Howard Dean and the Right Wing Slander Machine

Frequently, left-leaning bloggers and print media pundits try and argue that Dean is just as electable as any other candidate. They often point on that the GOP will run the same sort of attacks against Wesley Clark, Joseph Lieberman or who ever else teh Democrats nominate, that our party will always be smeared for being soft on defense, anti-religion and for raising enormous tax hikes. This a legitimate issue to raise, but the Dean supporters miss the point. It is true that the Republicans will go after the Democratic nomineed for being "too far left" no matter what, but their broadsides will damage some Democrats more than others. For example, the Republicans will be a lot less believable if they tried to question the patriotism or national security experience of Wesley Clark than the Governor of a small liberal state. Most of the other major candidates want to keep the portions of the Bush tax cuts which benefit middle class Americans in place, but Dean falls right into the Republican party's trap by proposing rolling back the tax cuts completely. For this reason, Dean can be more plausibly (if unfairly) attacked as a tax-and-spend liberal than the other candidates. These just a few instances where Republican attacks would be more believable in the case Governor Dean, but there are many more and I remain deeply skeptical about his chances for success.