WASHINGTON -- What a difference a month can make in the campaign to win the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. As the election year started, we had a front-runner with a big bankroll and double-digit leads in the polls: Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean was threatening to run away with the nomination, or so it seemed.
Now we have a new front-runner with a financial advantage and momentum that he hopes will help him wrap up the nomination in the next four weeks: Massachussets Sen. John Kerry is now well positioned -- after being declared politically dead less than two months ago.
What happened? The voters took over. The pundits and the commentators can analyze and predict, but it all comes down to the electorate. Dean sailed confidently into the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries with strong momentum, spending heavily on media and organization, and assembling a virtual army of volunteers from across the nation that he had recruited on the Internet.