As a life long registered Democrat, I am concerned about where my party is heading. Drudge Report currently has a couple of interesting articles that concern this.

The first article is by a Time's columnist who claims that Hillary Clinton has no prospect for success in running for President in 2008. IMHO, Hillary Clinton is the only 2008 presidential candidate that I know about who is interesting. Hillary got through the 2004 election untainted by the Kerry debacle. Hillary Clinton has done a reasonably good job of positioning herself to run for president in 2008 and wisely distanced herself from the Democratic party's looney left. IMHO, the Democratic party's inner elite are in the early phases of repeating what the British Labour Party did after being repeatedly shellaced by the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher, i.e. jettisoning their extreme left wing to make the party electable. This brings me to the second article cited by Drudge Report:

Democratic National Committee (DNC) fund raising under the chairmanship of Howard Dean shows a disappointing $16.7 million raised in the first quarter of 2005, compared with $34 million reported by the Republicans.

That tends to confirm dire predictions by old-line Democratic fund-raisers of a fall-off in money if Dean became chairman. He had promised to bring in heavy individual contributions, as he did in his 2004 campaign for president. But the DNC in the first quarter received only $13 million from individuals, compared to $31 million for the Republican National Committee (RNC).

Robert Novak at townhall.com

IMHO, Howard Dean has no business being chairman DNC. How could the system have so totally malfunctioned to have this guy running the party? My theory is the left wing is being setup for a fall. The scenario is the party's moonbats will be closely swirling around Dean and clearly associated with him as the party gets flushed down the toilet in the 2006 Congressional elections. After that disaster it will become clear the party requires reforming to the political center. Dean and his cohorts will be encouraged to join the Green Party and the Democratic Party will reinvent itself as did the British Labor Party. It is vital that the Democrats do this soon because the Republicans will eventually run out of steam (there will be the inevitable corruption scandal or the people will simply grow tired of them). The party of Thomas Jefferson needs to move closer to the nation's center through rejection of obsolete left wing politics. The Democrats time may come in 2008 provided that Dean, et al can be ejected and Hillary push the poltical buttons in the right order.

Gary