Eric Alterman smashes a home run today at
Altercation:
"Anway, back to the base vs. swing thing. The punditocracy, which hates Dean, has only token liberal representation, being almost entirely made up of hard-right conservatives and DLC-type swings, who prefer moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats to liberals. The thing is they swing on different issues than the rest of the country, mainly, how much does the candidate suck up to them personally and how willing is he to go to war at the slightest excuse? Dean is not only claiming the mantle of liberalism--a bit unfairly, but there it is--he is also sticking his finger in the collective eye of the pundits on both counts. He doesn't believe in war as an instrument of policy and he lets the pundits know they are idiots. The base loves this. The media hate it. How will the non-38s react? We don't know yet, but that's the gamble that Democrats appear ready to take."