Two years ago in p3: Building the better Bush

Two years ago, Democrats were still wallowing in the process of deciding why they'd just had their asses handed to them in another presidential election.

One theory was that the Dems needed to find their own Bush:

If you're a Democrat, here's my advice. Do what the Republicans did in 1998. Get simple. Find a compelling salesman and get him ready to run for president in 2008. Put aside your quibbles about preparation, stature, expertise, nuance, and all that other hyper-sophisticated garbage that caused you to nominate Kerry. You already have legions of people with preparation, stature, expertise, and nuance ready to staff the executive branch of the federal government. You don't need one of them to be president. You just need somebody to win the White House and appoint them to his administration. And that will require all the simplicity, salesmanship, and easygoing humanity they don't have.

I thought the idea was pretty lame at the time, but I had no idea how far the ground would shift between then and now. Look at Saletan's profile of the ideal Democratic presidential candidate in 2008, and look at Hillary, Obama, and Edwards. Could he have been farther off the mark?

(He thought Edwards was the candidate who fit his unimpressive criteria--would he recognize that fellow now?)