Who is the Real Dean?I've been interested in the media's portrayal of Howard Dean. The former editor of ModerateRepublican.com, Paul Peter Jesup, supports him and I've had some interest in him myself, until all the media reports painted him as McGovern liberal who will lead the Dems to defeat. He seemed a bit to liberal for me and reading his website, you can see a lot of the progressive left going gaga over him. I really don't want someone who is hard left in the White House. But then I read more. Even though John Judis thinks Dean is a goner, his story in Salon shows that Dean is more a social liberal and fiscal conservative than some lefty who has no chance. He is for balanced budgets, something the current adminstration is making a mockery of. He even got an A from the NRA. When was the last time a Dem got that ranking? In short, he is not the lefty loony that he is being protrayed as. Looking at his blog , it seems that there are moderate Republicans who are disillusioned with the Bushies and see that Dean is moderate enough for their tastes. There are also Independents who seem very interested in his candidacy.



My own view is that there might be the making of a coalition of the far left, moderates and independents in the making that could be a challenge for Bush. Dean needs to start inlcuding moderate messages to win them over, but people also need to look beyond the media and look the Dean record themselves.