Except for his assumption that the (reb) flag wavin', gun totin' Southerners are poor. Most of them are doing just fine.

Condescending, I'd say.

"...reaching out to poor white people."

Would Dean be referring to "white trash"?

Evidently, Governor Dean hasn't been south of the Mason-Dixon in a long time, if ever.

Zell Miller hit the nail on the head, he's a shallow Yankee interloper as far as Southerners are concerned.

His crack about the stars and bars actually shows how out of touch he is with Southern voters. He'll get some votes in Atlanta, but the rest of Georgia will be very "red".

Dean strikes me as cocky. I imagine Iowa (goodbye Gephart) and New Hampshire (kiss-off Kerry) are in the bag, from his point of view. On to South Carolina, where he will beat Edwards, by defending the Confederate flag (notice that the Clairol guy ain't said boo about this non-issue).

Fred Jacobsen
San Francisco

When is Dean going to realize that what most Southerners want is for him to defend the AMERICAN flag....Let's start (and end) there.

Republicans "misunderestimate" the ability of Democrats to run campaigns to the "right of center". For instance, illegal immigration can easily be demogogued by Democrats and it would be supported their most loyal supporters (blacks and unions). The socialist left would have no problem with it.

Given the results in KY and MS (big Repub wins by ten and eight points, respectively) I think the Dems are kidding themselves about the South. Clinton benefitted from his Sista Souljah moment because he was from the South and actually stood a chance of picking up some suthern states. Dean is a Yankee of Yankees, and no blathering about the Confederate flag will help him in Dixie.

All Dean can do with his maneuver is turn off the black base of the Dem vote. His Confederate flag defense is all pain, no gain. I'm starting to think that he could be upset in Iowa by Gephardt, given a scare in New Hampshire by Kerry, and beaten by Edwards in South Carolina. At that point he doesn't look like the front-runner any more.

Dean would benefit, I think, from coming in second in Iowa and South Carolina, as long as he loses to different people.

First, it would head off a surge by an "anti-Dean", which is apparently the strategy of at least three of the top six Dems.

Secondly, Dean would benefit from having to struggle to win, just as Bush benefitted enormously from having McCain in the race. In fact, it's my opinion that Gore would have beaten Bush, if Bush had simply stopped by the GOP convention to pick up his nomination.

Michael:

With all due respect, that seems quite wrong. Absent a challenger to the Left, Bush could have run as the moderate, compassionate conservative he'd positioned himself to campaign as. McCain made him seem a raving Gingrichite and used Bob Jones to make him appear anti-Catholic, costing him PA, MI, and other fairly Republican states he should have carried.

The flag flap helps Dean nationally because it pushes him to the Center, but he can't win the party nomination if he leaves people to his Left.

I can't see how Dean would benefit from losing two out of the first three races. This would make him look like a front-runner? The media would start to sniff blood in the water - just as they would have with Bush in 2000 if the South Carolina "fire wall" hadn't held.

I still don't see how Dean gains from this silly flag flap (couldn't resist). He's not going to win anything in the South, and he's just turning off crucial black votes in the Northeast and Midwest. Dumb, dumb, dumb. He's following Clinton's playbook, alright, but he's not Clinton. Somebody should tell Dean he's not an Arkansas good ol' boy and he stands no chance of picking up any southern states.

Is he referring to the pickups with confederate
flags and VT plates with "Take Back Vermont"
stickers? There is such a thing. Really!

This just shows that Al Sharpton is the indispensible candidate. I am so looking forward to his convention speech.

It gets worse and worse for Dean. He just expressed "regret" for the "deep pain" that his flag comments caused.

Puh-leeze.

Dean had already irritated Southerners and cemented his "damn Yankee" image with his "poor whites" condescension. He had worsened his standing with black voters who are essential to any Dem presidential candidate. Now he's publicly backed down to Al Sharpton, which will make him look weak to many voters of all ideologies.

Is this guy ready for prime time? His problem is simple: he thinks he's smarter than everybody else. So he runs his mouth carelessly because he believes he's got such profound things to say.

If Gephardt skunks him in Iowa and Kerry comes close in New Hampshire, I'm starting to think the Vermont Gasbag will, uh, deflate in a hurry.

oj:

It seems to me that McCain sharpened Bush. Prior to McCain's surge, Bush was coasting, which would have left him out of shape during the general election. Recall, he'd raised so much money, so early, that everyone else gave up early.

Be nice if we could peek into an alternate universe, and see what happened without McCain.

Casey:

The point is to stay in the forefront, without lapping the pack. Say Dean comes in a close second in two of the first three contests, and wins one, whereas, say, Gephardt and Edwards win one apiece, but finish out of the top three in the other contests. Dean's still the frontrunner, but his opponents have to split their attentions, and can't concentrate on Dean.

Michael:

We may not be able to see alternate realities, but I suspect we can agree on something. If John McCain had been the nominee, he'd have beaten Gore. He was a stronger general election candidate than Bush and a very strong Party candidate. I don't ever recall an eventual presidential winner defeating anyone that strong. Reagan vs. Ford and Kennedy vs. Carter are probably the closest parallels.