Reply #91: Dean sets off my snake oil detector

[Lydia Leftcoast]

He runs with the style of a populist and the policies of a suburban centrist. I fear that he shares Bill Clinton's greatest weakness (no, not lack of marital fidelity, but one that that is actually politically important), which is a lack of bedrock principles and a tendency to be easily swayed.

Clinton's health plan failed because he tried to please the insurance companies. His intentions of banning discrimination against gays in the military failed because he didn't want to offend the homophobes. He signed NAFTA because that's what the rich kids wanted.

Those are the types of vibes I get from Dean, and his record does nothing to assuage my fears. If he gets into the White House, he will be an improvement over Bush, but otherwise disappointing.

I intend to caucus for Dennis on March 2. We have the numbers to get 15% in the two Congressional districts that include the Twin Cities. If he drops out, my order of preference is Kerry, Mosely-Braun, Edwards, Gephardt, Clark, Dean, Lieberman. I place Clark slightly ahead of Dean, although not by much, because there is that tradition of an officer keeping his word. (I lived in the New York area when Sharpton was in his headline-grabbing heyday, so while I appreciate him as a spokesman, I would never trust him with actually governing anything.)

I will vote for the nominee, but if it's someone I'm not fond of, I'll limit my involvement in the presidential campaign to bumperstickers and voting and put my efforts into one of the local Congressional races.