Howard Dean's recent flip flops on ending his effort in Wisconsin is helping Senator Kerry in a couple of ways. For One, Dean seems erratic and certainly unpresidential. Secondly, he keeps the campaign split into Kerry vs 3 main challengers. This assures Kerry of winning headlines and the lions share of delegates.
To highlight this trend, here are some comments from ABC's Note, 2/10/04:
Kerry is getting more attention in these states with primaries and caucuses BECAUSE there are pseudo-contests, so his campaign isn't aggressively trying to force people out of the race. In addition, because no one is running negative ads against Kerry -- and the candidate attacks are mild -- the party and the Kerry campaign aren't desperate to get them out, either.
So, say, Kerry wins both Tennessee and Virginia. That could well drive Clark from the race. But that would still leave, potentially, Dean and Edwards to battle in Wisconsin.
As we said the other day, multiple opponents are good for Kerry, because he can win without facing head-to-head scrutiny.
So it is sort of a game of chicken, as, in particular, Dean and Edwards try to maintain enough credibility to hold on and get Kerry one-on-one for at least one day of contests. And if Kerry might be considering Edwards as his running mate, the exposure the North Carolinian will get in the upcoming states (especially the big Super Tuesday ones) will be good for the ticket.