Don't cry for me, Ames Iowa!

The Boston Globe did some more of its famous piling on to US Senator John Kerry, estwhile Democratic Presidential Frontrunner. Today's article brings Kerry's rollercoaster year to an end. He started out on top, and is ending with a whimper.

According to sources, he is struggling to get $2 to $3 million this quarter, which means he might very well get beat by Lieberman, and even maybe Kucinich, who has $1.5+ with a goal of $1.7 million.

'I'm dying out there,' a Kerry fund-raiser told the Globe "a veteran Democratic moneyman who spoke on the condition of anonymity." 'There was so much excitement about John Kerry early on, and now there's none.' ... "Top fund-raisers said they began this last quarter, on Oct. 1, with a $4 million goal, but said it was incrementally reduced over the last three months." that was a pretty weak goal.

Wasn't Clark's $12 million? Wasn't Dean's $15 million? Sounds like it is a two man race, and when it gets that way, Dean is in trouble, according to my friend Stirling Newberry at BOP.

"It is a delicate dance - if Dean knocks out other contenders, then there is only one place for the "anybody but Dean" vote to flow: Clark. And Dean does not do well in a two man race with Clark. Where as, with several smaller candidates drawing a few percentage points off here and there, and burning money to hold on to support - even the Kucinichites are making passionate pleas to their base to hold on to their man and not defect to Dean or another candidate - it allows Dean to be the first among equals, and "win" with only 40% of the vote."

"While Dean is the front runner, he has not made the sale yet. This means anti-Dean support will form around one person, and that person will, sooner or later, be Clark. Dean hopes it is later - then Clark becomes another speed bump. Clark hopes that it is sooner - after Iowa preferably."

People have also talked about these 527s, the new soft-money havens that Clintonities are stashing away with a goal of $100 million for that black out period of spring to summer for the Democratic nominee. The question is, will they hold off their money if its Dean, or will they use it to attack him if it is still close? "Does Dean really want the party's message in this crucial period shaped by the very faction of the party with which he's picked a fight?" asks Mickey Kaus.

Rumors from pundits abound that Clinton's pick is Clark and his people are hence going to bat for Clark, and that there is a civil war going on in the party between Gore and Clinton. Surely Dean and Clark are more than proxy fighters. Methinks things are looking up for the "old machine" after all.