Doug
--i dunno necessarily, outside of the belief that it makes the dems nervous about moving too far to the right to win the election, it keeps them acutely aware that the left must be catered to if they are to keep it from moving toward Nader? I grant you he's come up with manifold reasons to run, a number of which i'd agree with you are not that convincing. however, the keeping up the heat bit actually makes sense to me. ironically to the extent repubs are happy he's running it might be a mixed blessing at best, or not one at all.
I do agree with him that there is far too much squawking about his running on the left and among liberals. why not just ignore him and focus on winning the election? he's actually inviting the dems to take away his votes from them if they wish.
steve