The #1 thing I want (or found) in my Democratic nominee is...

[ConservativeDemocrat]

You don't have to have made up your mind about the candidates to vote in this poll.

[adolf bush]

1. well,

unless they can beat bush i don't think anything else really matters does it? who cares if they are a great leader if they aren't in a position to lead...

[never cry wolf]

2. Great point n/t

[AquariDem]

3. He mush have both the ability

to beat Bush and the guts to sound and act like a true Democrat. Is that even possible now?

[tokenlib]

7. Contrary to conventional wisdom...

I think the ability to defeat Bush is directly related to the degree to which one is genuine in expressing traditional democratic party values and policy priorities.

[AquariDem]

8. But they still have to get the "center"

which is too bad. It would be really easy to get California (at least the northern part) and the East Coast with really liberal values, but some parts of the Midwest would be hard to win over (I've only heard, I've never been there) with an openly progressive platform.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

6. By checking "the ability to Beat bush"

you are saying you think none of the other candidates have that quality. Maybe I should have made that more clear.

[ibegurpard]

4. The problem with option 1

Is that everyone has a completely different idea about what that entails.

[Ediacara]

5. a combination

of being able to beat Bush, and being able to rally the crowds sounding like a Democrat, rather than an appeaser. There are other candidates who have one of these characters, but don't have both in the same amount as Dean.

[poskonig]

9. I picked pragmatism.

I want to see a liberal *coalition* that can beat Bush but is moderate enough to win a general election.

If it was anyone who could beat Bush, hell, we'd run Zell Miller.