The race for the Democratic presidential nomination shifts into a more intense phase this Labor Day weekend, with some party leaders worried about the crowded field of candidates and fearful of what they view as President Bush's huge advantage going into next year's election.
Many prominent Democrats said that Mr. Bush might be vulnerable, given problems with the economy, and continued American fatalities in Iraq. But they said he could be unseated only by an aggressive, partisan challenge that builds on Democratic anger lingering from the 2000 election, and by a nominee who somehow managed to survive a complicated nominating fight that was pulling their party to the left.
"It's going to be tough," said Walter F. Mondale, the former vice president who lost his challenge to Ronald Reagan in 1984. "You're trying to beat an incumbent who has all this money, and who has got the field all to himself, while all this infighting is going on in the Democratic Party."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/31/politics/campaigns/31ELEC.html?hp