Zell Miller

This is a curious statement, given that Bush has never made this connection -- at least in public. Furthermore, considering that Bush has increased government spending, it's just too ironic.

There's a word for Democrats like Zell Miller. It's "Republican."

Joe: Or perhaps Miller is representative of all too many moderate/centerist Democrats who will vote for Bush because they consider him closer to their political ideology than any of the 9 Democratic candidates currently vying for the nomination.

I still believe it is the politically moderate voters registered in both parties and independents who will decide Election 2004, and I don't see any of the current crop of Democratic candidates appealing to them.

The centrists decide general elections: it's the party loyalists who decide primary elections. Candidates typically move to the extremes in the primaries and then move back toward the center during the general election campaign. If the current batch of Democrats don't appeal to the center, it may be because they're not relying on them to carry Iowa and New Hampshire.

Joe: Agreed. It will be interesting to see how the nominee makes that course correction toward the center. That is, if one is selected that is ideolocically capable of doing that.

Dean and Clark would I think, but I doubt any of the others would.

I guess we'll just have to wait for the convention.