Kudos to CNBC for handling the Democratic debate with 10 candidates as smootly as they did. Al Sharpton had the best line.When they were talking about trade policy he said, "I'm here because of bad trade policy, all African Americans are here because of bad trade policy."

I think Kerry is doing very well. He has established himself as the only credible candidate. He is the only one, according to instinct and the polls, who can defeat Bush. Clark the other good poller against Bush, will fade against Bush because of his past baggage. Kerry is creating a ground swell under the radar and come crunch time, I think voters will go with a winner.

Edwards is also doing quite well. Someone had suggested that he'd be great as an attorney general. That would be very interesting and quite nice.

Dean is a very interesting phenomenon. What his campaign and the media don't realize is that his crowd are the Gen X tech savvy crowd with no families and happy go lucky. For that reason they can treat him like a rock star and put much into visbilty. The problem for him is that the closer that regular voters, families with children, problems, houses, etc get to Dea, the less appealing he is. What the media hasn't picked up on is that the Dean momentum has stalled. In Iowa he can't get past 24% and in NH Kerry is quickly closing the gap. Dean shot ahead because he has no other responsibilities and has practically lived in NH and Iowa. But as Kerry, Clark, Edwards and Gephardt step up their efforts in Iowa and NH, Dean's rose definitely loses its bloom.

Edwards has been the winner in all this. For one, he has gained double digits in Iowa, which is phenomenal and is leading in South Carolina. Why? Because he has shown himself to be of incisive intelligence coupled with his grace and charm. Bob Graham is also doing well in increasing his profile. He has shown the ability to understand and analyze complex issues and break the down. He would be a great Secretary of Defense.

Clark cannot last. He has too much baggage. Not to long ago, he expressed support for conservative republicans. He supported Nixon and Reagan. He also chided Bush for not being a true conservative. It is almost as though he should be running on the Republican ticket as the true compassionate conservative and true reformer with results. He is also close friends and admirers of too many of the disliked neo-cons.

I predict Kerry will win the Democratic nomination and will or could win against Bush.