Howard Dean's decline

[rexbo 104]

Howard Dean's decline

I know it is old news about Dean yelling at that guy to sit down, but can you imagine Bush being so pompous? The hypocrisy of the Democrats continues to amaze me.

The last week has been a nightmare for Dean. Beginning with a run-in on Sunday, Jan. 11, with a Republican heckler, he has looked increasingly less presidential. Dean's broad-brush painting of his Democratic opponents as warmongers has backfired, diminishing his identification as the essential anti-Bush candidate. He has failed to significantly reduce support for Rep. Richard Gephardt as his principal opponent, and instead lost backing to revived candidacies of Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards.

The extraordinary volatility of Democratic voters here is explained by their leaders as evidence of their passionate desire to defeat George W. Bush in November. "Electability" is the characteristic most mentioned by Iowa Democrats as what they seek in a presidential candidate. Support for Dean has slipped so sharply here because he is viewed as markedly less electable in view of his recent conduct.

Dean's problems nationally started when he dismissed the importance of capturing Saddam Hussein. But his Iowa slide began, says one prominent Democratic neutral, on Jan. 11 in the town of Oelwein, when a Republican heckler called Dean "pompous," accused him of "mean mouthing" and then interrupted him. Dean erupted, shouting: "You sit down! You had your say! Now, I'm going to have my say!"

[Tiger Al 0]

Hahaha...all this attention being given to Dean is hilarious!!! Don't you realize that Dean's loss is another Democrats gain? I like Dean to win but, honestly, I'd be as happy with Clark, Kerry, Edwards and even Gephardt. Any of them will be better than what we've got.

[TitanTiger 21,237]

Wow, TigerAl...this is in sharp contrast to your "Fear the Dean" responses before. The truth is, things are going just like I said they would. The frontrunner of the moment takes the most heat. When someone else emerges as the main guy, the blasts will move his way and a similar disenchantment will set in for him. It's how politics are done here.

[CarolinaTiger 0]

all along, i've 'feared the ed(wards)'

i think he is the one that appears most sane, he's a pretty-boy, and can outspeak (from an eloquence standpoint) any of them.

he's short on foreign affairs experience, but who isn't? i predict he'll be the VP nominee for the dems IFF he doesn't win the nomination outright.

ct

[Tiger Al 0]

I'd say by all the Dean posts by you guys, especially Mike, 'Fear the Dean' is an apt statement. I don't recall seeing one anti-Edwards post.

Fear the DEMS!!!

[rexbo 104]

NONE of the Democrats will be better than what we have. Clinton left our country in a very precarious position in 2000; down turn in the stock market, entering a recession, and Osama spooling up, with no resisitance from the USA, for a major terrorist attack. If you had told anyone on September 12th about all of the good things happening now, the stock market soaring, no other major attack on the US, the threat of WMD falling in the hands of Al Queda seriously diminished, both Afghanistan and Iraq making strong progress towards democracy, everyone would have said BS. And there is no doubt in my mind, if a Democrat had been in office during this time, NONE of these good things would have happened.

Back to the Democratic candidates; this is hard for me to say, but Bill would be better than any of these nut cases; now, even harder for me to say, Hillary would be better than any of these guys!!!

[TitanTiger 21,237]

I'd say by all the Dean posts by you guys, especially Mike, 'Fear the Dean' is an apt statement. I don't recall seeing one anti-Edwards post.

Fear the DEMS!!!

Again, it's only because Dean was the front runner, and virtually the anointed nominee a couple of weeks back. Then he opened his mouth and all hell broke loose.

Given the amount of Bush-bashing and Republican bashing that goes on around here, I think this "fear the _______" argument rings rather hollow.

[DKW 86 7,899]

The one, and only one, I "fear" is Clark. He is a moderate like Clinton "said" he was supposed to be. He has War credibility, but so does Kerry.

Kerry has to overcome that uber-rich white boy liberal from NE thing that will likely end his Presidential run.

Edwards, he could be problems but is not well known nor experienced enough.

Gephardt, please let it be Gephardt. He cant raise money and seems dull as a rock. He is just not electable and has a bad record on taxes, more ways than one. He is liked by the old guard Dems tho.

Lieberman, I actually like this guy. Pro-Israel, and understands the Middle East.

Dean, be still my beating heart. Has so much money and is so unelectable that he may have taken cash away from someone that actually had a chance.

[Tiger Al 0]

Interesting remark about Edwards. Tell me, in what ways do you think he's less experienced than Bush was in 2000?