Rig--

"took Howard Dean out of contention". Again you prove your amazing grasp of political realities.

Howard Dean would have been a total disaster. The Bush "team" was salivating at the prospect of the good old tried- and- true smear campaign against Dean--"soft on natioanal security".

It took quite some doing to paint a Vietnam hero as soft on national security. Harder to do it with Howard Dean?--what are you smoking?

Please enlighten us as to why Dean would have been seen as stronger on national security than Kerry.