Let's go back to '04.. Imagine that Dean did NOT drop out

[SoCalDem]

What if Dean had been bull-headed and come up with the money to continue..and he continued and he continued and continued?

Of course with two candidates, well financed, ALL the subsequent states would be "in play" for each..Someone always wins ..even in non-GE states..

Kerry and Dean..going at it for months.. trading insults

The ONLY difference between what we have now, and what we "could" have had in ANY primary season, is this..

MOST candidates figure out early on that they are not gonna win, or they decide to quit wasting their donors' money or they quit GETTING donor money..and they gracefully bow out and let the front-runner run the board unopposed from that point on..

What HuckleberryHuckabee & Her Royal Highness are doing this time around is something that rarely happens, and usually ends badly..

Huckabee had the decency to realize that he had nothing to gain by trashing Mccain, so he was the cheery, friendly guy who just wanted to say "hey"..

The stalker we find ourselves stuck with is something entirely "other".. She IS out to mortally wound the front-runner..and is willing to take herself down with him,,if that's what it takes..

Why not just mandate that ALL candidates have to STAY in until the bitter end, and totally splinter the votes... ?

[DJ13]

1. My favorite is the same MSM that kept trying to get Huckabee to quit.....

......because it was seen that his candidacy was damaging the GOP chances by being divisive now loves to say that when it comes to Hillary "its the candidate's choice" whether to stay in the race or quit.

:eyes:

[blm]

2. The difference is that Dean didn't WANT Bush to win so he could run again in 2008, and Hillary DOES

want McCain to win so she can run an ITOLDYOUSO campaign in 2012.

Dean supported Kerry and became one of his most trusted spokespeople ....and there were PRECIOUS FEW of those in 2004 when most wellknown Dems were supporting and defending Bush on his terrorism and Iraq decisions, including the last Dem president.

[D23MIURG23]

3. excellent observation.

[madfloridian]

4. It is unconscionable what Hillary's campaign is doing.

So much dissension and so many ridiculous attacks on Obama.

[Awsi Dooger]

5. Dean was 3rd place irrelevant when he bailed out

The fling was long over. He had become a mocking sideshow on the networks and late night comedy programs. No threat of the percentages and staying power of Hillary in '04, even if Edwards had dropped out first and left Dean alone vs. Kerry.

Dean's supporters, other than the hard core, had abandoned him and settled on Kerry as most electable. The party had aligned behind Kerry. There wasn't a 1% change that Dean could have threatened to win a major state like Pennsylvania this late in the game.

Otherwise, it's a wonderful comparison.

[madfloridian]

6. What a misrepresentation.

That is sad.

[SoCalDem]

7. okay.. Edwards could play the "Dean" role in my scenario

If HE had stayed in until PA, He and kerry might be in the same pickle we are chewing on now.. ANY two candidates who insist on staying in will always split votes and water down the vote count for each of them.. Kerry would NOT have prevailed in the south and Edwards would not have prevailed in the north..

If the field is not emptied early, of challengers, a statemate is guaranteed at some point..

[Justitia]

8. Dean would never have done that to Our Party, he loves it too much.

He knew the goal was to unseat GWBush, he knew that despite our differences we were united in Our Democratic Ideals and he knew that no one man was a Party unto himself.
Dean was, and is, all about presenting a unified force to take on the Republicans.

The Clintons have ALWAYS been about only the CLINTONS - their worlds move in different orbits from the rest of us, whom they consider detritus.

[demwing]

9. So, a giant, political Survivor?

Ok. Why not a Democratic THUNDERDOME!

Listen all! This is the truth of it. Fighting leads to killing, and killing gets to warring. And that was damn near the death of us all. Look at us now! Busted up, and everyone talking about hard rain! But we've learned, by the dust of them all... Bartertown learned. Now, when men get to fighting, it happens here! And it finishes here! Two men enter; one man leaves.