If Howard Dean Were Candidate

[A_Wanderer]

Democratic voters should stick to their day jobs. With just five weeks until Election Day, there's reason to believe they guessed wrong — that Dean would be doing better against Bush than Kerry is. Yes, it's too late for Democrats to switch horses, but imagining how Dean might have done sheds light on what's going on now. Here's the logic:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1101041004-702123,00.html

Interesting article, general thing is that if you run on an anti-war platform it really helps to be an anti-war candidate. Dean was a centrist who was playing to the audience in the primaries, Kerry is something else alltogether.

 

[pax]

Unfortunately, I suspect this writer is correct.

I will still vote for Kerry and I think he's gotten some bad treatment...but, boy, sometimes I really miss Howard Dean.

 

[verte76]

The writer is onto something here. Some voters are upset about Iraq. Kerry can't get anything politically out of it; perhaps Dean could. Then again, there are question marks about Dean. His experience might be a liability. He doesn't have foreign policy experience, and Kerry does. It was claimed that Kerry was a beneficiary of 9/11, with his veteran's background and such. That hasn't been such strong stuff to run on as it turns out.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Yeah well, if Dean was the candidate, if, if, if.

IF. Am I the only one who remembers that Dean was supposed to be 'unelectable'? Couldn't possibly go with Dean, right? Who's taking advice from who?

Anyway, he's not the candidate.

 

[sharky]

You need to remember the negatives about Dean -- was governor of Vermont [not Texas -- there is a difference]. Never voted for the war because he was never forced to. No international experience. He had a great grass roots campaign but the Bush machine would have ripped him a new one and the damage would be much worse than what they've done to Kerry.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Did George Bush have international experience before 2000? I mean, seriously (leaving aside the fact that you elect a president, you do not elect the appointed administration which bears his name and which really runs foreign policy detail), did he?

With a few exceptions, recent US presidents have mostly risen to their posts from one or other of the state governorships, so how Dean was any different escapes me.

Anyway, blah blah etcetera. He's not the candidate.

 

[nbcrusader]

Kerry will flip into a Howard Dean role before flopping back to whatever he stands for.

 

[verte76]

Yeah, I mean we don't know, Dean could be fifteen points behind in the polls, the Republicans could have already ordered their champagne and I'd be psyched to handle a certain Bush victory. I'm still hoping there can be some competitiveness in the race, maybe I'm nuts but I don't like to throw in the towel before I have to.

 

[A_Wanderer]

Its generally better to wait until after the debates before throwing in the towell

This election can go either way - the polls may be showing one thing but you should always campaign like your 5 points behind.

 

[Flying FuManchu]

Dean and Clarck would have won IMO... Iraq is a Bush albatross that can't be truly taken advantage of by Kerry and Edwards....