The best solution...

...to the Howard Dean problem is a better nominee. John Kerry, with a track record as a slow starter in previous campaigns, is showing signs of becoming a better candidate for the nomination, and is the only guy on the horizon that I think can stop Dean and beat Bush.

I'm not a Wall Street Journal subsciber, but from hints in an email note and a post at Political Wire, it sounds like Kerry's making a strong impression on the Journal's David Rogers. Rogers describes him as one of the most "determinedly self-improving figures in American government," and observes that he's become a "better candidate" recently.

Whether the changes are coming a minute too late or just in time will be established when Iowa Democrats caucus on January 19, but my hopes are up, because John Kerry is the best hope we've got.