I'll get blasted for this, but the population of Vermont is 600,000, with its largest city having 40,000 people in it. Based on that, Dean has the qualifications to be the mayor of a very small city in California. (Well, actually he doesn't, because he knows nothing of ethnic relations.) I'm sorry, may be a nice guy and well positioned on some or all of the substantive issues, but that doesn't qualify one to represent 285 million people and the world's largest military.