Reply #9: Hi, RiverStone. I acknowledge that many Democrats have other [View All]

[saltpoint]

favorites in the race. I'm supporting Edwards, but in that larger stakes race I'm for the blue team, no matter who's nominated. Senator Clinton is less a defining Democrat for me at the moment, but if she is nominated in Denver and wins the general election her two-to-three Supreme Court appointments will cast a more just shadow over my remaining years on the planet. I'll give her that much, and I'll give her that much with genuine gratitude.

Agree that the landscape view is not the same for all of us, and that's probably to the better. If I were hiring a manager for my business, I'd want Dennis Kucinich in charge of labor issues. I'd want Joe Biden in charge of the international zones. Give me Senator Clinton for the committee on professional women's concerns. Certainly I want John Edwards on health care and poverty. If Barack Obama would consent, I'd like him to coordinate my company's relations with neighborhood and community groups. And so on. I find strength and virtue in all of them, and one of them is going to be our nominee. It might also be Clark or Hart or Gore, although no official word from any of them to date. I'm drawn to the strength of our candidates based on the range of virtues they exhibt and represent in a landscape that President Bush has begun to destroy and dismantle.

The deal-breaker for me is Republican registration. I won't back any Republican, even Hagel, who spoke bravely againt Bush on Iraq (though on little else). And not even John Danforth, who, for a Republican isn't all that horrifying; he's just not my cup of tea.

On the blue side, I'm drawn to and interested in our field. I like our chances in 08. I narrow the entire presidential race to maybe these names (subject to change): Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Richardson, John Edwards, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani. Of 300 million U.S. citizens, that's only 9 folks, and one of them is going to be our next president. I put Biden proudly in that bunch of 9, and I know he has the chops for the job.