The Weekly Standard mans the battle stations on Howard Dean

After joining Jim Antle over at Enter Stage Right as one of the few voices crying in the wilderness when it comes to Howard Dean, I was pleasantly surprised by the last few issues of The Weekly Standard. It seems that neo-conservatives are beginning to realize that Howard Dean could pose a serious threat to President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign. This is especially the case among libertarian voters, whose influence extends far beyond their actual numbers. (See Jim Antle's Conservative Crack-Up -- Will libertarians leave the Cold War coalition? in a recent issue of The American Conservative).

Anyway, the past couple of issues of The Weekly Standard have done a great job exposing Dean. First, they went after Dean's agricultural plan and showed how increased government regulation of minimum prices, rather than help the family farm, will kill it off. This is what happened to small mom-and-pop dairy farms in Vermont when Dean undertook to protect them through a multi-state dairy agreement in New England. The legislation enacted simply hastened their demise. Now try doing this nationally and in every area of agriculture, WS argues, and the results will be even more disastrous. Hopefully, libertarians will take note.

This was either followed up or preceded in another issue (I cannot recall which, since Florida mail has been out of whack these past couple of weeks) with an editorial speaking of how the economic recovery should help the President win re-election, but how he still remains politically vulnerable over the war should the right democrat be nominated. There was another piece recently discussing whether or not, if Dean got the nod, he would make a bee-line for the center. Regardless, it is good to see that the Weekly Standard, while supporting the President's re-election bid, is not taking it for granted. The Republicans need to remain on the offensive since the potential for a Democrat upset remains.