NRO: All Dean, All the Time

NRO is a buzz with Dean-Talk after Gore's support announcement. Let's take a quick spin around the NRO take.

Ramesh Ponnuru does not seem to be too impressed. He thinks that the war, gay rights, taxes and other things will fell Dean. The interesting thing about the article, is that he seems to think Dean's support of repealing the 'Patriot Act' will cause problems.

Dean's proposal to repeal the Patriot Act has not gotten much attention as a potential Dean vulnerability, partly because there are so many other vulnerabilities and partly because opponents of the act, both on the left and on the right, have been more vocal than supporters. But it could be a serious problem. Bush will be able to list various law-enforcement powers that Dean wants to eliminate, and that sound like common-sense measures to the public.

At the risk of being wrong, I can't imagine that this will be an issue. In fact, I think the GOP would be wise not to make it much of an issue. There are a lot on the right, as well as many libertarians who tend to vote GOP, who aren't thrilled with it. There's a pretty easy response to it - raising the specter of Ashcroft misusing the granted powers, as has been evident as Justice has been using the rules more and more for non terror related investigations. Nobody like the 1984 specter - which will be an easy one for Dems to raise.

At least his post was thoughtful, there are two others which see Gore's support as being Gore trying to wrench power of the party away from the Clintons.

That's what Cliff May seems to be suggesting.

It's come to this: Either Al Gore will be asked to be secretary of state in 2004, or Hillary Clinton will be asked to be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2008. It's one or the other, it can't be both. Did you notice that Gore said this morning that he wants to "remake the Democratic party"? Well, he's taken the first step: The Democratic nominee next year will be his boy, not the Clinton's.

He does, however, seem to think the election may be tighter than some GOPers think.

Finally, the ever incomprehensible David Frum falls into the 'Dean will be crushed' camp. He also sees all of this as a Gore Power Play, setting himself (Gore) up to run again in '08.

Think about it. Does Gore still wish to be president? Pretty clearly, he does: Otherwise he would have found himself a real job and moved to LA, rather than dabbling in business while maintaining a theoretical domicile in Carthage, Tennessee. ...

Of course, should another Democrat win in 2004, there will be no contest in 2008 for Gore to join. So Gore has to wish for defeat this year.

And not for mere defeat, but for catastrophic defeat. A Democratic wipeout in 2004 would make Gore's performance in 2000 - 51 million votes, 266 electoral votes - look retrospectively much more impressive.