Eh...I still don't like Kerry. I don't think he promises much with his platform. Maybe that's just being "realistic" on his part and I should give him credit for it, but I'm not going to.

Just an example...Dean recognizes the enormous flaws in NAFTA and says he wants to revoke or rework it to include wage and environmental protections. Kerry just says that trade agreements "should have standards," but insisting on too much would be "shutting the door." How many doors has this treaty already shut?

Another thing I like about Dean is that you can pretty much count on him balancing the budget. I don't feel the same assurances from Kerry. Dean wants to abolish the Bush tax cuts and use the money for rebuilding Iraq, while Kerry wants to roll back the upper-income cuts and use the money to create "3 million jobs in 500 days" (sounds like a classic broken campaign promise just waiting to happen).

One thing they both have in common is opting out of the presidential public financing system. It's interesting to note that, while Kerry lags behind Dean in fundraising, Kerry has relied far more on "bundlers" than Dean. I find this worrisome (although, of course, neither Kerry nor Dean have anything on Bush's piles of high-level donor cash).

Dean has solid credentials when it comes to fiscal policy, health care, and (regardless of what Sharpton has to say about it) race relations. His lack of presidential "experience" is a non-factor, in my opinion, because a) everyone else is in the same boat, so if Rove is going to use that brush, he can tar everyone equally with it; and b) Bush's own gubernatorial credentials were far weaker coming into the presidency.

Anyway, I still think it's too early to count anybody out. Don't forget who won the New Hampshire primary in 1992.