Credit Dean

If you're a voter in America (republican, democrat or independent) you have to be thankful for Howard Dean. He's brought patriotism back to descent. His one-note headliner for his campaign was that he was fervently against just about everything President Bush has done, especially Iraq. His ability to lead the other democratic candidates in to the understanding that the war was not good has given legs to Kerry's campaign by allowing them to have the message that President Bush abused his powers as Commander in Chief.

In my research of the mostly right-wing news sites, there is a legitimate concern about the anti-Iraq message. But, oddly enough I'm seeing more fear in John Edwards from the right then Kerry (and, of course, they relish a debate with Dean). The issue now is, if John Edwards wins the southern states, but Kerry pulls off a victory for the primary, would a Kerry/Edwards ticket actually win against Bush/Cheney?

The answers may have to be read between the lines of some of the more conservative websites. There appears to be a leak in the ship of the RNC, and that's with the true fiscal conservatives. With the deficit out of control, The American Conservative Union's Chairman, David Keene, has actually expressed his concern with the Bush administration's fiscal spending. While the ACU is an ultra-conservative Bush-supporting organization, their chief concern is the budget and the deficit that has been created. Appearing on PBS's NOW with Bill Moyers, Keene said that the deficit is a huge liability because conservatives are now being turned off by the Bush/Cheney stance on fiscal responsibility. Keene even felt the RNC would lose votes because of the hammering on the democratic side about the deficit, and the Iraq war.

Which brings us back to Howard Dean. If it wasn't for his heavy attack on Bush, the democratic party would not know how strong of an issue the Iraq war is... and, they certainly wouldn't know how to deal with it.