Well ahead of the pack

There is talk these days that Howard Dean, though perhaps still the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, is not very far ahead of the pack and faces a rough road going forward. After watching the Phoenix debate, however, Robert Robb of the Arizona Republic sees Dean as still in the driver’s seat. The reason is simple. Dean is the only serious candidate who has strenuously opposed the Iraq war from the beginning. Robb notes that attacks on Wesley Clark are not indicative of Clark’s strength in relation to Dean. Rather, Clark is attacked by the pack because its members “must dissipate the fog of his candidacy to get to the true front-runner: Dean.”