The Battle of Concord.

Sensing a misstep on the military question, John Kerry launches into Howard Dean, his most potent rival in the New Hampshire primary. For their part, the Dean camp counters by accusing Kerry of Gore-like evasiveness. Meanwhile, on another front, Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect suggests Dean is using the Gore playbook in his attacks on Gephardt’s health plan. I still run hot and cold on John Kerry, but I must say, hiring Gore flunky Chris Lehane as his campaign spokesman clearly goes in the minus column…he may be good at his job, but Lehane still exudes Gore’s insincerity. At any rate, with less a week until the first debate, it’s definitely on.

Bradley WetWorks.

One of the many nice things about living in New York rather than DC these days is not having to listen to ex-Gore flunkies gleefully recite war stories from the 2000 primary. But, I must admit, the admission in this article sent to me by a friend brought all the Gore fear and loathing of 2000 (lI’m sure many long-time readers remember it well) roaring back like a mouthful of bile. Seeing that Bill Bradley was up in the New Hampshire polls, Gore ops created a traffic jam on I-93 to discourage Bradley supporters from voting. So, next time you hear some Dem flak blaming Nader voters for the results of 2000, remember it might just have been those same flaks purposely clogging traffic to give us Mediscare Al as our choice of candidate. Grrr…

Pride of New Hampshire.

Hmm…maybe John Kerry has a better chance in 2004 than I first thought. For one, Dem leaders are starting to publicly beg Gore to stay out of the election. And you know Kerry’s got the Gore crowd worried when Marty Peretz’s Gore Republic starts trying to undercut Kerry’s strengths, such as Vietnam service and foreign policy credentials. More importantly, in a recent New Hampshire poll, Gore is only beating Kerry by three points, 31 to 28. Obviously, being from nearby Massachusetts helps, but if Kerry can pull a McCain-like bounce out of the NH primary without having to spend too much money… Update: In a related story, Joe Lieberman is also starting to make his move.