> I like Dean best -- not because I think he is so
> wonderful, but because I think he can win.
Hmm, I actually had exactly the same reaction after trawling thru Dean's media appearances on the Web (http://www.howarddean.tv/). He reminds me of Germany's Schroeder -- smart, savvy, reasonably sane, an aura of unimpeachable integrity, good on health care, and the only candidate to come out openly against $auron's Oil War and Denethor's DNC neoliberalism. Especially noteworthy during his C-Span interview: (1) he understands the Information Age, and (2) he's acutely aware of the US geopolitical decline. Other candidates may have better positions on individual issues, but none has this range of political skills.
Sure, he's not Joschka Fischer, but that's not the point. If Dean gets the nomination, Nader's job will become largely superfluous, and the Greens should think seriously about a short-term alliance against Barad-dur. I'm convinced the situation really is that desperate. Mordor is not a metaphor, it's a grisly geopolitical reality: the US is experiencing a Weimar-style political degeneration, and is running up Weimar-style (i.e. unsustainable) foreign debts. If the Great Overseas Credit Collapse happens during the reign of the petro-fundamentalists, the 50-year Terror War will mutate into something too horrible to contemplate.
-- DRR