Is Dean a leftie? The GOP thinks so and that's how they will tar him with the largest campaign war chest of money ever raised in U.S. history. Nothing less than Kerrry can win this election. Put Clark on the ticket as VP and you're assured a victory as the conservative Democrats, the moderate Republicans and the Independents will vote for them.


Will the Real Howard Dean Please Stand Up?

By Terry M. Neal
Washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Thursday, July 31, 2003; 8:57 AM

Howard Dean is not a liberal – or so say the liberals who know him best in his home state of Vermont.

"He governed from the middle," says former state Sen. Jan Backus.

Ironically, some of Vermont's Democratic Party stalwarts say Dean's centrism sent liberals running from their party to the ultra-liberal Progressive Party -- handing some elected offices to Republicans.

But such things as liberalism and conservatism are, just like beauty, in the eye of the beholder. The centrist Democratic Leadership Council has made Dean a target - as a liberal who could hand the presidential election to Republicans if he were to become the party's nominee.

Republicans are not so divided on the subject. To them, he's just an old-time, unreconstructed leftie.

"The question is through whose prism are you looking," says Vermont Republican chairman James Barnett. "Vermont's Democratic party is far to the left of mainstream Democrats nationally. I mean, this is a state whose congressman is Bernie Sanders. One of the senators is Patrick Leahy, who is one of the most liberal senators. In this state, if you're to the right of Bernie Sanders, then you're a moderate. So I imagine if that's the way you view things, maybe [Dean's] not a liberal."...





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