Avedon Carol wrote to upbraid me(in a nice way) about my failure to note the original source of this post
from the 16th. (Rumormillnews.com, which it now points to.)


You probably already know that Kerry won Iowa, Edwards did surprisingly well, and Dean and Gephardt didn't do so hot. Does this change everything? Maybe, because right after NH we have Arizona, South Carolina and Oklahoma, states where southerners Clark and Edwards could do well.

As I've written before, I still don't know who to vote for(even though I thought it was going to be all over by the time the Texas primary rolled around with Dean the nominee-- now it actually looks like the race might still be going on "Super Tuesday".) I was leaning just a bit towards Gephardt, but it looks like it could be over for him now.

I think Dean is for real, and I don't think he's a fringe-dwelling left-winger who's "out of touch" with what most Americans want-- I think the mainstream media has simply been lazy again, buying the bill of goods the GOP(and the so-called "Club for Growth") have been selling. What, just because he supports civil unions? But the meme appears to have gelled, and he will have to do some upstream swimming against it, no doubt "angrily". I think the anger meme could be used to his advantage though, as an indicator of authenticity.

I'd like to know if Clark is "for real"-- in other words, are his policy statements reflections of what he believes, or just the results of his putting his finger in the wind, with the help of DLC advisors? I have no such concern with say, Gephardt or Kucinich, although neither appears to have a chance at this point.. (Yes, even about Kucinich's conversion from a pro-life stance-- I'm willing to take his word on it that he gradually changed his mind. But again, it's academic.)

I don't think we'll nominate a candidate who favors broad-based overhaul of our health system.. At least not this time. Maybe, it will require an enron/global crossing type debacle with a major for-profit US healthcare hospital chain before the political climate here allows it. I hope not, but I can see it happening.