If Mitt Romney is taking the role of John Kerry (2004 edition) then you can trot out a case that Rick Perry is playing the part of Howard Dean. Ross Douthat duly makes this argument:
There’s a good deal to this, not least since Perry is also in the process of reinventing himself. as Mr Bernstein says, Dean allowed liberals to feel good about themselves.One interesting quality that Perry has in common with Dean, and which last night’s various back-and-forths brought out, is the extent to which both his national profile and his personal affect are much more ideological than his actual gubernatorial record. Dean was a center-left and fiscally conservative governor who rebranded himself as the leader of the “Democratic wing of the Democratic Party,” and whose public persona on the campaign trail — as a stridently anti-Iraq War Vermonter who changed churches over a bike path dispute — seemed to embody all the stereotypes associated with blue state liberals.
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