WASHINGTON — Inexperienced. Unelectable. Shifty. Insular in his cultural views. Elitist in his economic views.
Those are the arguments Howard Dean's rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination are hurling against him as they try to slow his accelerating momentum in the final five weeks before voting begins.
Other top-tier candidates in the race -- and two of the three long-shots -- are now trying to raise doubts about Dean on a panoramic array of issues. The attacks are coming from so many angles in part because they are shaped by his rivals' contrasting calculations about where they might draw their own support. Yet the intensifying assault is powered by the common belief that if someone can't find a chink in Dean's armor soon, he may be impossible to stop.
"There's a very narrow window for everyone else," a senior advisor to one of Dean's rivals said.
With the former Vermont governor still leading in the polls as the initial contests approach next month in Iowa and New Hampshire, and with him getting endorsed by former Vice President Al Gore this week, the barrage against Dean has intensified.
Missouri Rep. Richard A. Gephardt is mailing fliers to Democrats in Iowa, condemning Dean's views on Social Security and Medicare. On Friday, he also lashed Dean over a report that he had provided lucrative corporate tax breaks to encourage insurance companies to relocate to Vermont. Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts this week sharpened his accusation that Dean flip-flopped on the war in Iraq, the same charge Dean has used against Kerry for months.
On Friday, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina delivered a speech charging that Dean was too angry and too narrow in his appeal to beat President Bush next year.
"We need a leader who can bring people together," Edwards said at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club. "We need a leader who can reach out to more than just the party faithful, but to every American in every region of this country."
And in an interview with the Los Angeles Times this week, retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark of Arkansas emphatically escalated his criticism of Dean's foreign policy record and agenda. "There's no depth in his foreign policy views to my knowledge," Clark said. "He gets advice from people and he spits it out."
Amid this cross-fire, Dean is giving as good as he gets. After months of using his position on the war in Iraq as a sword against his rivals, he is now raising it as a shield to blunt virtually all of the attacks against him.
