Making the head follow the heart

Two of our readers agree with Hugh Hewitt that Howard Dean will continue to run from the left, instead of veering to the center, after he has secured the nomination. Dafydd ab Hugh doubts that Dean intends, or even wants, to win. He suspects that “what Dean enjoys is the campaign itself, and he would have far more fun running a self-righteous, sneering, contemptuous campaign from the left than he would running a centrist campaign full of positive messages. This is true, I think, whether or not there’s any chance for him to win.”
Reader Daniel Aronstein, a fourth generation Democrat who intends to vote Republican this year for only the second time, argues that Democrats like Dean believe the party can win from the left. Mr. Aronstein notes that Gore lurched to the left and won more votes than any Democrat since LBJ, and more votes than Bush. The more moderate Clinton never obtained 50 percent of the vote. Mr. Aronstein thinks that the left-wing Democrats are mistaken, since “the post 9/11 USA is more conservative than in 2000 and national security is more important now than then.” Nonetheless, the Gore experience may convince Dean that it’s reasonable to follow his impulse and continue to run from the left.