Reply #101: "in December--the tactical benefits of Dean's shift were clear" [View All]

Was Dean unaware of Bush's steps toward war, and Clinton's criticism? Or did he become the most vocal foe of the Administration's Iraq initiative for tactical reasons--out of an accurate calculation that it would bond him to the party's grass roots and set him apart from the field? This cynical intepretation, too, is suggested by Kagan, who notes:

Dean may not be offering a stark alternative to Bush's foreign policy, therefore, so much as he is simply offering Democrats a compelling and combative alternative to Bush himself. The Iraq war provided the occasion to prove his mettle.

Five months after Broder dressed him down for his pro-war comments--by the time Gore announced his decision not to run, in December--the tactical benefits of Dean's shift were clear.
http://slate.msn.com/id/2091291