Things You Don't Talk About in Polite Company

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--It's Howard Dean. Al Gore's endorsement probably sticks a fork in it. Dean can still lose, but it will require a huge mistake on his part, and the only people in place to take advantage of it are Gephardt (the Democratic Dole) and Clark. Kerry and Liebermann should soon go to battling over who gets to replace Daschle as Senate minority leader. Edwards is still trying to prove he has the Southern credentials to be vice-president. Mosely-Braun is probably still angling for a Cabinet post of some sort. Sharpton is getting face time on camera, which is all he wanted (and he was better than expected on SNL), and Dennis Kucinich is still a creepy little bastard.

Right now, pretty much everyone thinks Dean's going to win. That doesn't mean the other candidates should just walk away. They should keep on raising money and use of all of it to fund attack ads that just blasts away at Bush without mentioning Dean. It's like having a whole pack of Spiro Agnews. Dean stays above the fray, everyone gets to demagogue against Bush on their pet issues creating a diverse attack pattern, and by being team players everyone positions themselves for Democratic leadership positions. Everybody wins. Except the Bush League, hopefully.

If you think this is a plan to get around campaign financing, well, it would be, if Dean were accepting spending limits. And I'd be screaming this plan from the top of my lungs if he were sticking to limits. (1:35 PM)