Michael Moore Can't Lose

There's a big piece on Michael Moore in the latest "Hollywood issue" of Vanity Fair. Apparently, Moore believes "[w]hat I did, what MoveOn did, what Bruce Springsteen did--we prevented a Bush landslide."

If I were a Democrat (for the record, I'm an independent) and I believed this, boy would I be depressed. This would mean my party has to count on an extremist spinning bizarre conspiracies (while a website compares Bush to Hitler) just to get 48% of the public; that otherwise, in a fair fight, we'd be demolished.

I'd like to think most sensible Dems recognize Moore, as much as he may appeal to the fringe (and, alas, much of the base), is a drag on their party.

A PS about Springsteen. He has leftist handlers, and has always tended toward leftist populism, so when he did the predictable and spoke out against the war, I shouldn't have been surprised. Even so I was a bit disappointed that he couldn't reach above himself. But I also hope he learned something. Bruce, rock and roll means a lot to me, and I know it means a lot to you, and the one lesson it's taught me, above all, is not to follow any party line--yours or anyone else's--but to think for myself.