prairie point

the dean strategy

There has been some interesting posts at Off-the-Kuff and at CalPundit regarding the presidential campaign strategy of Howard Dean. Charles Kuffner at Off-the-Kuff compares it to bridge strategy and makes a pretty nice argument that events could turn it into a long-shot winning hand. At least it sounded convincing to someone like me who has never played bridge. If I understand his argument correctly, he is saying the Dems have such a bad hand that they have to play for the long shot. Dean is betting that enough bad news will start to come out of the Iraqi occupation and hindsight on the war that public opinion will start to turn, and then he will be seen as the only candidate who took the right position from the start.

There is still a lot that could happen before a candidate has to be chosen so I guess it is good to have that base covered. I'm glad all the Dems are not betting on the same strategy. Mostly I have liked what Dean has had to say, except I have been bothered by the squabbling with Kerry. That doesn't seem necessary to me.