From today's daily Dean mailer:

Governor Dean is off this morning to campaign in key states holding contests on February 3rd and February 7th. We will be focusing resources and effort on the February 7 contests in Michigan, Washington, February 8 in Maine and February 17 in Wisconsin.

A good strategy there. Conceding the February 3rd states in favor of campaigning in much more fertile ground seems like the thing for him to do. Could it be that Gore's man is trying to get him out of the 50-state-style strategy? Or the tight financial situation the campaign's in?

I'm not a big fan of the whole "such-and-such has to hope for such-and-such to do badly so that such-and-such can..." stuff, so I don't buy the "keep Kerry strong because Dean thinks he can beat him" idea. If I were Dean, I'd hope for a big split next tuesday, with Edwards, Clark and Kerry all winning primaries. Of course, I, Brendan, would love to see that, because I want this to be a long, hard, press-receiving nomination struggle.