...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Monday, April 12, 2004
      ( 1:48 PM )
 
Dean Does it Again

My main man Howard Dean has done it again. He's said, publicly, what I want to hear our Dem leaders say...about Ralph Nader. The issue, as I mentioned last week, should be put to rest now. But Dean's editorial is worth noting because he says it with grace and not bitterness:

But I don't believe that the best way to do justice
to Ralph Nader's legacy is to vote for him for
president. Re-electing George Bush would undo
everything Ralph Nader has worked for through
his entire career and, in fact, could lead to the
dismantling of many of his accomplishments.

Voting for Ralph Nader, or for any third-party
candidate for president, means a vote for a
candidate who has no realistic shot of winning the
White House. To underscore the danger of voting
for any third-party candidate in elections this close,
a statistic from the 2000 campaign may prove
useful: a total of eight third-party candidates won
more votes than the difference between Al Gore
and George Bush nationwide.

I'm not usually a party-player and I did vote for Nader in 2000. But I agree with Dean this year that it really is a two choice option this year. But like I said before, I don't think Nader is going to be a real problem in 2004 anyway. If he doesn't drop out from all the pressure, he won't even make it onto enough ballots to really do any damage anyway.

But one thing that this editorial also reminded me of was why I got excited about the political process again. Because of Dean and his ability to articulate a true vision for the country:

Our group, Democracy for America, is committed to
exposing the ways in which the Bush administration's
policies are designed to prop up the privileged and
please right-wing ideologues. Our agenda is rooted in
hope and real American values — opportunity, integrity,
honesty. This is the way to defeat George Bush.

I hope that Kerry gets better at this - that he can muster some of the enthusiasm and spirit of vision that Dean had. So far he has seemed very lackluster and wonk-ish, just like the Washington insider that he has become. He isn't the most inspiring of leaders, but if he could liven up his campaign with even a little of the determination that launched Howard Dean onto the national stage, I think it would do him a lot of good.

(thanks to Digby for the link)

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