If this is the worst that Dean opponents can find out of *100 hours* of raw footage, then Bush is facing a tough opponent. Dean said:

* that caucuses "are dominated by the special interests in both parties," which is both candid and true (and which, he can now argue, his broad-based Internet campaign has helped to counter);

* that George Bush in 2000 was "in his soul a moderate" -- which means he can now claim that Bush has mortgaged his soul to the right-wing extremists in his party; and

* that Gore was not "quick on his feet," which (although unflattering) was a candid observation that predicted Gore's weakness in the 2000 campaign.

If we had 100 hours of Gephardt or Clark or (heaven help us) Dubya on a talk show, I imagine the footage would be much, much more damaging to the candidate. If this is the worst that Dean walks away with, then he's going to give Bush a run for his money.

I'm not saying that he was factually incorrect, just that there could be some ammunition there for the others.

Then again he seems to be capable of generating fresh quotes for them to hop on at a pretty good clip...

Don't tell Halley.

Dean needs to fire back against the Terrible Trio with the same passion he showed on those tapes. For my money, Dean supporters LIKE that Dean on those tapes.

"You might be right, I may be crazy;
but it might just be a lunatic you're looking for."

----------penned by Somebody cool, I forgot who

No, Mike, I think it was written by Billy Joel. <rimshot>

Frankly, the idea of Mad Howie as President puts me in mind of Malcolm MacDowell as (consults Godwin's Law) Caligula.

Zigs, oh brother, you got problems.

You say that Dean supporters LIKE that Dean on the tapes....but Dean isn't trying to attract Dean supporters!!! He has them already (hence they are called "supporters).

He has to attracted the many in Iowa still on the fence and you don't do that by saying they are beholden to "special interests".

Again, Deaniacs are too optimistic about the power of "hate" to win over undecided and too rosy in their outlook of Howard's ability to avoid gaffes....these two taken together will be fatal to his candidacy.

>If this is the worst that Dean opponents can >find out of *100 hours* of raw footage, then >Bush is facing a tough opponent. Dean said:

Oh, this isn't the worse. The worse is spewed out by Dean every day and the show continues to get better with each passing day.

The status quo remains that Bush has nothing to fear when it comes to Dean.

Scott,

Certainly Dean can claim that Bush, who used to be "in his heart a moderate" has "sold his soul" and now believes "if you're rich you deserve it and if you're poor you deserve it".

However, the only people who are going to believe that are people who would never, ever have voted for Bush anyway. It just isn't consistent with observed reality. Bush's policies, with regard to taxes, welfare, etc, have been essentially identical to the ones he ran for office on. There's no "sold his soul" moment here.

And really, by any reasonable standard, he HAS been relatively moderate. He's definitely to the "left" of most of the Republican party on social spending, affirmative action, immigration, and free trade, for example.