Grading the Debate: Kurtz has a general wrapup. I think I can safely stand by my Friday predictions, since according to Kurtz the candidates more than lived up to the flippant treatment I gave them. I'd like to follow up, though, on one of the candidates. Howard Dean.

You already know the nature of the town I live in. These folks are pretty representative. Note that they carry the Howard Dean banner on their site. Anyway, this weekend was the gay pride march in my town, so my partner (that's Mrs. Enobarbus) and I took our son to see it. It was what you would expect, and later, cooly considered over a pint, we mulled what to make of a pride march in a town in which sexual freedom is like bread-buying freedom. (I swear, most of the people marching seemed to be doing so to demonstrate not that they were here and queer, but that they held the correct opinion on the matter, despite being straight.) I know, I know, I'm getting off the subject! The point is, Howard Dean's troops (forgive the war analogy, Howie) were thick on the ground in what is nominally Kerry Country. Kerry strikes me as a man ready to stick out his jaw and coast, and if he doesn't get the nomination it'll be (to him, anyway) the country's loss. Dean, on the other hand, is on the offensive well before the first primary. Does grass-roots organizing still count for anything? If it does, Dean will surprise a lot of people.