Dean dodges. So Mr. Straight Shooter, Howard Dean, doesn't want to be pinned down on whether we should pull out of Iraq. Of course not. Dean got a lot of early buzz for his staunch antiwar stand, but he knows as well as anyone that we can't pull out now that we're in. The best that can be hoped for is a quick victory with minimal loss of life -- a vision that, sadly, is already fading. But Dean doesn't want to give up his standing as the most antiwar of the Democratic presidential candidates.

While John Kerry has been ripped apart for his complicated stance on the war, Dean has gotten a free pass for his supposed candor. Maybe now people will begin to see that he, too, is hustling for votes. That's what these people do, you know. I love the description of Dean by Ryan Lizza in the current New Republic: "He doesn't just speak off-the-cuff; he reminds you that he's the guy who speaks off-the-cuff and explains that his off-the-cuffness is the reason people like him."