Rothenberg on Dean: "As a strategy, it is a loser's strategy" [View All]

[Feanorcurufinwe]

Today, his bank account nearly drained by his go-for-broke strategy, his political viability in question after consecutive losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, Dean has settled on a new strategy. It not only contradicts his earlier one, but it also defies conventional political wisdom and marks another attempt by his unconventional campaign to plow a new course to the presidency.

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"As a strategy, it is a loser's strategy," said Stuart Rothenberg, an independent political analyst in Washington. "It assumes you can resurrect a campaign three weeks, five weeks, seven weeks from now, that you will have enough resources, enough enthusiasm, to make that happen. Each week it gets harder to demonstrate that you're a serious candidate and people aren't wasting their votes by voting for you."

Steve Murphy, who managed the unsuccessful campaign of Representative Richard A. Gephardt, said: "As a strategy, it's positively bizarre; as spin, it's the best he's got."

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Speaking earlier on "Meet the Press," Dean said: "If we get blown out again and again and again . . . if somebody else gets more delegates and they clinch it, of course I'm not going to go all the way to the convention just to prove a point, but I'm going to be in this race as long as I think I can win. And I have always said that I don't think this race is going to be decided until after March 2 or perhaps March 9 or even later than that, and we're going to do everything we can to stay in."

Yet by starting out as a candidate aiming to clear the field, and then arguing that he should not be considered a sore loser by remaining a candidate with more losses than wins, Dean has raised questions within the Democratic Party and among some supporters about whether his ultimate achievement will not be victory, but the weakening of the party nominee.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/articles/2004/02/02/new_dean_strategy_raises_eyebrows/