Went over to Blog for America and saw the new ad. I admit I haven't seen earlier ads, except for a brief peak at a recent "they voted for war" ad (ugh...), but I do think they took into account everything we've been saying. They went with a biography, emphasizing that Dean's a doctor (cute picture of him examining a toddler), played up VT's balanced budget, job creation, raising the minimum wage, and only a glancing note of foreign policy (not even mentioning Iraq directly). They even included a wedding picture of Howard and Judy!
As the comments at BFA noted, the narrator is not the best they could have gotten, but this ad makes the case for Dean that we wanted him to make before he started believing his own press. So guess what folks--they listened (or at least came to the same conclusions we did) and they're doing what we want them to do. Suddenly this makes me nervous, as I'm not sure we're as smart as we think we are. On the other hand, it's like a free focus group--might as well take it. If Dean does recoup his losses and fight another day, I think the 'roots will be a little less shy about telling him when he's going off course. In retrospect, many of us saw disaster coming in Iowa, but just refused to believe our guts and thought that Trippi knew something we didn't know. Guess what...he didn't know either so now we're all stupid together. Let's not let it happen again.