Free Republic

<p>So, no sooner does Sen. John Kerry emerge from the New Hampshire primary as the Democrats' fragile frontrunner than word gets out that ex-President Bill Clinton is flying down to Washington to plan the Democrats' return to the White House, and at this "high-level" meeting Sen. Hillary Clinton will join him. What is this all about? Are the Democratic presidential contenders not capable of sorting things out on their own? Two, after all, were coaxed into the race by the Clintons, Sen. John Edwards and Gen. Wesley Clark.</p>

Dick Morris is on Al Rantels show in Los Angeles discussing the falling Howard Dean. Morris - "If A is attacking B, and B is attacking A, then C and D will benefit." Al asked who is behind the attacks on Dean. Morris told him that it couldn't be Gephardt because he doesn't have the money to pay someone 250K to do the opposition research. Who has the money? Clinton. Yep, Morris believes that Clinton is behind it. Kerry would be tough....of Edwards, Lieberman, and Clark, Lieberman is nowhere, Clark is not ready for prime time. Edwards might be bad...

<p>One way to look at life is that we're all waiting. You're born, you grow into the autonomy of adulthood, and then you have to find a way to pass your time until a) you enter your real life, the one that never ends and is full of joy, or b) you enter the meaningless black void that is death and the silence of the tomb. The trick lies in finding a way to spend your time that is pleasurable, satisfying and honorable. What does this have to do with political prognostication? I really don't know. I just know that political pundits have chosen, as their way to spend the heart of their adult years, gathering the latest facts on and trying to explain politics.</p>

Thursday Jan. 8, 2004; 4:52 p.m. EST Matthews: Clintons Eyeing 'Stop Dean' Endorsement Bill and Hillary Clinton will likely endorse Gen. Wesley Clark for president in February if he looks like he has a good chance of defeating Howard Dean, MSNBC's Chris Matthews said Wednesday. "I think Clark is counting on Clinton sending some sort of endorsement to him if he does well in the early going and looks like he might beat Dean, the "Hardball" host told radioman Don Imus. "At the critical moment - maybe in the Michigan primary next month, if [the Clark campaign is] doing well...

<p>January 7, 2004 -- IF Howard Dean wraps up victories in the early primaries, as now seems quite likely, he may find that he has won them too well, so that his victories contain the seeds of his own destruction. But he'll likely survive - thanks, ironically, to the work of the party establishment. Any candidate who wins Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina acquires a political momentum that's hard to stop. But in Dean's case, such early victories will do more than just accelerate his campaign, attracting media attention, money, supporters and votes - in each of these three primaries or caucuses, he stands likely to knock an opponent out of the race.</p>

WASHINGTON I am beginning to worry that Howard Dean may not get the Democratic nomination. Follow the convoluted reasoning: There are now three de facto political parties in the U.S. In order of present strength, these are: (1) The Republican Party, in control of all three branches of government and most of the statehouses, fat and sassy because the economy is rising and the war is being won. (2) The Dean-Internet Party, its Bush-despising base so energized as to be frenetic, its leader happy to be the apostle of anger, its bandwidth bandwagon gaining momentum with each pulse of its...

Anti-Dean ad wields image of bin LadenBy Dick PolmanInquirer Staff Writer   In recent days the voters of Iowa and New Hampshire have heard a provocative message: Don't trust Howard Dean with your life.The TV ad, aired repeatedly in those crucial primary states, was hardly subtle. With Osama bin Laden's face filling the screen, a narrator intoned that Americans "want a president who can face the dangers ahead... . But Howard Dean has no military or foreign policy experience. And Howard Dean just cannot compete with George Bush on foreign policy."But you'd be wrong to assume that this message...

