Reply #15: I was prepared to remind everybody...

[GainesT1958]

That Dr. Dean was still the "front-runner" in New Hampshire and in several other places...

Then, I thought about his "scene" last night.

My wife, an ancestral Wisconsin liberal Dem. who lived in Chicago for 17 years (should tell ya plenty about HER political leanings!) came into the den asking, "Who is that man yelling?" I had the displeasure (even being for a rival of his, Gen. Clark, it was still a displeasure) of telling her, "It's Howard Dean...can you believe him?"

"No," she said, "he sounds like he's lost it".

"Apparently", I responded, "he has...in more ways than one!"

Now, I don't blame the Doctor for saying he was "just having a little fun with all those dedicated young people who came to Iowa to work hard for me"; really, I don't. But let's face it, folks...that sort of fun was best had at a "youth rally" DURING a campaign, not for what ammounted to a concession speech after you've just polled 14 points behind John Edwards and 20 points shy of John Kerry---and the first time many voters have seen you at any kind of speech situation. My wife had to pick up her jaw off of the carpet and put it back into place, and so did I with mine.

One word does come to mind, especially for the uninitiated:

Scary.

As WILL stated above, this is now a wide-open race, to be decided after---possibly WELL after--the Feb. 3 states. The "Final Four" supporters; those of Kerry, Dean, Clark, and Edwards, had better brace themselves--OURselves--for that fact, and all the hard knocks and inevitable mud-slinging that goes with it. If it's not a marathon now, it's at least more like the 1500 meters!

:kick:

B-)