2004, Here We Come

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In the language of American life, only two words have the power to outrage and anesthetize simultaneously: presidential campaign. For some, it's a sad fact that we are now always in the midst of campaign season, but — and bear with me here — we at TIME think of presidential politics as the world's most important parlor game. It really can be kind of fun.

A few months ago, Karen Tumulty went inside the mind of Al Gore and predicted that it was quite possible that he would skip another run at the White House. A month later Gore announced he was doing exactly that. In December Nancy Gibbs dissected the relationship between George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, who confirmed last week that he will again be part of the ticket. Two weeks ago, James Carney and John Dickerson examined the Bush re-election strategy, noting that while the President would focus on the economy, he would never skip a chance to remind voters of his military leadership. Cue the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln.

This week Joe Klein puts the nine announced Democratic candidates for President on the couch and offers a prescription for fixing the party's chronic election woes. From his days covering politics for Rolling Stone, New York, Newsweek and the New Yorker to his best-selling work of fiction — as Anonymous, he wrote Primary Colors, the scaldingly funny roman a clef about Bill Clinton — Joe has emerged as one of America's premier political journalists. I'm thrilled to have him at TIME, even if he occasionally questions the wisdom of hitting the road for another round of motel rooms and crack-of-dawn pancake breakfasts. "I don't really know why I keep doing this," says Klein. "It goes against all sanity, but you really do live for the moments when politicians surprise you — and I don't mean when they screw up, because that's never a surprise. I'm talking about the moments when they say something unexpectedly bold or romantic or compelling. It still excites me." Klein thinks it's too early to tell which Democrat might emerge with the confidence to take on Bush, but he thinks every candidate would be wise to crib a few notes from the Bush 2000 campaign. "Last time, the guy who most often surprised me, especially by his courage in going into the face of what his audience believed, was Bush. He was willing to challenge people's long-held assumptions on immigration and the poor. He just wasn't afraid."

There's plenty of time between now and Nov. 2, 2004, and you may still find yourself in need of an occasional vacation from presidential politics. Understood. But at TIME, we promise to keep you informed of everything that matters on the road to the White House. And with Joe and the rest of our political team, we also promise to keep things interesting.