The futur of the dem party: Edwards or Hillary?

[Erc]

Edwards will run (he has nothing else to do now), but in my opinion bad memories of the rather substantial 2000 defeat and his poor performance in the campaign will hurt him.  He'll do better than Lieberman did, though.

The Democrats can go two places from here:

A) We lost 2004 because the Bush base was more energized than ours.  We need to go back to our roots, and pick a real consistent liberal that our base loves and can't be attacked as a flip-flopper.

B) We lost 2004 because our guy was too liberal--we need a (Bill) Clinton-ite candidate to appeal to the independent and undecided voters.  Plus it helps if he's from the South.


If it goes towards B), then Edwards has a good shot.  Especially since he's from the South.  Although my personal bet for the Democrats in category B) is Gov. Mark Warner of Virginia.


For the A) category, there's always Howard Dean, who still sounds interested in running.  Al Gore could try to pull off a Nixon, but I think his career died when he grew a beard.

Russ Feingold might be a possibility here too (?)


Obama's just too young to make the run in my opinion...although Edwards had only one term under his belt when he made the run...might be a potential VP pick.


Of course, there is one candidate I've failed to mention.  Hillary.  As a liberal, she appeals to the Category A folks...and as a Clinton she appeals to the Category B folks.  The only problem with a Hillary candidacy is that us Republicans are standing on the sidelines just waiting for her to clinch it.

If she does run, I think it comes down to Edwards v. Hillary with Warner as a dark horse candidate.

If she doesn't, the field opens up considerably.  Gore and Dean have serious chances, Obama might try a bid, etc. etc. etc.

[Erc]

Is Bayh even half-way interested?