Freepers will never go for anyone other than Bush, so trying to appeal to them with Joe "Just Like Bush But More Jewish" Lieberman is a mistake.