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The New Stop-Dean Candidate - Howard Dean. By William Saletan

All year, Howard Dean has been gaining ground in the Democratic presidential race. And all year, Democratic centrists have been scrambling for a candidate to stop him. He's too liberal, they said. He's soft on defense, a Vermont lefty, an evangelist for expansive programs. To stop him, they turned to Joe Lieberman, then John Kerry, then Wes Clark. But the more Dean's rivals expose his record, the more I suspect that the centrist who's going to spare Democrats this left-wing nightmare isn't any of these guys. It's Howard Dean.

Sure, sure. We all said Dean was not a liberal back in the summer when we appointed him the best hope for wresting control away from the right-wing. Is Will's piece irrelevant?

No.

First of all, it's funny, so it's worth a read.

It's also a great run-down of the way in which this once "too-liberal" candidate is now being attacked from all sides for not being liberal enough. Note that Lieberman and the DLC no longer talk about the anti-war position as being the path to the wilderness. In fact, Lieberman now says his continuing support for the war is an "act of courage" while Dean's unwavering opposition to the war is "principled"; he accuses Kerry, Edwards, Gephardt, and Clark of flip-flopping. These new "too-conservative" attacks reflect the fact that Dean has energized the Democratic base more than any of his rivals. Will thinks the basis of these attacks are key to a Dean victory next year.