"UM, NO":

Tide of Second Thoughts Rises Among Democrats (ADAM NAGOURNEY and CARL HULSE, 1/09/04, NY Times)

[I]n dozens of conversations with voters across central Iowa over the past three days, it became clear that some Democrats are taking a second look at the doctor from Vermont whose candidacy has transformed the Democratic presidential contest.

Such qualms could benefit Senator John Edwards of North Carolina and Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. Both were often mentioned by voters as strong alternatives to Dr. Dean.

"I don't know why, but there is just something that makes me uncomfortable about Dean," Laura Sims of Webster City said on Thursday.

In Baxter, after a town hall meeting with Representative Richard A. Gephardt, Al Flyer, an I.R.S. agent, said that among Democratic voters, there was a "little bit of mistrust there" toward Dr. Dean.

"It's what you see is not what you get," said Mr. Flyer, who added that he had not decided whom to support. [...]

Yet the concerns voiced in interviews come during a rough month for Dr. Dean: what his own aides have described as political missteps — such as saying that the capture of Saddam Hussein had not made the United States safer — have coincided with a stretch of time when many voters in Iowa are making decisions. Today, the campaign was confronted with an NBC News report about critical statements Dr. Dean made about the Iowa caucus system in a television interview four years ago.

Dr. Dean's advisers have been watching for signs of deterioration in his standing, a difficult thing to measure in Iowa because of the unusual nature of the caucuses, all the more so this year given the number of new voters Dr. Dean has brought into the process. [...]

Whether it all matters is another question. In Webster County, some of the voters interviewed were not interested in the Democratic field at all, expressing strong satisfaction with President Bush.

"I am pretty happy with Bush," said Peter Lann, 60, of Fort Dodge, an unemployed cook whose son is serving in the Navy as a salvage diver. "At least he has done something."

Can Mr. Bush be beaten? "That's a real hard question," Mrs. Hansen, the retired Maytag worker, said in Newton. "Because, um, no."

How do we make it until pitchers and catchers report in non-election years?

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 10, 2004 7:31 AM