So Mickey's earlier Diary about Dean's "threat" to "doom" any nominee got me thinking. I've heard Dean say several times, and I've heard from many of his core campaign operatives, and I've said
myself with regards to my personal action and the
projects that I work on, that whoever the nominee is, I will
work to get Bush out of office.
My question is twofold: what other candidates have made this pledge? And for those who haven't, will they do so? And if they do so when, and how effective can they be?
For the record: I think Sharpron has been clear. I'm iffy on Kucinich and Braun, and I've heard no solid sentiment from the other mainstream candidates (Gephardt, Kerry, Edwards, Liebermabn, Clark) that they will do their duty this year regardless of whether they're the nominee or not.
I think that every one of these people can be effective critics of the President, and I think they can all be valuable on the stump. At the very least they can diffuse the damaging statements they may have made aobut whomever the eventual nominee is, and not actively work against whoever the nominee is (undercutting, third-party campaigns, etc), whether it's Howard Dean or someone else.