Here's my recent thought about the '08 President elections for you to chew on or spit out. Dems of course are trying to figure out how to win, and some say we need an electible candidate, and others for whom that sounds like a prescription for more bland, Kerry-ish candidates, say no, we need someone we can believe in. But this argument seems fairly silly to me. It's not one or the other. We don't want either McGovern or Kerry. What we need is someone we can feel good about AND who has the ability to win enough states to be President.
So in thinking about the electibility issue, I'm struck that I haven't heard much discussion about what seems to be a fairly strong recent history lessen. And that is that EVERY President for the last 30 years has come from outside Washington [GHWB is somewhat of an exception, but he was elected solely as Reagan's heir] -- GWB, Clinton, Reagan, Carter.
What does this tell us? It appears to be a pretty strong belief that Washington corrupts; that if one if fed up with what's going on, you don't go looking for a different serving from the same pot. Nonetheless, all the chatter about Presidential hopefuls is dominated around Washington insiders - mostly those with the first name "Senator." Of course they're the most well known. Additionally, since nearly all the pundits are DC based, Senators and their egos have easy access to the national microphone. But even a "rebel" like Feingold can look to the rest of the country like just another DC suit with an expensive haircut.
The other modern problem with being from DC is that these guys have too much of a record; too many votes for opposition groups to exploit or mischaracterize (i.e. flip-flopping Kerry). That's much harder to do with a Governor. Governors seem fresh and ready to clean house.
So I'm not making any endorsements yet, but who are our best Governor Dems?