Dean drew a pretty substantial crowd at Seattle's Westlake Park yesterday (BLICKY1). Undoubtedly his supporters did some "staging," (Standard Operating Procedure in political campaigns, isn't it?) although other than reminding other supporters to be sure to be there, I don't know what "staging" means. That couldn't account for all the people who came, or their enthusiasm. You can't "stage" that many people. And they really resonated with what Dean had to say.

And in California, polls show Bustamante (Dem.) well ahead of Arnie (Rep.) (BLICKY2).   And someone said that considering his stand on some issues, Arnie is "a Democrat disguised as a Republican."

I noted on this morning's news that Bush's approval rating has fallen below 50%.

This is not going to be a "cakewalk" for the Republicans any more than the Iraqi war has turned out to be a "cakewalk." If things really get desparate as I'm pretty sure they will, special care should be taken in November 2004 to forestall any Florida-style hanky panky.

Don Firth