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From the January 12, 2004 issue: The country is split on the most fundamental choice facing it and the bulk of one party is opposed to the president's policy. The opposition deserves a chance to take its argument to the country.

Jan 12, 2004, Vol. 9, No. 17 • By WILLIAM KRISTOL

TWO BIG DATES are coming up in the presidential campaign: The Iowa caucuses will take place on January 19. The New Hampshire primary follows on January 27. But the key date in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination may well turn out to have been October 10, 2002. On that day, Senators Joseph Lieberman, John Edwards, and John Kerry joined most of their Democratic colleagues, and a large majority of the Senate, to vote to authorize President Bush to use force against Saddam Hussein.

From the January 12, 2004 issue: Dean's health care record as governor is nothing to brag about.

Jan 12, 2004, Vol. 9, No. 17 • By DAVID GRATZER

HOWARD DEAN'S campaign wants you to know that he used to be a practicing physician. Campaign literature refers to him as "Gov. Howard Dean, M.D." At public events, his supporters wave signs proclaiming "The Doctor Is In." Dean often addresses issues--mainly non-health care issues--by referring to his former occupation. "As a doctor, I know that failure to act on the environment has devastating consequences," he recently told a crowd. During one rally, he even brandished a stethoscope.

The conventional wisdom is that Howard Dean is going to pivot to the center, but his best chance may be a lurch to the left.

11:00 PM, Dec 30, 2003 • By HUGH HEWITT

HOWARD DEAN has survived a bad month. Saddam Hussein was captured. The Democratic party appears to understand that Dean isn't electable. Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman and Congressman Richard Gephardt all have warned that Dean means certain electoral doom. They aren't exaggerating. Even the Washington Post has filed its objections to his candidacy. Dean is clearly out of the mainstream.

From the December 29, 2003 / January 5, 2004 issue: When he reemerged to support Dean, Dean should have run the other way.

Dec 29, 2003, Vol. 9, No. 16 • By NOEMIE EMERY

IN RETROSPECT, it should have been apparent that once Al Gore endorsed Howard Dean and his antiwar platform, and made an impassioned speech excoriating the war and the president, something big would go right in Iraq for the president, and Gore's stock would go down. After all, the last time Al Gore made a well-planned-out plunge into the political maelstrom, it was also great news for George Bush. A little over a year ago, Gore blundered into the 2002 midterms, waving the bloody shirt of the Florida recount.

From the December 29, 2003 / January 5, 2004 issue: Will the Democratic center speak out?

Dec 29, 2003, Vol. 9, No. 16 • By DAVID TELL, FOR THE EDITORS

WE DON'T CLAIM to understand the mind of Howard Dean. With back-room assistance from a small army of Democratic party foreign policy brahmins, Dean recently produced a long, formal speech on "Meeting the Security Challenges of the New Century." The speech was advertised as a reassuring demonstration that Dean's overall thinking about world affairs, notwithstanding the spicy antiwar rhetoric that has propelled his campaign so far, lies safely within the bipartisan consensus that's governed American politics for 50-plus years.

From the December 29, 2003 / January 5, 2004 issue: Lieberman finally steps up to the plate.

Dec 29, 2003, Vol. 9, No. 16 • By MATTHEW CONTINETTI

Newark, Delaware

The online world of the Dean campaign has convinced itself that there's something big going on. Are they right?

11:00 PM, Dec 17, 2003 • By HUGH HEWITT

HOWARD DEAN may have jumped the shark with his declaration that "the capture of Saddam has not made America safer," but don't tell that to the online world that the Dean campaign has built for itself.

From the December 16, 2003 Los Angeles Times: What are Democrats to do now that Saddam has been caught?

11:00 PM, Dec 16, 2003 • By MAX BOOT

PITY THE POOR Democratic presidential candidates. They're really in a bind: They have no choice but to join in the international rejoicing over the capture of the Butcher of Baghdad, but at the same time they can't simply offer blanket approval for President Bush's Iraq policy. With the economy picking up steam and Bush stealing their best issue with his Medicare bill, they can't afford to give up this all-important area in which to criticize the incumbent. But what can they say when the situation in Iraq appears to be looking up?

