WASHINGTON: Will the Democratic nomination be worth having in 2004? Nobody knows. Certainly the Democratic party faces a long, hard, lean year in 2003 as America turns its attention to the likely war in Iraq.

The Democratic contest opens with a field of six candidates. We can write off two of them right away: the black activist Al Sharpton, who is running to make a point, and Howard Dean, the Vermont governor whose base is too small to sustain a candidacy. Dick Gephardt, the former Democratic minority leader, is likely to drop by the wayside early on. That leaves the three serious contenders, all US senators: Joseph Lieberman, of Connecticut (who ran for vice-president in 2000), John Kerry, of Massachusetts, and John Edwards, of North Carolina.

In 2000, a new phenomenon emerged in US politics: the role of the independent voter in party primaries.

In the last contest for the nomination for president, they backed Senator John McCain against Bush in the Republican primary and Senator Bill Bradley against Gore in the Democratic contest. —Dawn/The Guardian News Service.