In my mind’s eye, I imagine this scenario.

The main Democratic strategists are sitting around a table, it’s late 2003.

STRATIGEST A: “Dean is really firing up our base. Moreover, he’s bringing new people into the fold, getting young people involved like never before as well as those disaffected by the political system.”

STRATEGIST B: “Yeah, this guy really energizes people, and has the real ability, I think, to make George Bush’s greatest strength–national security and terrorism–a weakness. He says without reservation that (1) Iraq was not an imminent threat to the US, (2) we had successfully contained Iraq for 12 years with no-fly zones, (3) Iraq had virtually no Air Force to speak of, (4) there was no Al Qaida in Iraq, as the president intimated, (5) Iraq was not about to acquire nuclear weapons, as the president intimated, and (6) we should not have gone to war.”

STRATEGIST C: “Word has it that the two main contenders for the nomination of our party in 2000–Bill Bradley and the eventual nominee Al Gore–are going to endorse him, along with a slew of other party leaders. This guy has what it takes.”

STRATEGIST D: “Yeah, that’s why I’ve called this meeting. We’ve got to stop him.”

STRATEGISTS A, B and C: “Huh, why?!?”

STRATEGIST D: “He’ll never win. The Republicans are going to pain him, and us, as soft on national security. He’ll lose like McGovern. It will be a humiliation. We need someone who is electable. A war hero. That way, we can run our war hero against George Bush, the draft dodger–the guy who pulled strings to get into the Guard. I say we go for Kerry.”

* * *

What were they thinking? Not eight years earlier, the Republicans chose their own war hero–Bob Dole–to run against draft dodger Bill Clinton, and the strategy failed, big-time.

As for McGovern, it wasn’t exactly a peacenik running against a warmonger. Indeed, Nixon was the fellow who ultimately pulled the US out of Vietnam–a war inspired by the Democrats. Remember, the chant made famous during that war was “LBJ, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today.” Democrat Lyndon Johnson was blamed, and when the Yippies protested the war outside the Democratic Convention in Chicago, Democratic Mayor Daley sent out his police force to beat them into submission. Vietnam certainly wasn’t a Republican war.

So why did the Democrats choose to forget history and pick a loser to run when there was real excitement for Dean?

The answer lies in the identity of STRATIGEST D . . .

Bill Clinton. Think about it. A loss in 2004 means Hillary can run in 2008, and he can get another shot at the famous “co-presidency.”

Hey Bill, way to put your interests above the rest of America.

Forget about the “vast right wing conspiracy.” I think there’s an ineffective centrist conspiracy in the works.

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