"Dean: Dominator or Detonator?" by David Broder, Washington Post

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60594-2004Jan6.html

Wednesday, January 7, 2004; Page A21

DES MOINES -- Howard Dean is now racing the clock to see what comes first -- nomination or detonation.

The former Vermont governor is closing in on the honor of leading the Democratic ticket at the same time that his critics and rivals are busily converting his own utterances into controversies that could blow his chances to smithereens. The nightmare possibility for the Democrats is that the two might happen at once -- that Dean will polish off his opponents just as he commits the gaffe of all gaffes, the one for which no repairs are possible.

It is hard to recall another challenger who has simultaneously outdistanced, out-organized and outmaneuvered the other candidates as thoroughly and swiftly as Dean has done, and at the same time has so thoroughly demonstrated a penchant for embarrassing himself.

Whatever happens the rest of the way, it is clear that the doctor has an instinct for the political jugular -- other people's and his own. Dean has been scoring despite himself -- and because of himself.

<>Were these isolated incidents, the damage might be minimal. But Dean has found so many ways in a short time to set people's teeth on edge -- with his comments about the Confederate flag, about his struggle to bring himself to talk religion in the South, about his variant positions on Medicare and trade and other issues -- that this is clearly a pattern.

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