Headed for a cliff with Dean

New York Daily News: The Democratic Party has an albatross, and his name is Howard Dean, the candidate most likely to succeed in the party's fast-approaching Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary as he drives toward a presidential nomination.
The former Vermont governor has risen above the monotonal drone of his rivals by capitalizing on the rage that many Democrats harbor toward President Bush, notably over the war in Iraq. The difficulty is that fury does not a successful campaign make. It also blinds.
It is astonishing that Democrats cannot see the doom that awaits if they nominate a candidate who said this about Osama bin Laden: "I've resisted pronouncing a sentence before guilt is found. I still have this old-fashioned notion that even with people like Osama, who is very likely to be found guilty, we should do our best not to, in positions of executive power, not to prejudge jury trials."
Out of step
Those 46 words reveal with laser-like eloquence that Dean fundamentally misunderstands what's at stake for the U.S. in the global war on terror and so does not have the mind-set to wage the battle effectively. While the country has been on a combat footing since 9/11, Dean is thinking about due-process rights for bin Laden and, who knows, running him through the criminal justice system. What would President Dean have the Marines do? Read the Miranda rights to a terrorist and arraign him in Manhattan Criminal Court?
True to form, Dean changed his position after his remarks were published in a New Hampshire newspaper and were roundly condemned. Yes, he assured, he wants bin Laden to get the death penalty. We say a summary execution on the battlefield would be more like it.
The Democrats would be well-advised to imagine the campaign ads that Bush's mastermind, Karl Rove, would cook up. He'd start with bin Laden, move on to Dean's declaration that the U.S. was not safer with Saddam Hussein in custody and happily focus on Dean's irresponsibility in spreading the conspiracy theory that Bush knew about the 9/11 plot beforehand and did nothing to stop it.
Despite all that, Dean is giving Rep. Dick Gephardt from next-door Missouri a run for his money in the Jan. 19 Iowa caucuses, has a double-digit lead over Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts in Jan. 27's New Hampshire primary and could have the nomination wrapped up by March 2. If so, he'll lead the party over a cliff like so many lemmings.