for President. The most important single reason is that I think he can beat George Bush. I'm independent, never having belonged to either party. Some of my best liberal friends insist I'm a closet conservative. The point is I'm not partisan.

But I sure fear the next five years if Bush is reelected. We will have tyranny in this country. A reelection will encourage him in more wars, more restrictions on civil freedoms, more secret police powers, and more demonizing of those who think differently than the government likes. His economic policies will transfer wealth to the rich and impoverish the middle class - as they have started to do the past three years.

An online column for Dean by Elaine Kamarck this morning is the final argument for me. She brings a common sense overview to what I already knew - and you may find the same for yourself. My thanks to the blog Talking Points by Josh Marshall - link in right hand column - for listing her article this morning.

I contributed to the Dean campaign last fall and will continue to as I am able. He is depending on normal Americans contributing $100 each. This is happening and he will have the ability to defeat Bush. If we middle-class folks can get him elected then we will have a better future for our country. We can back off from bullying the rest of the world and go back to working with other countries. We can have national security without sacrificing our civil rights. We can have a domestic economy that allows us all to have a decent lifestyle and decent health care. That is my hope.