...unfortunately we're losing right now to the mighty Wurlitzer + Kerry and the other sadsacks.
To my first point, Dean may have initially supported the war, in the way of the Biden-Lugar amendment, but then thought better of it and by the time of the final war resolution was against it. And not against it really, but against the unilateral war which has cost us resources that could have been spread among our allies had a real case been made for war and had they been convinced to go along. This was a totally unpopular, campaign-crushing stance at the time. That he has since gained a lot of support because of that stance is not his problem, I'm afraid.
After the invasion, only Dean and Braun among the four candidates opposed to the war realized that to pull out would be immoral and suicidal. As Carol said, "we have to fix what we broke."
I think Dean and Braun have taken by far the best path on this issue in that had either been in charge we either would have been keeping Saddam in his box at a cost far less than $150-$250 billion. But since we opened that Pandora's box, by all means get Saddam.
Unfortunately for Dean, the wurlitzer implies with almost every breath that today's events hurt Dean specifically. There is no reason that it should. I don't know what we do to turn this perception around, other than to have Dean consistently repeat what his position has been.