Hart: The 'last idealist'

Calling himself "a kind of dusted-off old figure" and "the last idealist in America," Gary Hart said he may run for president in 2004 because prominent Democrats are not challenging the Bush administration's foreign policy.

Hart, 66, who spoke to about 150 people at Amherst College on Saturday, is on a tour of campuses to drum up support for his campaign and his anti-war platform.

The former U.S senator and presidential candidate in 1994 and 1998 said that he can win the presidency this time - despite the fact he has only recently begun to raise funds - if young people aged 19 to 25 and "concerned citizens" propel him to a victory in the New Hampshire primary.

He sure sounds like he's ready to run.  I suspect all this college campus touring is getting him fired up. 

"If you win New Hampshire, the whole thing changes," Hart said of the nation's traditional first primary election.

The whole thing changes indeed.  From a fellow idealist to the Senator: here's hopin'.