Would you support Dean even if he's not that Liberal? [View All]

[R_Ram_U]

While Dr. Dean can talk brimstone to the Progressive faithful, as governor of Vermont he was a staunch centrist.

A fiscal conservative who heavily courted IBM to stay in Vermont,
saying, "<t>here have been very few things that <IBM> asked for, that
they haven't gotten." (IBM is Vermont's largest employer). He cut taxes
in Vermont his first year as governor, refusing to soak the rich. And he
comes from an upper-class background. "His father and grandfather were
stockbrokers, his mother an art appraiser--Dean grew up in the Hamptons
and on Manhattan's Upper East Side, attending elite private schools
before going to Yale University."

Of course you could say his fiscal conservatism will bring in swing
voters who might not have agreed with Bush's tax-cut. That if
Republicans try to paint him as some left-wing radical, he can always
point to his record in Vermont. He opposes gun-control, which might
bring in southern/western voters.

I personally support Howard Dean, and think he'll make the best
candidate. He hasn't been equivocal on Iraq, like some other Democratic
candidates, plus he has the governing experience-more experience in fact
than Bush had in Texas-that Americans look for. He's a five-term
governor. And frankly, Bush can't run as the son of a toothless
sharecropper, because he was also the scion of Northeastern blue bloods,
with all the advantages that gave him. So Dean can neutralize two
issues, his upper-class roots, and gun control. At least Dean didn't
depend on his dad's friends for business or political favors. Dean can
stand on his own two-feet.

But even with that said, would anybody not vote for Dean because of
these issues, or does anyone feel that he's misled them in some way?

Quotes attributed to Robert Dreyfuss, "The Darkest Horse," The American
Prospect vol. 13 no. 13, July 15, 2002
http://www.prospect.org/print/V13/13/dreyfuss-r.html

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