Reply #96: For the Record... [View All]

It was Kerry who said Dean compared himself to Bush (and his foreign policy experience). Dean actually compared himself to Bush, Clinton, Reagan, and Carter in level of foreign policy experience. (He was also applauded for his answer. And I'll also point out he was one of the few candidates -- Sharpton being another -- applauded in the middle of his closing statement.)

And Dean had a fairly decent rebuttal to Kerry, basically along the lines of, Well, if you're so clever, why did you support Bush for the Iraq War? If Bush fouled up, why did you do the same? You can't have it both ways.

By the way, I think that's really huge for Dean. He's very much identified as the unadulterated anti-BushIraqWar candidate, and he's the only one among the majors. (Some of the other candidates, notably Lieberman, called Clark on that issue, pointing out he's been ambiguous at times.) Wasn't it interesting how all the candidates admitted as much, that Iraq is a failure, and that the questioners did the same (calling it a "mess" even)?

All that plays right into Dean's hand. They're all coming to his sandbox on that one. Clark, Kerry, Edwards, and Gephardt all have problems on that issue. Lieberman certainly had a field day with it.