10 horses left to be the democratic nominee in 08. Who gets your vote today

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Mark Warner.  Didnt even take a look at the other options.

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I know, that's why I wonder why the same misconception is repeated.

The "liberal" wing of the party likes Wesley Clark and Russ Feingold much more than Hillary.

He's right.  Many of "wingnuts" despise Hillary.  Hell, they despise anyone who is DLC.  These are the people who argued John Kerry was too moderate and dismissed Obama as soon as he joined the DLC.

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Feingold is MUCH stronger than Dean ever was

He may be a better politician, but he is not stronger.  Many Dean supporters will rally around Feingold, but he will not have the "movement" that Dean had.

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I think Feingold is stronger than Dean.  Think about it this way.  Deep Impact : Armageddon :: Howard Dean : Russell Feingold.

Feingold is Dean without the flaws.  Dean is an angry, crazed little gnome and exposed himself as a mean spirited ideologue with no ideas, just lots of hate.  It was revealed to Democrats that he couldn't win, so they went with what they thought was a mor refined version of Dean: John Kerry.  Kerry turned his back on his anti-war past in the campaign, though, and became a wishy washy flip flopper.  I think he had to do this balancing act, because an anti-war cnadidate can't win the center and a pro-war candidate can't hold the base, but there's no doubt that Kerry was not the anti-war soldier that Dean supporters had hoped for.

Feingold is a legitimate Dean figure, anti-war, for rapid withdrawal from Iraq, voted against the Patriot Act and the Iraq War at the time.  He's no Johnny Come Lately, he's the real deal, minus Dean's rage and instability.

Feingold has a legitimate shot at being 2008's Howard Dean, only he won't melt down in the spotlight like Dean did.

As for Hillary, she has sufferred the curse of being the front runner for too long.  She's had every move scrutinized, and knowing that she can't win a general election from the left, and knowing that she can't sell herself as a moderate if she doesn't talk, and occaisionally vote, like one, she has tried to become Hillary the DLCer.  Unfortunately, this has forced her to spen five years now irritating the far left, the activists that often determine Democratic primary outcomes.  More than any other offense, the left will note that she has endlessly stuck by the war.  Hillary can read the tea leaves, and she knows the Iraq mission will succeed.  She also knows that when it does, any anti-war Democrat will be disqualified for the Presidency, just as they were effectively disqualified in 1992 for not supporting the Gulf War.

She's read the tea leaves, just as Kerry did, and knows she needs pro-war bona fides.  But like Kerry before her, she is finding the tightrope walk difficult to maintain.  She has chosen to lean right, and she's fallen out of favor with the left.  Lean right, lose the base.  Lean left, lose the general.  Walk the tightrope, lose a little of both (Because in 2008, Bush hatred won't be around to hold Democrats together).

I don't envy Hillary or her strategists.

The million dollar question... Does Feingold's divorce make him 'unelectable'?

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I doubt it...most of the people who won't vote for a candidate because he's divorced likely wouldn't be voting Dem anyway, and something like 55% of marraiges end in divorce now so in some ways it makes him look like a common man (lol.)  But seriously I don't think it would be an issue in a campaign.

But the first lady has become an institution in American politics.  What would the country do without one?