Demo prez candidate and cyberdarling Howard Dean managed to tick off a few folks in New York City when he commissioned an urban-artistic backdrop for a recent campaign appearance there. The piece came out as a graffiti version of a Dean for President billboard, and those who find graffiti ugly, offensive, and expensive noticed.

The Deanies are defending the choice as free expression, noting that they would never censor an artist. No, but they should have realized that those of us who spend time and money cleaning up after taggers don't find it amusing when a guy from Vermont (total graffiti incident count for 2002: 12) comes to town and basks in the glow of this particular form of vandalism.

Oh well. I don't mind Dean. He's the 2004 version of Nader, and at least he's staying in the Democratic Party. If he moves some of the corporate weasel candidates like Joe "Insurance Company" Lieberman over to the left a step, and he keeps the youngsters from doing something dumb like voting for a third-party candidate, he deserves my gratitude.

But head-to-head against Bush, he'd get creamed.