Last spring when Kerry was doing very well in the polls, the DLC was worrying about how they were going to present the most liberal member of the Senate as a "centrist".
No Deans real problems is that he is not even a centirst, but his political record is littel differentiated from that of a moderate Republican. His fiscal policy does not follow the Democratic Centrist playbook for fiscal policy (the Hyde Park Declaration which calles for fiscal responsibility based on pprogressive taxation, not Deans fiscal conservatism, whiich is based on cutting government spending).
There is little in Deans record which one can present as actively supporting or fighting for liberal or progressive social ideas. Except for shifting medicaid coverage in Vemront from disabled adults to children (while Dean as governor, for 7 out of the 11 years he was governor, the nuber of people who were uninsured actually rose as much as 50 percent see:
http://www.leg.state.vt.us/jfo/Vermont%20Uninsured.pdf.)
His policy on criminal rights was downright Draconian, and he was known to have stated that he didnt beleive that the state should have to pay to defend criminals who didnt have money, as 95 percent of them were guilty anyway. See:
http://rutlandherald.com/Archive/Articles/Article/31792). He actually refused to allow opiate addicts who were arrested access to methadone treatment, as he opposed the use of methadone, but also didnt offer any other form of treatment, leaving addicts without medical treatment in jail..see
http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/12_20_01vermont2.cfm)
Then we could also talk about his vetoing of various legislation that would have greatly benefited the public, but since such legislation would not benefit the various energy industries and pharmaceutical industries that bankrolled Deans campigns for governor, not much else could be expected from the governor. In particular, his threat to veto medical marijuana legislation that passed both the Vemront House and Senate, as well as being supported by 70 percent of the Vermont Public in every poll taken, primarily because the pharmaceutical indstry lobbied heavily against it is another example.
The only two positive liberal evnts that occured in Vermont while Dean was Governor were items which were forced on him, an which he offered no support to prior to them being forrced on him
Civil Unions was something Dean refused to say anything about, support or not, for the entire time it was in the Vermont Courts, and when the liberals in the Vermont Legislature presented him initially with a bill that allowed gay marriage, Dean cme out in opposition to it, so the legislature had to backtrack and present him with civil unions.
Vermont's progressive property tax was opposed by Dean, ut when the Vermont Supreme Court said that the version he preferred was unconstitutional, Dean had to let the Vermont Legislature create a progressive property tax, but he would take no part in its creation.
In reality. It is not even possible to discribe Dean as a centrist. This was really Trippi's idea, to play down Deans conservatism. Now that Trippi is gone, Dean's attempts to present himself as a liberla are simply muddled, and he has now resorted to virtually beggin the Wisconsin voters not to pay atention to the polls.
THey are not, they polls are indicative of what the people of Wisconsin have paid attention to about Dean. It looks like they dont quite like him as the two most recent polls place Kerry far in the forefront, and Dean who was in 2nd place in Wisconsin a few days ago, has fallen to 4th place in polls released today.
I am afraid that Dean might have done better if he had played his campaign far closer to his actual record than to have tried to play someone he is not. Eventually, in a campaign like this, how what you have done does not mesh with what you are saying eventually catches up to you. Hats what the media is for.
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