SALETAN ON DEAN: "NOT SINCE CLINTON HAVE DEMOCRATS SEEN A TALENT LIKE THIS"


William Saletan at Slate is dutifully impressed by Howard Dean’s appearance in Iowa this weekend. (Click here to view the video from Cspan.) Saletan writes:

Dean is far and away the most interesting player in the race. Not since Clinton have Democrats seen a talent like this. Here’s Dean on the federal budget:

When Ronald Reagan came into office, he cut taxes, we had big deficits, and we lost 2 million jobs. When Bill Clinton came into office, he raised taxes without a single Republican vote; we balanced the budget; we gained 6 and a half million jobs. George Bush has already lost 2 and a half million. I want a balanced budget because that’s how you get jobs in this country is to balance the books. No Republican president has balanced the budget in 34 years. ¦You had better elect a Democrat, because the Republicans cannot handle money. ¦ We’re the party of responsibility, and they’re not.

When you hear Dean talk like this, you wonder why no one else can make the party’s case so simply. If more Democrats spoke this way, maybe they’d control a branch of government.

If more Democrats spoke this way, we’d probably control all three.

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