Reply #6: They say Dean has really changed the whole contour of the race [View All]

[UnapologeticLiberal]

And that a lot of candidates are readjusting their campaigns to fight him, when they had originally expected him to be no more than a little annoyance (and most of the campaigns welcomed him because they thought all he could do was weaken Kerry enough for one of them to get the nomination). I have definitely seen evidence of that in terms of campaign tactics (the other campaigns are racing to catch up with Dean's savvy use of the internet) but I am not so sure that I have seen a shift to the left in policy by most of the candidates as a result of Dean's surge.

As for Kucinich, I am not sure he has pulled the field that much, but I do think his calls to cancel NAFTA and the WTO have forced the other Democrats to explain their support for it and to call for a lot of changes. In general, I think he has had the effect of moving the Democrats to adopt a more protectionist view on trade and a more progressive position on labor issues in general. I think part of it is the heavy influence of organized labor in the Iowa caucuses, but I also think the Kucinich, and Gephardt to a lesser extent, have pulled the debate further to the left on labor and trade issues.