how will the other "top-tier" candidates react to Dean opting out?

Kerry will surely have something negative to say, but he'll be opting out too, so he's pretty limited. I'd guess whatever statement he issues also criticizes Dean's gun control position, cause that's the type of guy Kerry is.

based on his projected Q4 take of $6 million, I don't think Clark's really capable of opting out, but his campaign is claiming to be mulling it over. I can't guess what if anything he'll have to say about Dean's move.

IMO, it hurts Edwards, Lieberman & Gephardt the most since they're the "top-tier" candidates that aren't financially-capable of opting out.

Gephardt will probably be the most vocal since it'll underscore another strength Dean has over him. I won't be surprised if he dredges up a Gingrich quote praising Bush for opting out.

I think Lieberman will be "very disappointed", but not until Sunday.

Edwards will issue a statement too, but nobody will be paying attention.

word on the street is that Kerry is about to go MEGA negative on Dean (go figure) in TV ads; I'm sure, this will be one of the things he stupidly attacks Dean for.


When will John (this campaign is about service) F. Kerry learn that going negative is only digging him in even deeper than his campaign has already sunk.


Dean has his responses ready. And they're filled with positive messages.

Certainly nothing he says is going to change any committed Dean supporter's mind.

that are critical of other candidates but I thought this was pretty damn amusing.

Not sure which of the last three I thought was the funniest. Prolly the Gephardt one. ;-)

Julie

or one that can win.

It's a hard candy to suck on, but I like a little Enlightened Ruthlessness in my democratic candidates!

Kerry has personal wealth to bust the caps but I'd be surprised to see him put it up at this point. The others probably couldn't raise enough to even threaten the cap.

Clark will be the last man standing against Dean and he'll have the means and the necessity to opt out.

You give Wesley (Warhawk) Clark WAAAAAAY to much credit. There's no way he can or will be able to opt out.

I like your sigline btw.

I'm not usually accused of giving Clark too much credit for anything.:hi:

good! :yourock:

but with his campaign saying (optomistically) that they expect to take in $6 million, I don't see how opting out is vaiable. the filing deadline is Dec 1 as far as I know. he needs to raise approx $25 million to hit the cap… I think it'd be a very risky move if the figure of $6 million is close to the truth.

He's got a lot of the Party establishment behind him. If you look at his blog there's plenty of activity there suggesting a vibrant grassroots base and I think I saw a post of yours last week that showed his website hits trending up. So, I believe that the ABD vote will coalesce behind his candidacy and they will have to take the chance and opt out to stay competitve with Dean.

all the way to the bank.

You are referring to Dem candidates right? This sounds more like something a ....

neverminde :eyes:

good luck


TWL

and will probably double that by the time the election rolls around. How can anyone compete with that while being shackled by federal public financing?

one of the benefits of the very late convention.

Kerry has already said that he will do the same thing should Dean do so.