Ah, the URL box. Its purpose? Could be, a link to a topic I'm about to discuss. We shall find out.

The Dean appearance on "K Street" (which I did not see, only read about) is an interesting situation. First off, from Dean's perspective, how do you pass up a chance to do debate prep with James Carville? On the other hand, surely the campaign believes there is some benefit to be had with the public at large, too. Dean is not such a political novice that he would miss that angle. I'm sure their reasoning was, as Carville points out, large segments of the population still don't even recognize his name, much less anything else about him, and an appearance on HBO Sunday night opens him up to a whole new audience. (I mean, the man's been on the cover of Time magazine, but HBO? That's a whole new ballgame.)

On the other hand, from my perspective, it somewhat diminishes him as a serious candidate. I know the whole premise of "K Street" is blurring the lines between reality and fiction, but at the end of the day, it's still a fictional series about a fictional lobbyist firm. Obviously, I already knew about Dean prior to his appearance Sunday night, and so maybe I'm not the person they're trying to reach out to. (Furthermore, I don't even have HBO, so in theory, I only know about it at all because I'm a huge nerd, and who wants to court the nerd vote?)

It's a tough position to be in. It's also shocking to me that they would even feel it is necessary to go on this show to raise awareness of Dean with the public. This man is now considered (by some people) to be the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, and he needs to go on a fictional TV show to raise awareness? Ow, you're hurting me.