Nice Mass. Editorial on Dean

[stickdog]

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/Stories/0,1413,101~6267~1550714,00.html

The argument advanced by members of the Democratic Leadership Council and articulated by state Representative Peter J. Larkin of Pittsfield, that the Democrats cannot possibly win a national election with a left wing candidate, makes two fundamental errors of perception and judgment. The first, that the Democrats can only win by abandoning their traditional constituencies and ideals and casting themselves as GOP-lite was the argument that helped cost the feckless Al Gore the last election. The second, that Howard Dean is a liberal and his criticism of White House deceit and hypocrisy is somehow divisive and unappealing to voters, ignores Mr. Dean's record in 11 years as governor of a neighboring state and the five elections he won there. Mr. Dean's tightfisted management of state government infuriated liberals in Montpelier, but this year, Vermont has a surplus while Massachusetts is drowning in red ink and President Bush has run up a record federal budget deficit. Mr. Dean's stances on gun control and the death penalty are actually to the right of Senator John Kerry, the beau ideal of state Democrats. Could it be that voters and contributors like straight talk better than the poll-driven platitudes of so-called "New Democrats?"