Disclaimer: I am an early Dean backer and contributor. I am still interested in Wes Clark.
I am still standing with Dean. Nobody has said the flyers were actually authorized by anybody in the Dean campaign as far as I know. Until the facts come out, I would suggest that this is more like a thug trick than something Dean would do.
I have been an anti-basher for a long time and it is just not smart politics for a 'frontrunner'. Dean was concentrating his fire on Bush, not Clark, which is the strategy that I would take in his position.
If it turns out that the flyers were actually from Dean, I am going to come down on it. But it is pretty minor compared to the disgusting 'Vote Green rather than Dean' rhetoric that was flying around here a month ago.
There are several reasons for my pro-Dean stance.
- All the others in the race at the time were Washington insiders, or had no chance in hell of getting the nomination. Clark entered the race after I chose Dean. Now there are two outsider candidates and that is good. I am no longer even much interested in the other candidates, other than promising to pull the Dem lever for president in November 2004.
- Dean is a fighter and he has that stubborn stick-to-itiveness you must have if you are going to change the system. However, many economic advisors, including Paul Krugman, were advising Dean to stop calling for the rollback of the middleclass tax cuts. I was too, if you look back in my Diary entries. However, I am not a famous economist. So Stick-to-itiveness can work against you too. Dr. Dean is reacting to changes in the world, like a good doctor should.
Now Dean is in a two-person race that we all knew it would boil down to sooner or later. Clark had a masterstroke with his Tax Reform Plan and Dean will look like a 'me-too' on the issue. So he should come up with something better and get on the stick. Attacking Clark is still stupid, in fact, Dean should congratulate him on his idea. 'Call him and Raise him' in poker parlance.
3) This is the most important reason that I am still sticking with Dean. Dean has always had, and shared with Dems, a laser-like vision of what had to be done to beat George W. Bush. I have called it a 'Recipe for CHICKEN-hawk' for quite some time.
I have asked and asked Clarkies to define their national campaign strategy and pointed to the OPT-IN as a mistake. Al Gore suffered from the same OPT-IN strategy and he 'almost won'. But that is not enough this time around. And muttering some mushy stuff about 527s saving the bacon of an army out of ammo for a couple of months is a recipe for disaster, and doesn't cut it for me.
I don't want an emasculated Dem president sitting in a barricaded Whitehouse awaiting a snarling Tom DeLay lead impeachment scandal to be trumped up. I want some strong vital Dems in there stirring up misery for the remaining Thugs in congress.
So until I hear a believable 'Recipe for CHICKEN-hawk' I am still for Dean to the convention. Dean can win the Dem Nom and he can take out George W. Bush and a couple of dozen Thugs along with Georgie.
That said, I will support the Dem Nominee, just like Dean has said he will do.
I still think Clark and Dean are natural allies and will be soon. Don't be faint of heart Dems, Clarkies and Deaniacs, we have Bush to bring down and Rove Orcs to drive out of office!