Howard Dean last week said that the Wisconsin primary was a make or break day for the Dean campaign and ultimately his candidacy.
“The entire race has come down to this: We must win Wisconsin. . . . Anything else will put us out of the race,” Dean wrote in an e-mail.
He also added, “all that you have worked for these past months is on the line on a single day, in a single state.”
However, it should come as no surprise that Dean is now trying to get away from those oh-so-restrictive words. Now that he’s trailing in the state he once led by a large margin, Dean’s making no promises.
“It’s not going to be the end of the line,” Dean said in a television interview. “But there better be a win in Wisconsin.”
A new Wisconsin poll shows Kerry ahead of Dean by more than 30 points. And even the struggling Wesley Clark has surpassed Dean in the state.
Dean’s fizzling out. But as his star grows dimmer, I expect some kind of crazy push that will alienate voters even further. Awestruck by the Dean machine late last year, voters have finally had enough. Welcome to reality.
Representing the fringe is no way to win an election, be it a primary or general, and voters are merely handing to Dean what he’s deserved all along–they just haven’t known any better up until this point.