Heads I win, tails you lose

Michael Barone on the Democrats’ dilemma. They can either nominate Dean or un-Dean. Nominating un-Dean will dampen the enthusiasm of many party activists, and cause some to support the Green Party candidate. Nominating Dean will alienate what Barone calls the “American exceptionalist” wing of the party (I would be tempted to call it the patriotic wing) — the wing that doesn’t believe the United States should simply “take its place as just one of many nations, with no claim to moral superiority, heeding the cautions of France, Germany, and Russia; deferring to the United Nations or NATO; seeking the respect of the protesters in the streets of London or the opinion writers in Le Monde.”
According to Barone. about one-third of Democrats give President Bush a positive job rating. What percentage of Republicans will think favorably of Dean? We may still be roughly a 50-50 nation in some sense, but that doesn’t mean we’ll have another 50-50 election if Dean (or for that matter un-Dean) is nominated.