Howard Dean 2008

[Ben.]

OH, oh, Ed Rendell?!  He was a soldier, I think.  And he's sort-of handsome.  And a pretty good budget-balancer.  Any takers?  eh?  rendell, anyone?

Not enough hair.

He's fairly moderate too, a good candidate but i think he could make a better VP if a southern candidate where nominated. 

[Ben.]

If Howard Dean wins the nomination, my colours will no longer be 'Red'!

I want to see a Democrat in power not tooting from the fringe!

Dave

he's actually not fringe.  He's fairly centrist, as far as I can tell.  He's a budget balancer, not a tax-and-spend liberal.  Not unlike Bubba.  His problem with the Right is that he's a little too anti-war, which makes him come off as unpatriotic.

My beef with him is that he comes off as a nut.  That's not the same as tooting from the fringe, though.  It's just that he's constantly making verbal gaffes, and not the silly Bushism variety either, but genuine misstatements.  Actually I find Bush's self-effacing, middle-finger poking sense of humor endearing.  There's nothing endearing about Howard Scream.  I know the "liberal media" like to make him out to be further left than he is, but let's be honest, he's hardly Fringe.  Look up his record as a fiscal conservative as Vermont Governor.  Makes these republicans look like big liberal spenders by comparison.  Where's RightWingNut when you need him?  Help me out here, man.

He's also militantly liberal on social issues and very secular... I can't stand him because he doesn't consider me, or any other moderate, a democrat and while he claims to espouse tolerance he is completely intolerant of any moderates within the party… at the same time he doesn’t even belong on the left of the party, he started out as very moderate on the economic side of things etc… but as the primaries wore on he drifted further and further to the left, by the time of Iowa people where already getting worried. If he actually believed in what he did as Governor he could have been a very good candidate and while he wouldn’t have swept to the lead like he did he would have been in contention as much as Edwards or Kerry by the time of Iowa… but he was too inept and too spineless to realise this.         

[Ben.]

There will be a new face on both parties next time, and it's a long way off ...

Agreed, however i think the primary process will be longer with a liberal vs. moderate fight developing at this stage Bayh/Rendell/Warner vs. Feingold/Dean/Clinton seems like the way it will probably go… that said I’d have thought that neither Warner or Dean will run, Warner because he will either have only just been elected Senator or because he will be eyeing a Senate run in 2008 and Dean… well who knows with Dean… if he gets the nomination Bayh might pick Warner as his Vp though folks like Rendell, Nelson (Bill), Pryor, Lincoln could all be good choices for him.