Opponents Lob Few Shells at Dean on War

[Manix]

LA Times
By Ronald Brownstein


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DES MOINES — In their final arguments to voters before the Iowa and New Hampshire contests this month, the Democrats chasing Howard Dean are attacking the front-runner on virtually every aspect of his temperament and agenda.

Except one: the centerpiece issue of his presidential campaign.

While peppering Dean daily over his views on issues like Medicare, trade and taxes and questioning whether he exudes too much anger to effectively run against President Bush, the main Democratic contenders except Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut have declined to challenge him over his opposition to the war with Iraq, the cause at his candidacy's core.


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The question for Dean's rivals is whether they can overcome his lead by raising doubts on other fronts if they fail to dent his insistence that he was right, and they were wrong, on the most emotional issue in the Democratic race.

"They are scared because of their belief that since the most vocal activists are supremely hostile to the war, they can't win the nomination if they alienate them too much," said a Democratic strategist supporting one of Dean's rivals.

Recent national Gallup polls have found that about 35% of Democrats think the United States was right to go to war with Iraq, while just under 60% think it was wrong.


http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-dems7jan07,1,7904624.story?coll=la-home-headlines