Guardian: Dean's bid for Whitehouse Alarms Blair allies
New Labour allies of Tony Blair are becoming alarmed at the prospect of a Howard Dean US presidential candidacy, fearing it will create formidable tensions in the traditional transatlantic Democrat-Labour alliance.
Amid concerns that a Dean presidential campaign would be dominated by attacks on the Bush-Blair invasion of Iraq, one ally of the prime minister has suggested that he would prefer anyone but Mr Dean as president, although in public Mr Blair will be careful to ensure Labour and Downing Street are seen as neutral in the Democrat race.
Personally, I think Tony Blair deserves the ashcan of history for supporting Bush in the war on Iraq. Still, Blair miscalculated pretty badly about Bush I think and miscalculated about the war. He is a decent guy and much better for Britain than any Tory. If Dean is the nominee he is going to have to work very hard to patch things up with Blair and find some common ground on which to build the Democrat/Labor alliance back into something that will help both sides against their conservative opponents. Blair would be well advised to shut his friggin allies up and start the process of looking for common ground with Democrats. Moreover, I think that Dean is not going to be any worse for Tony Blair than Clark. Both opposed the war and both have highlighted the lies that were used to justify the war.