I can't believe that their sample represents the Democratic populace

Agreed. Plus, the true population of interest for Dem pollsters would be the entire population that is inclined to vote and who might conceivably be convinced to not vote for Bush.

The fact that this insta-poll (more or less) has a number of ballots "biggger than the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries combined" doesn't mean much. Not very populous, those places...

I looked at MoveOn.org's background and I find a lot to agree with. So maybe I can conclude that the "election" results are the "preferences of 300,000 people who think like Jim".

I guess I won't begrudge MoveOn this "election" as a plot device. If it helps Kucinich and Dean supports weigh relative strengths, that's fine. I still suspect that somebody like Kerry would be nominated by a convention if held today, though.

I heard Kerry on To The Point the other day and I have to say that, while a Kerry candidacy would not necessarily be the end of the world (he does have some strong points), I still see him as a "too smooth" politician -- wanting to have it both ways on things like Iraq. Being the smoothie also, I think, sets him up to get slapped around with the "professional politician" label by the Republicans (none of whom are politicians, of course!)

What I like about Dean so far is his unapologetic, plain-spoken liberalism combined with a good dose of feisty combativeness. I get the sense that he could slice and dice Bush in anything like a debate.

OK, color my glasses rosy. But for a moment there the thought of *volunteering* came into my jaded mind!