DEAN PLAYS CATCH-UP - San Diego Union Tribune

[question everything]

(snip)

"No matter which poll you look at, this looks like a total collapse for Dean," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, the University of Southern California political analyst who spent the last two weeks monitoring the campaigns in New Hampshire and South Carolina.

(snip)

What Neel laid out as the new campaign strategy is nothing if not unconventional. Where previously Trippi had boasted of a 50-state strategy with serious efforts to win everywhere every week, Neel now talks only of picking up some delegates today and hoping to become "the last standing alternative to John Kerry" after the Wisconsin primary Feb. 17.

(snip)

Analysts disagree on the actual moment when Dean began to slide from his front-runner's perch. Some point to the Dec. 13 capture of Saddam Hussein, when Dean's somewhat sour reaction seemed at odds with a nation celebrating the news.

Jeffe put it four days earlier, Dec. 9, when former Vice President Al Gore endorsed Dean. "Dean had sold himself as an outsider, and then he began to surround himself with the most visible known political insiders in the Democratic Party, starting with Al Gore," Jeffe said. "That began to test his credibility. Then the deal was sealed – or unsealed – with the post-election rant."

(snip)

Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/tue/news/news_1n3dean.html

[displacedtexan]

1. Wow! Really bad news!

The rest of the article is stinging.

[Straight Shooter]

2. There we go again, calling it a rant.

Has anyone for one moment considered what Dean's pep rally would have sounded like if his supporters who had gathered to hear him speak had been in their thirties and forties? You can bet he would have tailored his speech and it would have been much more solemn and sedate. Dean understands sympatico.

But people don't think about that. I hope they remember Dean the next time they go to a community ballgame and are cheering themselves hoarse for their local team over something a lot less serious than the future of this country.

[displacedtexan]

4. I like Dean... but the world is watching...

and the world needs a dignified statesman right now. The cockroach slur, the scream (even with the audience drowning it out), and the DK slams (I'm the only one...) haven't convinced the world that we can defeat the freak monkey and restore the peace.

[CWebster]

3. Such garbage. Dean called the capture of Saddam right

Kerry should be flapping in the wind for accusing Dean of poor judgement.

People who are easily misled - and the media who herds them, perhaps prefer to select the candidates who embody their own illusions. They don't want to be confronted with the truth--it is uncomfortable to confront or admit that you were played.

[Anwen]

5. What a fine piece of journalism.

NOT :mad:

[creativelcro]

6. LOL: San Diego Tribune... Not worth the paper it' is printed on...