The Great Red Hope

Another darling of the left these days is Montana governor Brian Schweitzer. He's almost become a legend already, having won the post in a seriously red state and garnering national attention as not only outspoken, but pretty damn sensible.

Frankly, this is what we need in the party. The right has spent so long trying to portray Democrats as east-coast-trust-fund-beatniks that much of America seems to have forgotten that we're the party of fighting for the little guy, the worker, and the small business owner against money-grubbing CEOs, plutocrats, theocrats, and America's self-styled nobility (e.g., the Bush family).

People like Schweitzer and radio host Ed Schultz (www.wegoted.com) are what people should think of when they think Democrat. People should think of smarmy fanatics like Ashcroft, and robber barons like Enron's Ken Lay when they think Republican. After all, it's the truth.

I've posted before on Schweitzer ("The Case of the Vanishing Accent"), and the more I see of him, the more I like him. Perhaps best of all, the guy's doing a bang-up job of falling into the political trap that we all learn on the playground, but still ensnared Gore and Kerry-- BE YOURSELF! We've seen Gore looking positively presidential since 2000 (even a GOP friend of mine has been impressed with his fiery, populist speeches), but "Dukakis Tank Syndrome" still afflicts a whole lot of Dems.