Howard Fineman gives Howard Dean mixed reviews

Howard Dean's tenure as DNC chairman may come down to playoff between generating enthusiasm and raising cash, according to a review of Dean's recent performance by Newsweek's Howard Fineman.

According to Fineman, Democrats like Dean's feisty "take no prisoners" attitude, and Fineman again repeated the new fundraising performance spin which suggests that compared to where the DNC was at the end of the second quarter of 2003, Dean has done a respectable job at bringing in the cash.  Also notable is that Dean has spent a considerable amount of time traveling (he's visited grass-roots Democrat groups in 22 states so far) and he has raised a considerable amount of his funds from individual donors who each contributed less than $250.

So what's the problem?  Fineman writes,

He and his aides seemed genuinely mystified at the idea that his characterization of the GOP was a political mistake. But by labeling the other party a bastion of Christianity, he implied that his own was something else—something determinedly secular—at a time when Dean's stated aim is to win the hearts of middle-class white Southerners, many of whom are evangelicals. In a slide-show presentation at the DNC conference last weekend, polltaker Cornell Belcher focused on why those voters aren't responding to the Democrats' economic message. One reason, he said, is that too many of them see the Democrats as "anti-religion."

I hope the Democrats can figure this one out:  by writing off "Jesus Land" they will be writing off the nation as a whole.  And you can't win elections that way.

UPDATE:  If the Howard Dean chairmanship doesn't work out for the DNC, they could always ask Gloria Arroyo, the perhaps soon-to-be-former president of the Phillipines.  She seems to be pretty skilled at winning elections.  (via Michelle Malkin.  John Marzan at Political Junkie has more.)