The 2004 democratic primary campaign has produced one of the more depressing political phenomena in mem- ory: the rise of the citizen pundit. With Howard Dean gone from the race, the last traces of passion―and, I fear, conviction―have been leached from the electorate. Instead of voters, we have handicappers. Ask a civilian why she likes Kerry or Edwards, and more often than not, you get dime-store Capital Gang: "Kerry can match up with Bush on national security," or "Edwards can win in the South." This is a form of pragmatism, I suppose. Democrats are desperate to beat George W. Bush. But it is also fresh evidence of television's ability to lobotomize democracy. With serious issues of war and prosperity at stake, horse-race punditry seems particularly vacant right now―and particularly useless in a year when we professional blabbers have demon-strated yet again the essential idiocy of political prognostication.
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