Blogosaurus

Even though I'm sure he was half-joking, I always thought it was nutty when someone like Mickey Kaus would suggest, up practically to the moment of "I'm reporting for duty!", that there was still time for the Democratic party to decide John Kerry was a stiff and deny him the nomination in favor of someone else (Edwards or Hillary, depending on your level of delusion). Those things JUST... DON'T... HAPPEN. (To presidential nominees, that is-- ask Tom Eagleton about VP nominees.) At least, minus a major scandal. And there was no major scandal on the horizon (a Kerry bimbo eruption had been an apparently false alarm) and not, as yet, dissatisfaction with Kerry on any major level. (Lack of satisfaction is not quite the same as dissatisfaction.)

But say this whole questionable-citation-on-the-mdeals thing got bad enough-- which would be LOT worse than it is now-- so that Kerry would be compelled to drop out. Extraordinary, something that hasn't happened in eons (ever? maybe) but then so was a candidate winning the popular vote but losing the Electoral College-- before 2000.

Again, let me stress I find it 99+% unlikely, not to mention fairly tasteless even to talk about such possibilities in the complete absence of allegations, proof or anything else. But as long as we're playing Fantasy League Politics, let's play it all the way before going back to the reality in which we will be up late watching Bush-- who WILL be running with Cheney-- and Kerry duking it out swing state by swing state.

If Kerry had to step off the ticket, then what? Obviously the most likely scenario is that Edwards rises to the top. He had the second-most delegates, he's in the number two slot, any other choice by party bigshots would cause endless commotion. But who gets the number two slot? There is no obviously appealing choice among the remaining candidates-- maybe Wesley Clark, barely, as a counterbalance on the military side, assuming the Dems still want to play the military card (and immediately see Clark's decorations examined one by one).

Is this the Draft Hillary scenario at last? McCain's switch to the Dems? And then do the Bushies counter that by dumping Cheney for Condi, to gain the votes of about 15 bloggers? Dream on....