Dean defends dissent

Good article in the Seattle PI, which again gives play to Dean's nuanced war stance, in contrast to eth "conventional wisdom" that is advocated by Democrats in teh wake of polls showing increased support for Bush's war:

"I say what I think," Dean said in a phone interview yesterday. "I am still opposed to the war on Iraq, even though polls show 70 percent of the public in favor of it. . . . This is the USA, not Iraq. There is no reason not to have a disagreement with the president."
...
In a primer for its activist clients, entitled "Navigating Media in Wartime," Washington, D.C.-based Fenton Communications recently advised: "DON'T bash Bush. 2 out of 3 Americans approve of Bush's handling of the confrontation with Saddam Hussein. In times of war -- especially the early stages -- the public's instinct is to stand behind its leader."

But different political breezes tend to blow out of New England and along the Pacific Coast, in contrast to our conforming capital.

There are also a lot of other juicy pieces, such as this extremely detailed bit about how to fix the looming budget problems facing the country post-Bush:

What would Dean do? "First, you have to get rid of the tax cuts for everyone earning over $300,000 a year," he said. "Then, you scale back reductions in the inheritance tax. Increase the exemption to $5 million so you cover people's businesses and farms, but keep the tax."

and as good a summary of his health-care viewsw as I have seen (which was succinct enough that I used it in an email to some skeptical friends):

Similarly, Dean won't ape some Demo- crats' call for universal health insurance. "The American people won't accept government-run health care; we learned that -- painfully -- in the 1990s," he said.

Instead, he would expand Medicaid to cover middle-class kids, put a prescription drug plan into Medicare, and develop a system of vouchers and tax credits to encourage employers to insure their workers.