‘All of a sudden, John Kerry starts swinging’?: Alex Beam hasn’t given up on John Kerry. Sounds like the early conventional wisdom of many Bostonians -- including Hub Blog -- who remember the Weld-Kerry Senate showdown, when Kerry, his seemingly underestimated back against the wall, came out swinging and won. But the more I think of the comparison, the more it sounds stale. Weld was a bored governor. Dean is a hungry ex-governor. Weld went along with and kept the gentlemen’s agreement on spending caps. Dean went along with and then broke a similar agreement. Weld’s Dean Martin-like persona reflected the washed-up tone of a campaign going through the motions. Dean’s non-Dean Martin-like persona reflects an energized campaign playing to win. ... For that and other reasons, I’m increasingly tempted to make side bets on: Gephardt. ... The newly redesigned John Ellis.blogspot is anticipating the concession speeches.

Remember that seemingly whacky idea out of the Pentagon to create a quasi-futures market on possible terrorists attacks? Well, taking the same logic and applying it to the presidential race, the GOP money-markets tend to be betting on Dean.  ¶ 7:29 AM