There are a lot of Democrats who are considering a run for the Presidency. Almost all of them are more conservative, or centrist, than I would like. But, political differences aside, the crew does look stronger than in past contests.

There is the chairman of the DLC and governor of Iowa, Tom Vilsack. I’m no fan of the DLC, but Vilsack has some attractive qualities. And his wife wins the contest of ‘Best Prospective First Lady’.

The New York Times has a write-up on Virginia Governor, Mark Warner, who raised $2.5 million for his presidential run last week. Warner can boast that his state was named the best-run in the country by Governing magazine, and he has the 80% approval rate to prove it.

Then there is good old Joey Biden. Joey hasn’t exactly been warming the hearts of progressives since George W. Bush came along. But he does know the issues, the game, the players, and he has all the requisite experience you’d like to see in a President.

Hillary is a juggernaut. She leads in all the early polling and she has successfully reinvented herself as a centrist candidate. The right will insist she is a raving liberal, but she is cleverly working to undermine that message by doing things like co-sponsoring a bill against flag desecration with Sen. Bennett of Utah. It’s all part of her attempt to appeal to red staters. Ha ha. I do not want Hillary to win the nomination, but I think it would be exciting if she became the first woman to win a nomination for President, and I think she could do the job competently.

John Edwards was disappointing as a vice-presidential candidate, but he has good name recognition, he has been through the process, and he is a serious candidate.

Gov. Bill Richardson has excellent credentials, and his hispanic/southwest heritage could be a real electoral college asset on the top or bottom of a 2008 ticket.

There is always Wesley Clark, who seems to win all the Daily Kos polls for some, to me, inexplicable reason. He has excellent credentials and an important voice. I think he might be able to rally a larger segment of the reality-based foreign policy establishment in the next go-round.

And then there is Russ Feingold. Russ was the only Senator to vote against the Patriot Act. He has been pushing for a timetable to end the war. We all know the work he has done to try to clean up the corruption in Washington. Russ is the only truly progressive candidate in the bunch. Progressive Senators do not have the best track record of winning the nomination, and the one that did, George McGovern, got his head handed to him. And he was a war-hero, not a twice-divorced lawyer. Is America ready for a man like Feingold? I hope so.

I didn’t mention Evan Bayh because I shouldn’t have to find something to say about milquetoast.

So, what do you think about our candidates? They all have certain flaws, but collectively they make up a strong field. I definitely don’t see the Republicans fielding a team that is in the same league. George Allen? Please.

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