<p>Two of the labor groups renounce the publicity spots, one using Osama bin Laden's image.</p> <p>A secretive political group financed in part by labor unions has raised $500,000 to air anti-Howard Dean ads in three early primary states, angering the Dean campaign and drawing sharp criticism from campaign finance reform advocates.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) — Television commercials criticizing Democratic presidential front-runner Howard Dean, including one featuring Osama bin Laden, will come off the air in three early voting states by the end of the week. Americans for Jobs, Healthcare and Progressive Values, a group with ties to Dean rival Dick Gephardt, is ending the ad runs in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina to comply with a federal ban on such ads by outside groups in the month before a primary contest. Voting begins Jan. 19 with Iowa's caucuses. David Jones, the group's treasurer, said in an interview that the decision to...

In its third ad in the past two weeks, the secretive 527 group Americans for Jobs, Healthcare & Progressive Values (AJHPV) brings out its harshest attacks to date against Howard Dean. The ad's sole visual is a slowly moving shot of a Time Magazine cover featuring Osama bin Laden. As the picture zooms in on a close-up of bin Laden’s eyes, the announcer intones, "Howard Dean just cannot compete with George Bush on foreign policy." The ad concludes by asking Democrats – presumably those who currently support Dean - to "think about that … and think about it now." The...

An Open Letter to All Democratic Presidential Campaign Managers Dec. 16, 2003 Last week, a group called "Americans for Jobs, Health Care and Progressive Values" began airing a television ad in New Hampshire and South Carolina attacking Howard Dean's commitment to defending America. The group is headed by a Democratic contributor, and the press secretary is a former aide to one of Dr. Dean’s rivals. Using the image of Osama bin Laden, it is the kind of fear-mongering attack we’ve come to expect from Republicans and panders to the worst in voters. I'm writing to call on each one of...

Dean has had it too easy. Check this site out.

Al Gore's endorsement signaled an pivotal moment for the Democratic party. Who can stop Dean now? AL GORE'S ENDORSEMENT of Howard Dean was anything but polite. A more diplomatic politician would have praised Dean's major rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination--Dick Gephardt, Joe Lieberman, John Kerry, John Edwards, Wesley Clark--as esteemed colleagues and said they were all capable of being president (including one selected by Gore himself as his 2000 running mate). Instead the former vice president dismissed the whole bunch as "great candidates.""Only one" candidate for the 2004 nomination, said Gore, had stepped forward as he had and come...

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton has launched a behind-the-scenes campaign to pressure fellow Democrats not to support presidential front-runner Howard Dean – a move some say raises new questions about her own intentions in 2004. Aides to Sen. Clinton have begun contacting party movers and shakers in a bid to discredit Dean and dispel the notion that the Vermont Democrat has the nomination sewn up. "Hillary Clinton's people – and I know, I get these calls all the time – call and bash on Dean," Democratic strategist Bob Beckel told Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" late Wednesday. Beckel managed...

<p>Democratic leaders and advisers say there is growing anxiety about the prospect of antiwar candidate Howard Dean becoming their presidential nominee next year, which has triggered talk of a "stop Dean" movement in the party.</p> <p>These Democrats say that the concerns center in large part on Mr. Dean's bitter opposition to the war in Iraq that, they maintain, will make their party look weak on national security and the war on terrorism in next year's presidential election.</p>

U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton is the only Democrat who can save her party from the impending disaster that would be a Howard Dean presidential campaign. That's the assessment from Wall Street Journal sage Robert Bartley, who argues on the paper's editorial page today that unless Sen. Clinton comes to the rescue in 2004, the wreckage left behind in the wake of a Dean debacle may not leave her much to work with in 2008. With the ex-governor of Vermont adorning the cover of this week's Time and Newsweek, experts now say Dean is now the Democrats' bona-fide frontrunner. Bartley...

<p>If Mrs. Clinton wants to save her party, 2008 may be too late.</p> <p>As we march into August the political question of the moment is, who will emerge as the candidate to stop Howard Dean? Castigating his rivals as insufficiently quixotic, the former Vermont governor bids to pitch the rest of the dwarves out of the ring.</p>