Arianna Huffington: Blinder by the Day

This is the text of a letter I sent to Salon about Arianna Huffington's latest column. I haven't heard from them whether they're planning to publish it, but I'm posting here anyway. I encourage other readers of Salon to write to them as well.

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To The Editor:

I'm not a "Democratic Honcho" so it should be safe for me to do so, but I won't argue with Ms. Huffington about Howard Dean's electibility. ["Dean, Bobby and the ghost of landslides past" 1/7/04] I'll just suggest that she make an appointment with her opthamologist, because she seems to have a blind spot.

I'm under 30, I don't live inside the Beltway, and I'm angry. My candidate is not part of the Democratic establishment Ms. Huffington accuses of "spinelessness". My candidate was against the Iraq war, and he's got the experience and international credibility to get us honorably and safely out of it now that we're there. My candidate is running for President because thousands of ordinary citizens in a grassroots campaign urged him to do so. My candidate inspired my father, who's never been politically active before, to sign up to coordinate campaign efforts in his part of Florida, and inspired us both to start a political blog to support the campaign. My candidate said -- on C-SPAN, no less -- that he'd beat the shit out of people who tried to paint him as unpatriotic. He has dared the Republicans to accuse him of class warfare because he plans to raise taxes on the ultra-rich in addition to rolling back important parts of the Bush tax cuts. My candidate has a bright vision for America's future, a future where even intellectuals are allowed to be patriotic.

My candidate is not Howard Dean. He is General Wesley Clark, and now I'll say it: my candidate is more electable than Howard Dean, and he should be, because he's the best man for the job.