One of the themes i think why Kerry won in Iowa was the tax issue. He effectively said Dean and Gephardt would raise middle class taxes. He said that was unfair. see his ad:
http://johnkerry.com/videos/
Most voters bought into this. And why the hell Gephardt and Dean never challenged him on this (because they were too busy killing each other) baffles me. well, Dean better do it now. Once Kerry went with this, i actually became even more anti-Kerry. becuase we all know its political opportunism and Dean used to call the others on it ("Politicans can't all promise these things and then balance the budget"). CLinton campaigned on the middle class tax cut in 1991. Once he got in office, and saw the deficit, he abandoned this promise and never really enacted it. So Clinton NEVER CUT MIDDLE CLASS TAXES. at least directly. for any Democrat to buy into any of Bush's tax cuts is ludicrous to me.
If Kerry does get into office, he will confront an even worse structural deficit than Clinton ever did, a war without an end right now in Iraq, and the looming baby boomer retirements. There is no way in heck he will keep his middle class tax promise. this is sheer crass political calculation and i wish it would backfire (as a public finance person). Maybe the press can get off of Dean's yebel yell and start asking Kerry these questions.