MY OWN PERSONAL PRIMARY:


Being a political junky, and demonstrating a masochistic side, I have been following the Democratic presidential primary closely for most of the past year. Yet, with Iowa and New Hampshire just weeks away I find myself unable to figure out which candidate to support for the nomination. Here are my brief thoughts about the frontrunner, Dean, and the pack that is chasing him.


HOWARD DEAN:
Domestic: Dean has a proven record on health care, has shown courage on civil unions, and has a commitment to fiscal conservatism that shows a willingness to buck the worst habits of certain left-leaning interest groups. While any of the candidates would be a major improvement over the disaster that is Bush's domestic policy, Dean in particular would do an excellent job on domestic issues.


Foreign: There are reasons to believe that Dean will not be a complete disaster in foreign policy. He supported the first Gulf War, he has not endorsed a Kucinichesque immediate pull-out from Iraq, Robert Kagan seems to think his idea are mainstream, but still there is no getting around the fact that Dean's candidacy is built upon his full-throated opposition to the Iraq war. Dean resonated with much of the grass-roots cultural left by sounding Jeffersonian themes of rejecting intervention as corrupting and immoral, and invoked the globalist elite's embrace of multilateralism for multilateralism's sake. While Dean has consistently been more radical in his tone than in his proposed policies, these instincts remain - as noted by his pandering statement that the U.S. should act "even-handed" between Israel and the Palestinians despite the latter's embrace of rejectionism and terror. To pull the lever for Dean for me would be to vote for a candidate I believe would do a worse job than Bush in protecting America's short-term and long-term national security.


Nomination Chances: He's the front-runner, having converted grass-roots support among culturally liberal professionals into Union endorsements. However, he will face a challenge when the party's establishment settles on an alternative candidate.


Electibility: No other candidate will mobilize the Democratic base to the extent Dean will - and if the paradigm has shifted as radically in favor of turnout (as opposed to swing appeal) as certain analysts believe, he has a fighting chance. Dean also has the tenacity to fight back against GOP mudslinging, and will not cede the framing of his character and issues without a fight. In truth, however, Dean is the dream candidate for the GOP. He is the easiest candidate for Bush to square off against for the culturally right-of-center working class voter, as Bush can paint Dean as soft on terror, play the homophobic card (alas) and send the party into four more years of political exile.