The shadow of inevitability

BECAUSE OF Al Gore's endorsement of Howard Dean earlier in the day, the New Hampshire debate passed under the already growing shadow of the inevitability of Dean; the other candidates spent the first 10 minutes or so battling that shadow. One remarkable thing about the debate was the extent to which the candidates abstained from attacking each other; it's hard to tell if this had to do with the spirit of Christmas or the tacit acceptance of Dean's victory.

Dean gave a generally solid if uninspired performance, though he got somewhat tangled in his own argument at one point: First he talked about how the postwar development in Afghanistan could have been a model for Iraq, then he accused the Bush administration of turning postwar Afghanistan over to the warlords.

Dean realized this must have left many in the audience scratching their heads, so he had to backtrack and explain that he was praising the crafting of Afghanistan's new constitution while criticizing the way the transition to democracy was actually handled.

He came off as a bit too desperate to blame Bush and too unwilling to give him any credit. Given Dean's Bush-bashing image, one couldn't resist reading Freudian overtones into his slip of the tongue: "We will not be able to withdraw an American president" instead of "American presence."

Generally, I thought none of the candidates did a very convincing job of outlining what they would have done differently from Bush (whether in turning the economy around or in handling the war on terrorism) and why it would have worked.

Lieberman came across as the one with the most conviction and gravitas. He made the much-needed point that the Democrats cannot define themselves simply in opposition to Bush and everything he does, firmly stating his belief that Saddam Hussein needed to be removed not because Bush said so but because it was the right thing to do.

Biggest missed opportunity: A question about the separation of church and state was addressed to Dean and Kerry, both of whom criticized Bush for injecting too much religion into governance and affirmed that politicians should keep their religious beliefs separate from their policies. Lieberman, who differs from his fellow Democrats on this issue, should have been given a chance to comment as well.

Cathy Young is a contributing editor at Reason magazine. Her column appears regularly in the Globe.