Posted 2:15 PM by Robert

Well, They Hope He's Lying

Brendan Miniter today opines that Howard Dean may be trying to outright lie his way into the White House.

Separately, a line of argument is developing (Lanny Davis was hawking it on the O'Reilly Factor, for example) that Howard Dean's positions aren't really all that left-wing, and Dean will in any event move to the "Clintonian center" if he is elected. This is a remarkable argument that deserves more play. It implies:

(1) Dean has been fundamentally lying when he savagely criticizes (and distinguishes himself from) the Clinton wing of the Democratic Party and argues that the party needs to be restructured.

(2) People like Lanny Davis are hoping that Dean is lying that way, and counting on it.

(3) Ralph Nader was either (a) wrong, when he said that most of Dean's positions look "eerily similar" to Nader's, or (b) isn't really left-wing, either. Who knew Nader was a centrist?