What Saddam's capture means for the 2004 race and the Democratic contenders. Hint: It's bad for Howard Dean.

5:30 PM, Dec 14, 2003 • By FRED BARNES

LET'S BE CRASS and assess the politics of the capture of Saddam Hussein. No one is boosted more than President Bush, the beneficiary of so much good news this fall (surging economy, 10,000 Dow, Medicare drug benefit). For him, only one more thing has to fall into place to assure re-election. That's a sharp turn for the better in the twilight war against the Baathist diehards and their motley allies in the Sunni triangle of Iraq. The grabbing of Saddam, a pathetic, cowardly Saddam, could lead to exactly that--but not necessarily.

From the December 22, 2003 issue: Al Gore's endorsement signaled an pivotal moment for the Democratic party. Who can stop Dean now?

Dec 22, 2003, Vol. 9, No. 15 • By FRED BARNES

AL GORE'S ENDORSEMENT of Howard Dean was anything but polite. A more diplomatic politician would have praised Dean's major rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination--Dick Gephardt, Joe Lieberman, John Kerry, John Edwards, Wesley Clark--as esteemed colleagues and said they were all capable of being president (including one selected by Gore himself as his 2000 running mate). Instead the former vice president dismissed the whole bunch as "great candidates."

Will the Iowa senator make a difference in Iowa?

Dec 22, 2003, Vol. 9, No. 15 • By MATTHEW CONTINETTI

WHEN AL GORE endorsed Howard Dean for president last Tuesday, first in New York City and again in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Tom Harkin, Iowa's four-term Democratic senator, was working in his office in Washington. He must have felt a little left out.

From the December 22, 2003 issue: The Iowa showdown.

Dec 22, 2003, Vol. 9, No. 15 • By DAVID TELL

South Central Iowa, December 7

THE CAMPAIGN CALENDAR is against you. Already the camera crews and stage-prop crowds are beginning to take over, and the rope lines are going up, and soon enough it'll become pretty much physically impossible to form a personal impression of the Democratic party's likely nominee for president next year. None of the men who still have a realistic hope for that prize will any longer be within reach of even the most determined civilian--certainly not where more-than-momentary, relatively unscripted, and intimate conversational encounters are concerned.

By giving voice to nutty conspiracy theory, Howard Dean is bringing the political fringe one step closer to the center.

11:00 PM, Dec 10, 2003 • By HUGH HEWITT

THE WORLD is full of interesting theories.

There's the theory that FDR was warned of the attack on Pearl Harbor, but allowed it to happen in order to enrage America and bring us fully into World War II.

There's the theory that LBJ had JFK knocked off on the orders of Texas oilmen.

There's the Raelians' theory that ancient space travelers planted people on Earth; and there are the very interesting theories contained in "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" along with the theory that the Bilderberger Group is secretly running the world.

From the December 9, 2003 Washington Post: It could happen. Here's how.

10:00 AM, Dec 9, 2003 • By WILLIAM KRISTOL

GOING INTO THE FINAL DAY of the college football regular season, Oklahoma was undefeated and ranked Number 1. The Sooners had the best defense in the nation, had outscored their opponents by an average of 35 points and had a 9-game winning streak against ranked teams. "OU: Among best ever?" USA Today asked (rhetorically) on Friday. Kansas State, by contrast, had three losses, and had never won a Big 12 championship. Oklahoma was favored by two touchdowns. Kansas State, of course, won, 35-7.

Howard Dean cogitates on the merits of American justice versus international justice in the war on terror.

3:20 PM, Dec 2, 2003 • By HUGH HEWITT

HOWARD DEAN wants Osama bin Laden to get 30 years to life. No hanging by the neck until dead. No firing squad. Not even a lethal injection for being the mastermind behind the deaths of more than 3,000 Americans.

That's the upshot of Dean's exchange with Chris Matthews last night, an exchange ignored--and in one case glossed over--by a Dean-friendly press.

MATTHEWS: Who should try Osama bin Laden if we catch him? We or the World Court?

DEAN: I don't think it makes a lot of difference. I'm happy . . .

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