MEDIA BRANDS: In simply criticizing Dean's comments, the press missed a chance to facilitate meaningful debate

In a week in which Howard Dean consolidated his lead in the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination by securing the endorsements of two major unions, the biggest political story was about his verbal gaffe. Or at least that's what the rest of his party's field and the vast majority of the political press called his remark, uttered at a debate, that he wants to be the candidate of the "guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks."