Howard v. George -- who's the real butch? Richard Goldstein in The Nation makes the '04 Prez matchup all about attitude -- and about the new GOP formulation of the "Southern strategy," using gender instead of race. That is to say, Dean can connect with plain old white guys -- as can W., if his swaggering doesn't become a parody of itself, anyway. Hmm, it might be too late for that...

And if you'd like more specious evidence of Dean's electability, take up Arianna Huffington's mantra: "Unelectable, my ass!" Um, if you say so. To be fair, see this relevant bit: "Far from Dean not being able to "compete" with Bush on foreign policy, he's the one viable Democrat who isn't trying to compete on the playing field that Bush and Karl Rove have laid out. No Democrat can win by playing 'Whose swagger is swaggier?' or 'Whose flight suit is tighter?'" I don't think we want to find out, really.