Wolfgang, the relevance to me of this thread is how little the people who supported Kerry actually know about other potential Democratic party candidates. The only folks they can usually name, are the ones whose names have most recently been in the press. So it shows how short the American attention span is, doesn't it? ;-)

Really, folks have to start thinking outside the box. I would support another run by Bill Bradley too, although another Northeastern liberal won't fly for 2008. This power vacuum for the Democratic party is really A Very Good Thing only if it results in the current leadership being thrown out on their ears--the Democratic Leadership Council, and the party leadership, beginning with McAuliffe. Both groups have been the leadership that has overseen the Democrats being very decisively swept out of power. They, and the Clintons along with them, have to go. They've destroyed the Democratic party.

But I think the Democratic party has to be reformed at the grassroots level too. I can tell you the main reason why I won't rejoin the MN DFL anytime soon: local control of the party has been in the hands of local corporations, and we have a lot of them, including Fortune 500s, here in our state. The local Dems have become as overly cautious and conservative as their national leadership has in most cases. And they, of course, control the pursestrings, and decide who they will "endorse" at the state level and give funding support to. We keep being admonished to run for offices ourselves, but I know of virtually no one willing to risk personal bankruptcy, etc. to run for public office. You usually can't be employed when you are running a campaign...so, where does your financial support come from to get into the political game?

Answer: only the well off can afford to be involved in politics.