The New York Times reports that Howard Dean is acting huffy:
Dean… implied that many of his supporters, particularly young people, might stay home in November if another Democrat’s name ends up on the ballot.
“I don’t know where they’re going to go, but they’re certainly not going to vote for a conventional Washington politician,” he said.
Though Dr. Dean has repeatedly said he would back whichever Democrat wins the nomination, he said Sunday that support was “not transferable anymore” and that endorsements, including his own, “don’t guarantee anything.”
Josh Marshall takes Dean to task:
The price of admission to the Democratic primary race is a pledge of committed support to whomever wins the nomination, period. (The sense of entitlement to other Democrats’ support comes after you win the nomination, not before.) If Dean can’t sign on that dotted-line, he has no business asking for the party’s nomination.
Marshall has a valid point — the attacks that John McCain took in 2000 were far worse than anything Dean’s experienced to date. Despite this, McCain was on the podium at the Republican convention with a full-throated (well… at least three-quarters-throated) endorsement of George W. Bush — even though he’d had minor surgery earlier that week and had to wear a bandage on his face. If Dean is acting petulant now, imagine how he’ll act as the Democratic standard-bearer.
Meanwhile Wesley Clark tries to woo the Clinton wing of the party (posted by Daniel Drezner).
The Dish 