Lisa English of Ruminate This has a very thoughtful piece on why another run for President by Ralph Nader would be both vain and vindictive.

We agree with her, but the more we think about it, the less likely we think Nader will try another run. He was a novelty item last time around. That support is gone. This time around he'd be just another loser. His legacy will be reduced to one word: Spoiler.

The Des Moines Register reports today that Gephardt has overtaken Dean in the latest poll of the Iowa primary. There's a lot of analysis in the article, which runs some 1600 words.

Gephardt's lead may or may not be significant:

However, Gephardt's 7-percentage-point lead over Dean in the Iowa Poll appears a little wobbly. More of Dean's supporters say their minds are made up and they are certain of their participation in the Democratic caucuses, which launch the presidential nominating season for the nation.

The Iowa Poll, taken last week, shows Gephardt is the first choice of 27 percent of Iowans who say they definitely or probably will attend the precinct caucuses. Dean is the favorite of 20 percent. That's a gain of 6 percentage points for Gephardt and a 3-point drop for Dean since late July, when the last Iowa Poll on the race was taken.

U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts remains in third place with 15 percent, a gain of 1 percentage point from July. The poll has a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.

[Link via Conclusive Evidence.]

We were visiting SK Bubba and laughing at his description of Bush helping out unemployed limo repairmen in conjunction with his fundraising efforts when we came across this link in his comments to great photos of the Bush Fundraiser Protest In Portland, Or. on Aug. 21, 2003. The photos will display one by one automatically for you here.

Here and here are two of our our favorites.

Back to SK Bubba on Bush and Fundraising:

Meanwhile, Bush is having serious fundraising problems. Numerous limousines have sustained damage ranging from ruptured tires to broken axles under the weight of bags of cash collected at $100,000 per-plate bar-b-cue events. Campaign officials are also concerned that there aren't enough banks to spread the deposits around to keep their accounts under the FDIC $100K insurance limit. A White House spokesperson said "It's just another example of Bush economic policies putting people like limousine axle repairmen back to work."

Howard Dean says Bob Graham is on his "short list" of potential running mates.

[Graham] made clear that he is available as a vice-presidential running mate for the Democratic nominee or ``whatever role would help replace the Bush administration.''

.... former Gov. Howard Dean, said in Tallahassee on Tuesday that Graham is on his ''short list'' of potential running mates.

Oliver Willis points us to a new Newsweek poll showing Bush is slip-sliding away:

Fifty Percent Would Not Re-Elect Bush; 48 Percent Disapprove Of Bush's Handling Of Economy, But 44 Percent Approve, A 6-Point Jump From One Month Ago

Fifty-One Percent Disapprove Of Bush's Handling Of Iraq, A Record High; Three-Quarters (75%) Are Concerned (45% Very Concerned) U.S. Will Be Bogged Down For Years

In Trial Heats, All Leading Dems Now Even With Bush In Head-To-Head Matchups

As to the Democratic race for the nomination, the poll finds:

Among contenders for the Democratic nomination, Dean and Clark remain in a statistical dead heat, with 16 percent and 15 percent respectively selecting them as first choice for Democratic nominee. Nine percent would select Gephardt, followed by Lieberman (8 percent), Mosely-Braun and Kerry (7 percent each), Al Sharpton (4 percent) and Dennis Kucinich (2 percent).

Mosely-Braun is tied with Kerry? How 'bout that!

This may be our favorite news story of the weekend:

On November 4th, 31 year old Ralph Ferrucci of New Haven ran for Mayor on the Guilty Party ticket. He didn't win, but he did get 15% of the vote, against long-time incumbent Democrat John DeStefano, Jr.

Ralph is an artist and a delivery truck driver for Pepperidge Farm cookies. He spent $850 on his campaign and did not accept donations. His victorious opponent spent $220,000. That translates to:

.... Mr. Ferrucci spent 42 cents for each voter he successfully courted, while Mr. De-Stefano spent $20.12 a vote on a race he had won five times before.

What we really like about this story, besides the name of the party, is this description of Mr. Ferrucci--

Howard Dean becomes the first Democratic candidate ever to to skip public financing for a presidential campaign.

Dean made his decision based on a high-tech tally of 600,000 supporters, whom he asked to vote by e-mail, Internet, telephone or regular mail through Friday.

He was announcing the results at noon EST in Burlington, Vt., but campaign officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said about 85 percent of the 105,000 supporters who weighed in urged the former Vermont governor to opt out. He becomes the first candidate in Democratic Party history to take such a step.

We're beginning to believe that Dean is unstoppable and will be the candidate. Of course, it's still a ways away, and anything can happen, but Clark doesn't seem to have gotten the traction he needs as yet.

We're still holding back on making a final choice, but it may not be long. We hope that Dean will give criminal justice issues a higher priority and that his advisors move him a little to the left on these issues.

We think Wesley Clark would make a great VP candidate for Dean. We like John Edwards too, although his time may be coming in 2008 if Bush wins re-election in 2004. Then again, 2008 already seems to belong to Hillary.

Update: Atrios doesn't think Dean has the nomination sewn up. Like us, he hasn't endorsed a candidate yet. And this is true:

When the candidate is chosen, it's going to be important to rally behind him (sorry Ambassador Moseley-Braun, but....), with your time, energy, and wallets. Don't lose sight of that.

Dave Cullen at Conclusive Evidence explains Dean's decision.

Excellent profiles on the two run-off candidates for the San Francisco Mayor's race. Both are in their 30's.

Newsom, a liberal Democrat by the standards of most other cities, has been cast by opponents here as a socialite "Republocrat." He is allied with billionaire Gordon Getty and lives in a multimillion-dollar mansion in Pacific Heights, one of the city's most expensive neighborhoods, with his wife, a prosecutor and CNN commentator who is a former lingerie model.

By contrast, Gonzalez, an arts aficionado and poetry buff, doesn't own a car and rents an apartment in the considerably less fashionable Western Addition neighborhood. Newsom's supporters portray Gonzalez as an ultra-left "cafe brat" whose support won't extend beyond the city's young hipsters.

A new Zogby poll has Howard Dean expanding his lead. Clark is slipping.

Sierra Magazine says Ralph Nader is thinking about running for President again on the Green Party ticket. The party's convention is in late July and early buzz is they want to run a candidate.

Nader has yet to formally commit himself, but his statements suggest a strong inclination to run again. He promises a decision early in 2004.

As Sierra says, can't you just see the headline now?

"November 3, 2004: George W. Bush was returned to the White House for another four years after Green Party candidate Ralph Nader drew off enough votes from the Democratic challenger . . ."

[link via TomPaine Blog.]

The candidates were asked at last night's debate whether they had smoked marijuana. The Answers:

Dean, John Edwards and Senator John Kerry all said they've used marijuana in the past.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich, retired General Wesley Clark, Al Sharpton and Senator Joe Lieberman said they've haven't.

Former Senator Carol Moseley Braun refused to answer.

A new Marist poll shows that more than 4 in 10 voters will vote againgst Bush:

The survey by Marist College's Institute for Public Opinion found that 44 percent of the voters questioned said they planned to definitely vote against the Republican president while 38 percent said they would support his re-election.

...The latest poll also found a drop in Bush's approval rating, which has been reflected in other recent nationwide polls. The Marist poll had the president's approval rating at 53 percent, down from 70 percent in its April poll.

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