"Dean has every right to be pissed off about the Osama ads in Iowa-- I slashed Kerry at the time for his associations with it, and Kerry dually disowned them."

kerry doesn't really disown the slander-ads until he disowns who funded them, which he evidently hasn't.

"I'm sorry-- Howard Dean is not progressive enough in his policies to claim to be some shining progressive alternative to Kerry. They're both moderate liberals; neither was a Kucinich or a Wellstone in their history of left stands."

I question your judgment when you equate progessivism directly with hard-left liberalism. Kucinich and Wellstone are admirable role models for liberalism, but Howard is far more progressive and reasonably centrist in his positions.

Count me as one who thinks we are better off with several candidates remaining in the race instead of anointing a candidate the way the Republicans did George W. Bush in 2000. We've already seen the results of that selection method.

yoda,

first off all the republicans scored an amazing victory in 2000. it is probably a campaign we should imitate (although pretty much too late for that)

secondly bush wasn't "anointed" he ran a somewhat tough campaign against mccain at least much tougher than it seems kerry's campaign is going to have to be.

Dean's not just a loser, he's an idiot.

He should've given up this leftier-than-thou nonsense a long time ago. He used it to get visibility in a crowded field -- and it worked! The reason, to me, he seemed like such a good candidate is that he's actually pretty fiscally conservative and has a great record to run on against Bush. Unfortunately, he's never tried to tack to the center.

Look, I gave the guy $250 and don't regret it. He clearly served a purpose in waking the Dems out of their slumber. But it's now clear to me that he really is an ego-maniacal madman, who honestly believes he's some kind of Jesus figure. My prediction: after Wisconsin, SEIU and IUPAT back off, and Dean slams them. Get out, Howard.

Dean has been the classic "rabbit" in a distance race: force the pace early, make the field actually run hard and not just jockey tactically for position so that a record can be broken. The twist is, he doesn't see himself as the rabbit and actually wants to win.

The question of Dean's position to criticize the "Washington insiders" is about how you define them. Dean is doing the "I don't owe nobody nothin' -- except the people!" rap, but he's hardly Huey Long in his policy stances. Kucinich, for one, has been attacking concentrated corporate power from Washington and before then from Cleveland -- Wellstone had a similar record. I can't speak for LaFollette, but most people who call themselves Progressive now want a direct attack on corporate power, and Dean wasn't at all about that as Gov in Vermont.

Just remember, everytime you think Kerry has a little backbone, what you are actually seeing is Dr. Dean's shin from when he rammed his foot up Kerry's ass. Kerry has laid down and let the GOP walk all over him time and time again. Dean was the first of the major candidates to stand up and criticize Bush. Without him, none of the other politicians would have done it.