2004 Campaign: Lying in Wait for Dean

Newsweek -- In an article discussing the current lack of attacks on Dean from other Democratic candidates --

When Kerry finally does unload, for example, the theme will be that Dean is a phony because he really isn’t the progressive—or liberal—he claims to be. The Kerry team will focus on the fact that Dean has supported a balanced-budget amendment, opposes gun control, now supports the death penalty in some cases and has talked about raising the retirement age for Social Security. The Kerry team will use these issues to attack Dean’s character. But, ironically, those issues could undercut the other point Kerry’s advisers want him to make: that Dean isn’t mainstream enough to win the general election. “This race isn’t about left and right in any case,” says Simon Rosenberg, an independent Democratic strategist and head of the New Democrat Network. “It’s about insider and outsider. Dean has lucked into being the only credible outsider.”