Hearts and Minds

A poster over on Table Talk named Wendy Orange came up with a great way of describing the dynamics of the Dean/Clark race: "Dean wins hearts, Clark wins minds."

Democrats were heart sick before Dean came along. He gave them something to believe in again. But the mind of the Democrats still had to deal with the "electability" question and Clark appears to put the mind at ease more than Dean.

I'm not convinceed, yet. If this were purely a battle of resumes then I would pick Clark over Dean to go up against Bush. But winning elections requires much more than having the right stuff on paper. It means showing that you know how to run the gauntlet of what will surely be the ugliest campaign any of us have seen in our lifetime.

Dean has already demonstrated he is a great campaigner. Clark may as well, but I haven't been convinced of it yet.

Medals are not bulletproof as I like to say. Clark will need to prove he can defeat Bush as a politician, not just as a military man.