Ampersand on the 2004 elections:
My prediction is that the Democrats will end up running Kerry or Gephardt, either of whom will run a safe, predictable campaign. They’ll do everything the smart money in the smoke-filled rooms suggest; they’ll support a health care initiative that’s confusing and can’t possibly work, and spend hours debating the minutia while the partisan blogs cheer every minutely-analyzed word and the American public dozes off.
And the press will hate whichever one it is, and run barely-rewritten RNC press releases smearing them, just as they did with Gore. And the public will not be energized, just as it wasn’t with Gore. And the Democrats will be outspent. And they will lose.
But thank goodness they didn’t take a chance on supporting a health care policy that could actually work. That would be a political disaster.