Reply #56: I'm looking at this from a slightly different angle

[Quahog]

Maybe because I'm drunk and laying on the floor.

Just kidding!

Seriously, folks, these guys are all politicians. We would love for them to be our heros, we would love for them to meet all of our litmus tests, to be progressive and kind and beautiful and loving with smiles that creep no one out and a perfect history of absolutely and always saying and doing the right thing. But they are politicans. All will fail us in some regard.

Back when Lieberman rolled over on election '00, many of us started screaming about the lack of fight in Democrats. And we've been screaming about it ever since. We've got people on this board (not being critical here, luv ya all) who are supporting some sort of a draft of Al Gore, and I'm thinking, "Oh yeah, that's the candidate we need, a guy who has made it clear that he doesn't even want to run."

I love Al Gore. I love Dennis Kucinich. I try to love Joe LIeberman, but damb, that man makes it so hard to do. But for our candidate in '04, I want a fighter. I want someone who is smart, and canny, and even cunning when he needs to be. I want someone who has outrage about the Bush administration and vision for a better future.

Frankly, I was stunned that Dean was able to so effectively fluster both Lieberman and Kucinich last night. I didn't think he had the skill set, I thought he was limited to running on his enthusiasm and anger and respectable (even if not sufficiently progressive) record in VT. These things all made him look good to me, but last night he showed that he had the killer instinct. And I think the guy who is going to beat Bush needs to have that killer instinct. He stole Lieberman's ONLY good line for his own use, and he body checked Kucinich when he knew there was no way DK was going to be able to call him on it until it was a day late.

This was incredibly gutsy, and yes, MEAN. DEAN IS MEAN. Big meannie. Good. I am glad! I can't wait to see him be mean to Bush!

Gore could have mopped the floor with that gibbering chimp in the '00 debates, but he played nice instead. We can't afford that mistake again. Smirk is going to lie his ass off about our candidate, the entire GOP Mighty Wurlitzer is going to be in full effect telling lies about our candidate and never getting called on it. We will need to find and exploit every chink in their armour, and knock them down every time the opportunity presents itself.

Dean showed that he is willing to do that with guys who are, let's face it, his OPPONENTS. He saw an opening, and he scored two big hits. This, to me, looks like the right stuff.