Dean Scene
Preliminary election pieces like this one are always wrong. Over the years, there have been the Seven Dwarfs or the Little Nine, or whatever diminutive the press decides to apply as a sobriquet to the challenging party that year. President Bush I was still considered invincible at this stage in his 1992 campaign season. And President Clinton was considered to be dead in the water as late as February -- or a full 6 months further out. So these type of horse race analyses are usually wrong.
Dean has done a good job energizing core Democrazies with somewhat outlandish attacks on President Bush. But comments like these are simply not going to win over the middle 20% of America:
John Ashcroft is not a patriot," he said, referring to the attorney general's advocacy of the Patriot Act. "John Ashcroft is a descendant of Joseph McCarthy.
With Americans regularly experiencing the distinctly un-biased nonsense of airport scrutinizers strip-shoe-searching grandmothers, the hyper-charge of wild witch-hunting bias don't ring true.
I do believe the Democrats have a tough mix to concoct for next year. But they don't seem to heed the professor. It's to their disadvantage.
