Wisconsin is Dean's last hope

This morning while on my way to work in St. Paul, Minnesota Public Radio reported on Howard Dean's visit to Madison, Wisconsin yesterday to cheer on his supporters at a meetup there.  Dean all but said that if he didn't win in Wisconsin's Feb. 17th primary that he'd be out of the race.  Given that Wisconsin's Democrats are a fairly liberal lot, the state is Dean's last and best hope to win somewhere before Super Tuesday.

MPR then spoke with a professor of political science from LaCrosse, WI about how the primary was shaping up, and the skinny was that while Dean topped the one poll done in the state so far, that was prior to Iowa and John Kerry would likely do well in Milwaukee where Democrats are generally more moderate.  The professor also said that Wes Clark had opened a campaign office in Eau Claire, WI and to me that indicates Clark's desire to appeal to voters in the more rural northern portion of the state.  But the professor also added that John Edwards had the sort of message that could appeal to Wisconsin voters and that Edwards was only now beginning to get that message out.

Given that Wisconsin's primary will be the only one occuring on Feb. 17th, the candidates may decide to all make major appearances in the state as that's where the media's focus will also be.  (Given that it may be Dean's last stand will also attract the media, of course.)  As a Wisconsin resident myself, I'm looking forward to my state getting it's moment in the national political spotlight.  Yah hey!...   ;-)