Do not look forward with glee to Howard Dean. He is preferred by the Clintons. He will crash and burn as a left-wing extremist and then Hillary, if she survives Guilliani in 2006, will be poised to present herself to the DNC as a "DLC style centrist" and someone "who can win" and the nomination will be hers with no particular difficulty, and hers without her having to kowtow to the left in the primaries. She will appear to the independents and the moderates as . . . moderate.
Much better for us would be Gephardt, who can himself crash and burn, and leave Hillary in 2008 forced to present herself as more of a left winger because the extremist Dem base will take over entirely in the wake of a DLC centrist defeat.