IT IS NOVEMBER 2003, ISN'T IT?:

Democratic damage control: Do the candidates strengthen their case by criticizing each other? Or do they weaken the party? (David M. Shribman, October 29, 2003, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Former Gov. Howard Dean has an advertisement on the air characterizing his Democratic presidential rivals as failed politicians and captives of the Washington whirl. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman is criticizing retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark for being indecisive. Sen. John F. Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, is questioning whether candidates who haven't been under fire in wartime can understand "the experience of being one of those troops on the front lines when the policy has gone wrong."

Looks like the campaign has begun in earnest. And with it, two new debates -- one tactical, one strategic -- have broken out.

The tactical question: Is it smart for members of a party out of office to attack each other in the course of trying to get their party back into the White House?

The strategic question: Is it time for the various contenders to make the inevitable midcourse corrections to reflect the hardening reality on the campaign trail?

We pause first to note the hilarity of a "midcourse corrections" three months before the first delegates are awarded. But Howard Dean had an ad on the air today, here in NH, during the Sunday talk shows that began with his saying that Medicare is a big issue and all his opponents can talk about is what was said eight years ago. Huh? We follow politics reasonably closely here but how many Hampshiremen are paying enough attention right now to have any idea what his opponents are saying about Howard Dean?

Traditionally, this is the time in a presidential campaign when the candidates should be introducing themselves to voters and laying out their plans for America. The Dean campaign may think that since he's from Vermont he needs no introduction next door, but surely he should be leading off with some proposals. Beginning an ad campaign on the defensive, never mind on the defensive three months before the primary, seems truly bizarre. Democrats appear to be acting as if the nation is paying as much attention to them as they are to themselves. A proposition we find dubious.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 2, 2003 12:56 PM