John Walsh

I suppose it was inevitable. After months of cruising along, gaining contributions from people like me from the Internet, and getting endorsements from old Democratic party warhorses like Al Gore and Jimmy Carter; the campaign of Governor Howard Dean for the Democratic party nomination for president hit a speed bump in the Iowa caucuses. Unable to hold off a sudden surge by John Kerry and John Edwards, Dean finished third even though the polls had shown him to be in the lead as ...I suppose it was inevitable. After months of cruising along, gaining contributions from people like me from the Internet, and getting endorsements from old Democratic party warhorses like Al Gore and Jimmy Carter; the campaign of Governor Howard Dean for the Democratic party nomination for president hit a speed bump in the Iowa caucuses. Unable to hold off a sudden surge by John Kerry and John Edwards, Dean finished third even though the polls had shown him to be in the lead as recently as two weeks before the caucus, Both Kerry and Edwards seemed to have tapped into some anti war energy, an energy which Dean, with his opposition to the war in Iraq, had almost single-handedly engendered within the Democratic party. While Dean's finish was disappointing to his supporters, it was not the disaster which befell the candidacy of Dick Gephardt which led to his withdrawal from further active campaigning in 2004. (Note to Gephardt supporters in New Hampshire: Howard Dean is a logical second choice for you now since he has many of the same provisions in his campaign platform as did Gephardt to restore jobs and protect the paychecks of working people. When in Berlin, Dean spoke to his understanding and concerns for our economic welfare and outlined a program which would focus on supporting small business instead of large corporation since small business creates 80 percent of the new jobs in our economy.)

For we Dean supporters it is important that we renew our efforts to insure that The Governor gets a good result in the upcoming presidential primary on January 27. Both Kerry and Edwards will be facing opposition from Clark and Lieberman who have staked out positions similar to theirs. That position could be described as we voted for the war, but...The New Hampshire primary, because voters registered as independent may also vote, unlike Iowa, is a better opportunity for true insurgent candidates like Howard Dean to do well. My sense of the Iowa caucuses was that democratic voters there seized on the issue of opposition to the war and went for rhetoric which spoke to their opposition. Both Dean and Gerphardt, while freely expressing their opposition to the Bush policies which led us into the Iraq war, focused more on domestic issues such as jobs and the economy which they had reason to believe would play well in the state. A political firestorm flared up in the final week which led many caucus voters to go for the two candidates who were making the most noise over their opposition to the war. (Note to Howard Dean: You led the way when it came to pointing out the flaws in the Bush theory of preemptive war which led to the invasion of Iraq, You first denounced the spin regarding the threat Saddam represented to our security and have repeatedly pointed to the mismanagement of the Bush administration which has continued the debacle. We will need plenty of straight talking about this issue as you campaign in New Hampshire over the next week.)