Gareth, some of us are politically savvy enough to know and appreciate the differences between unity and a united front, and which of those is the more likely.

I'd say this year we have had "Unity" (with a capital 'U', mind) declared upon us by the Democratic Leadership Council and Terry McAuliffe.

United front is what they will be lucky to get this year, because the Democrats and non-Democrat progressives are like the rest of the electorate this year--volatile and divided.

The more it becomes apparent (and oh God, will it become apparent in this electoral war for the White House!) that unity doesn't exist in the Democratic party despite the DLC/McAuliffe/Clinton Democrats declarations thereof, you will see bizarre shit start to happen, like Kerry/Anybody But Bush running against the Dean wing and the Nader progressives, instead of Bush.

Up until now, there has been a populist Democratic party belief that Nader was a spoiler in the last election, when he truly was no such thing. But that hasn't lessened the rancor of many a liberal, especially some high profile limosine liberals from the Kerry/Kennedy camp, towards Nader's decision to jump in the race to try and keep the REAL debate (as opposed to the Kerry RAW DEAL--oops! I mean REAL DEAL, of course!) going about where this country needs to go.

Kerry has no vision, no programs, and absolutely does not want there to be a debate about the selling of our government to corporate interests by an obscenely wealthy ruling elite in the US Senate and the White House.

Kerry has one thing going for him--his record on the environment. Only one problem. Precious few people gives a shit about the environment except people in the environmental movement which has been the most rapidly shrinking movement in US politics for years. Why? Because the middle class activists that steered the environmental movement steered straight to K Street, and themselves into fat cat lobbying jobs, and learned the art of political compromise.

As a result of the the environmental movement selling out, it is irrelevant in the US today.