Lawrence Kudlow, in an otherwise fine
editorial in the New York Post says:
Equally problematic for Democrats is the apparent popularity of antiwar presidential candidate Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor, who is absorbing the political oxygen from more responsible candidates like Richard Gephardt and Joe Lieberman.
Dean is constantly being mentioned as surging in popularity among Democrats. Indeed, the phrase Howard Dean boomlet came up with 115 hits on Google, a fair number of which are relevant:
Jonah Goldberg:
There will be major Howard Dean boomlet next summer.
Blooger Charles Donefer:
I was excited to see a little media boomlet around Vermont Governor Howard Dean.
Hugh Hewitt: The Dean boomlet will be fun to watch, as will its collapse when people study the state of Vermont with its 617,000 people, its eight murders in 2002, and its 3,000 African-Americans.
There is only one problem with the Dean boomlet: There is no evidence that it is happening. According to the latest
CNN/USA Today poll, if Hillary Clinton does not run, Dean is three points behind Carol Moseley Braun, and tied with Al Sharpton at five percent. We can take it as read that anybody who gets less support than Carol Moseley Braun is a fringe candidate.
