Wednesday, 20 August 2003

Howard Dean knows I exist. I haven't decided who to vote for yet, or which Democratic candidate I'd like to see win the nomination; I do already know a couple of candidates that I'd rather not see, though. I've ruled out Kucinich for being against free trade, and I've ruled out Gephardt for being… well, for being Gephardt.

As far as Kucinich is concerned, promising to withdraw the United States from NAFTA and the WTO costs you my vote instantly, no questions asked. I don't know much, but I know what happened to the United States the last time we ripped up all our trade agreements in the interests of protecting our economy. I'm one of those high-tech people whose jobs are in danger of being exported to India (or, at least, I would be if I were still working in the United States—I got ahead of the curve and exported myself), but that doesn't mean I'm suddenly going to oppose a pact that brought ten years of economic prosperity to America. Free trade is good, even if it means I have to change jobs and industries more often.

Meanwhile, Gephardt to me is a candidate in the tradition of Walter Mondale, or Mike Dukakis, or Bob Dole for that matter: The hard-working party hack who just doesn't have that spark. When Gephardt trotted out his latest health care plan, I just put my head in my hands; I'm sure his plan will be fascinating to Beltway insiders, but it's just not sizzling campaign material. Gore never found a message that clicked with the people. Gephardt's been trying for decades; I think at some point you have to realize that it's just not going to happen.

Kerry and Lieberman I'm not sure about, and I think we can safely ignore Al Sharpton and the other one-joke candidates (memo to Carol Moseley-Braun: Lightning doesn't strike twice).

And then there's Howard Dean. I'm not sure yet what I think of Dean the candidate, but his campaign is moving in Internet time; I can't help but be impressed by this, and he appears to be tapping into the populist spirit that energized John McCain in 2000. (If McCain had timed his Sister Souljah moment a little better, he might have carried the day. His "Straight Talk Express" was a better campaign than Bush and Gore put together.)

Anyhow, I'm highly amused that the Dean campaign has an "Americans Abroad For Dean" poster that you can download from their web site. In fact, I'm amused enough that I'm checking out their web site, and seeing what the candidate has to say; I might even be crazy enough to click the button that donates money, which would be a personal first.

- Posted by Scott Forbes at 11:44 am. comments.