Dean says McCain is the GOP nominee

THE HILL

Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), said John McCain will be the Republican presidential nominee and he outlined, in a fundraising e-mail, how Democrats will approach beating the Arizona senator in the general election.

“Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney are done,” Dean wrote. “John McCain will be the Republican nominee — he’s the only one with a reasonable path to the nomination.”

In the letter, Dean says McCain will offer a third term of President George W. Bush’s policies on healthcare and the Iraq war. The chairman, a former Vermont governor and 2004 presidential hopeful, also said it is not enough for Democrats just to win in November.

“I don’t just want to beat John McCain — I want it to be a landslide,” Dean wrote.

Calling McCain a “media darling,” Dean said McCain has a “carefully crafted image” and has “worked for years to brand himself.”

Dean noted that McCain has acknowledged weakness when it comes to economic issues, adding that the senator has said that the U.S. might stay in Iraq for 100 years and that he wants the Supreme Court to reverse Roe v. Wade.

“We can’t afford four more years with a president who drives the economy into the ground,” Dean said. “We can’t afford four more years with a president who fights an endless war in Iraq. We can’t afford four more years with a president who gives tax cuts to companies who ship jobs overseas; with a president who can’t get every American the healthcare they deserve; with a president we just can’t trust.”