...are greatly exaggerated.
I am so tired of people wimping out on Dean. Who ever said this was going to be easy? Hubris, pure and simple, and not Dean's per se, but his troops'. Dean was fond of saying "no votes have been cast yet, and it's dangerous to be front-runner". He knew it was coming.
Kerry got practically written off, now he's back from the dead and in first place. Does anyone think Dean has less resilience than Kerry? Kerry was down to his wife's money. Dean is still raising tons of his own.
The wonderful thing about insurgent campaigns is they attract political novices, and young people. Unfortunately that's also the worst thing about them. Old farts are better at understanding that just because you're hurting bad, you aren't necessarily gonna die. Trust me, I entered that category some time ago.
I don't see that anything fatal has happened to Dean yet. He took some well-timed hits, just before Iowa, and his enemies should be congratulated. But none of them will leave permanent marks, let alone kill him. Nor is there any evidence he can't handle a beating. His reaction was swift and graceful.
Give the man a chance, if you truly support him. Or go follow Kerry, until he gets whacked again, and you have to panic and run in circles once more. I for one think Kerry's got more potentially fatal liabilities than most of the field. Or start some inane unaligned movement -- that's a winner! As if you could win by not placing a bet.
We all need to think beyond next week. New Hampshire may not be pretty, but Dean will survive it, and that will say something.