The Man Who Should Be Prez Wows'em in Boston

"Democracy is not a spectator sport," Dean told the state Democratic convention where delegates greeted the one-time presidential candidate with endless waves of applause, whistles, cheers and foot-stomping.

Dean greeted the convention with the signature line of his presidential campaign: "YOU have the power," prompting more cheers and applause.

He then unleashed the blistering attack on the Bush administration that was also a hallmark of his campaign, again and again bringing the 600 delegates to their feet.

"You know what the biggest issue about Iraq is? It is not whether we are there or not," said Dean. "It is whether we were told the truth before we went there, because the commander in chief of the United States military should never send American soldiers to foreign countries to fight without first telling the truth to the American people about why they are going."

And then, his words lost under the roar of the crowd, Dean threw out questions for Bush:

"Mr. President, where are those weapons of mass destruction?

"Mr. President, where is the evidence that Saddam Hussein had anything to do with al-Qaeda?

"Mr. President, where is the evidence that Saddam Hussein had anything to do with 9/11?"

He criticized Bush on health care, early education, gay rights, and racial quotas, but said worst of all was the fact Bush had divided the country.

"This president ran as a uniter, not as a divider," said Dean. "That was no more true than any of the things that he said about getting us into Iraq.

"What we want most of all is a president who will appeal to the very best in us and stop appealing to the very worst in all of us."

Bush, though, is not solely to blame for the state of the nation, said Dean.

"We're going to blame for the next five-and-a-half months George Bush for all things wrong with this country - and we are going to be mostly right," said Dean. "But there are two other groups of people we ought to blame.

"First of all we ought to blame the Democratic Party for not standing up to the right-wing extremists - for they have allowed extremism to flourish in the United States of America.

"Second thing is we ought to blame ourselves - because 50 percent of us don't vote; 50 percent of us thought somebody else was going to do the job; 50 percent of us gave up because we thought we couldn't win and it didn't make any difference anyway.

"Well, it does now."

Suburban Guerrilla may have been first.