Kerry has just risen ahead to a nice average of 24% of voters over approx 19% for Dean! Whoo! Ok, i know polls are polls etc., but I'm so glad to see the guy in the lead in one of them! Maybe this will be the turning point for his faltering campaign? We'll see! How exciting!

Yea! I really hope people see that he is the best guy to go against Bush. I like Dean and all the other candidates too (esp. Kucinich) but Kerry seems like he would be able to draw in a lot of moderate Republicans. My parents are die hard Reps. but don't want to be Bushwacked any more. They're ready for universal health care, environmental responsibility and would go for Kerry's war record*. Go John!

*he was a Vietnam war hero (better than the guy who stayed back to fight the Viet Cong over Texas)

I think the key thing with Kerry is that he will definitely appeal to middle of the road Americans without actually being horribly centrist himself. He has a pretty good consistent record of voting for and supporting pro-choice, pro-environment, anti-war liberal wonk causes. In fact, many of Dean's policies are actually much more centrist than Kerry's but Dean's marketing as the "Angry bush baiting super liberal" is pushing him a lot further into the radical lefty corner where it will be very difficult for him to appeal to centrist voters.

In this age when liberal causes are being painted by the media and common culture as increasingly lunatic fringe antics of uninformed freaks, it's really great to have a guy pushing those causes who will come across as a logical, intelligent, sane man who, through his personal experience, has a deep understanding of what war is really about. Maybe we can swing this country back into the realm of the logical and away from the crazy neo-cons with their "If you don't love God and country and aren’t willing to die for GW, you are anti-American and in league with the terrorists" rhetoric.

And I agree with you that quite a lot of republicans outside the radical core are also not into this whole patriot act constitution wrecking, billion dollar marriage "saving", middle east invading administration either and would be swayed by Kerry's war record and relative fiscal conservatism.

he'll also be able to get things passed in congress (unlike a certain angry doctor...).

i really hope he does well in the primaries!

"Many of Dean's policies are actually much more centrist..." Totally. That's why I don't understand why so many people are behind him. When he first started gain popularity I thought he must have been a Nader-esque Democrat. I was so disappointed when I read his positions. They just don't seem to be that progressive.

The other thing that botheres me about Dean was that he had his records sealed from when he was governor of Vermont. What is he hiding? And wouldn't Bush's minions be able to dig it out 3 weeks before election anyway?

Just my $.02

ETA- I became a Kerry supporter after his interview on Charlie Rose. Everything he talked about was so "right on." There may be transcripts available if anyone's interested.

He didn't just seal them (Which is pretty standard), he sealed them for substantially longer than his predecessors had. I saw Dean talking about sealing his records. He said that people who are mentally ill or have health problems often write to those with public profiles and he was sealing his records to protect the privacy of those people. Yeah right, I doubt they even save nut job letters to the governor and if they did, those aren’t the types of things people care about. Can you even imagine anyone digging through his stuff just to be able to triumphantly display some letter from the dude downtown with the tin foil hat on the 6 o'clock news? He's definitely trying to hide something. I just wish I knew what it was.

Not to mention that he said "We didn't want anything embarrassing appearing in the papers at a critical time in any future endeavor." Really makes you wonder what's in there that would be "embarrassing" in a presidential race.

And even if he isn’t trying to cover something up, I want a person in charge who believes in a transparent gov’t where everything can be openly known and debated by the people of this country. The goal should be towards more accountability and openness not the other way. Sealing records does not serve the democratic process. If Cheney and Bush come under constant liberal fire for hiding behind "executive priviledge" I fail to see why Dean should get a pass on the same issue.

He won in Iowa, good political eye mishy. Perhaps the polls do say something. I understand about the unreliability of polls, as I have never taken one. I sometimes wonder who is, and who's viewpoints are taken in consideration.

So, I'm really wanting to get involved with learning my own viewpoints and understand politics. I want to vote, but I want to vote knowing what is going on, and know why I support someone. I admire you all for really giving your viewpoints.