I have been persuaded to withhold my support from any candidate ....

[kentuck]

at this time. Since I do not live in NH or IA, I will not have a say about who wins those primaries. Although I have supported Dean and Kerry up to this point, I see a division that will not of benefit to me or the Party if one wins and the other loses. I have decided to wait until the field thins out after the primaries before I make my final decision.

The primary point of division seems to be the Iraqi War and security reasons, including support or non-support of the Patriot Act. This is a two-edged sword for us, in my opinion. For example, if Kerry wins, the Repubs cannot say with any credibility that the Democratic Party is "soft on terrorism". They will still say it but it will not be as credible if said against Dean, if he is the winner.

The other edge of the sword, if Dean wins, is that many Democrats do not support the war and it is the minority of our Party that supported Bush and the war and the Repubs would say that our Party is "soft on terrorism". The fact being that our Party is split on the war.

However, if Dean were nominated and he chose a pro-war person as his VP, that would diminish that charge somewhat. Vice-versa, if Kerry is the nominee and he were to choose an "anti-war" person as his VP, that might help to unite the Party in some manner. It is a dilemma for our Party. There is no easy way out. No matter who wins, a large proportion of our Party will have to vote for someone they fundamentally disagree with or they will have to vote for someone else or they can not vote at all. There are not a lot of good choices here folks. It is unfortunate that our Party was not united for or against the war, but that's the way it is.

[damnraddem]

1. Kerry has rushed toward an antiwar position, one Dean had from the start.

Forget how Dems voted last year: both prez and CP candidates need to be firmly antiwar NOW. If Lieberman ends up on the ticket, I will not WANT a united Democratic Party -- I will then have left and would prefer to see it in shambles. On other hand, a Dean/Kerry or Dean/Clark ticket would be quite acceptable -- and have the proper military balance, while remaining strictly antiwar re Iraq.