The following is excerpted from Will Saletan's analysis of the Wisconsin debate:
http://slate.msn.com/id/2095527/

Kerry waffle watch: John Kerry lost his lead in 2003 because he couldn't give straight answers to simple questions. Then the guy with the straight answers, Howard Dean, started giving answers so brutally straight (your taxes will go up, sit down and let me finish) that people decided a bit more diplomacy was in order. But Kerry has to watch his bad habits in this area. He never walks into a sentence without leaving himself a way out. His evasiveness smells fishy.

Later, Holt asked, "If it were to come before you today for a vote--the issue of a constitutional amendment defining marriage as that between a man and a woman--would you vote yes or would you vote no?" Kerry replied, "Well, it depends on the terminology ..."

In case you've forgotten why so many people soured on Kerry in 2003: This is why.

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Dean's candor: It may be a fatal political flaw, but it's still a moral virtue. Yes, said Dean, your taxes must be raised in order to pay for his programs and balance the budget. No, focusing our military power on Saddam Hussein didn't make you safer. And yes, "If we do what I want to with our trade agreement, you're going to pay higher prices at Wal-Mart, because their stuff is all made in China, and labor costs are going to go up in China." God bless Dean for bringing honesty to a political process rotten with double-dealing and cowardice. That's why I'm counting on him to immediately fire his campaign chairman, Steve Grossman, for trying to slink aboard Kerry's boat even before Dean's has sunk. (Grossman's amazing statement to the New York Times: "If Howard Dean does not win the Wisconsin primary, I will reach out to John Kerry unless he reaches out to me first.") As long as there are Grossmans in the world, we'll always need Deans.

Kerry Exaggerates Role in Some Key Legislative Battles

This is from FactCheck.Org:

http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?docID=134

This is from today's NY Times:

NY Times January 30, 2004

"The pernicious joblessness bedeviling the nation is spawning a new category of Americans dubbed "exhaustees": the hundreds of thousands of hard-core unemployed who have run through state and federal unemployment aid. According to the latest estimates, close to two million Americans, futilely hunting for work while scrambling for economic sustenance, will join the ranks of exhaustees in the next six months. They represent a record flood of unemployed individuals with expired benefits -- the highest in 30 years -- who are plainly desperate for help.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/30/opinion/30FRI2.html?th

The program tonight implied we Dean people don't even need a candidate just a campaign manager! The Governor should just go play golf and let Joe handle everything. A new political tactic: no candidates, just dueling campaign managers!

Trippi is great but we're trying to change the country here!

Howard Dean is the heart and soul of this campaign not Joe Trippi. The "embedded" reporter who covered Trippi needs to know about all of us who aren't at HQ, who aren't inside and "in the know" but who are sending money, going to meetups, canvassing in the cold!

So help me, Trippi choked up and those two "journalists" went on and on about how Trippi was abused.

I asked this before, but it was fairly incomprehensible so let me try again.

60. % of voters for Kerry voted for him because he can beat Bush.
40. % of voters for Kerry voted for him because they agree on most of the issues.

So, they voted for him because he's electable.

If he's elected in November he will be President of the United States. (Well, duh).
That's president for four years. Four long years.
That's a president who must govern.
That's a president who must lead the country based on his programs.

So, if even the people who are voting for him only agree with his positions 40% of the time, how exactly does he get from electable to governing? How does he rally the people to support him in what will surely be a totally Republican congress, a congress with even more animas toward Democrats then they have now?

We are looking no further than November and voting Bush out. But only a candidate with issues which are supported by the people will be able to govern in a hostile environment.

71. % of the people who voted for Dean voted for him because they agreed on most of the issues.
29. % of the people who voted for Dean voted for him because he can beat Bush.

So what happens after November?

If you are elected president because you are electable, how do you get the backing for a program the voters agree with only 40% of the time? (NH primary voters LA Times poll)