Comparisons are in order, but not to Ronald Reagan. Reagan felt the pulse of a pent-up conservative backlash against serious challenges to this country's social and economic values by reigning liberal Democrats. Dean is best compared to Walter Mondale, who attempted to get a relatively stable and sucessful nation to vote for him by promising more of the same economic malaise and social decay the people rejected by voting for Reagan four years ago.
Howard Dean may think he is running to win by bucking his party's more prescient members, but he is in fact doing the exact opposite of what Reagan did, from a purely political point of view. More like Mondale, he is asking the American people to vote for the same decay that Al Gore represented, and I personally doubt it would have worked even before September 11. Heck, I think I may contribute to him, just to see another 49 state landslide.
Tasty Manatees