Andrew Busch explains why Howard Dean is the hot commodity among Democrats in the presidential race. This does not surprise Busch, and it shouldn’t surprise us. He is the only plausible Democrat running from outside Congress; he is also the only candidate who has successfully tapped into the "angry Democrat," perhaps the pivotal figure of the Democratic race; and he stands unequivocally against the war in Iraq, and thereby is able to take advantage of the budding anti-war movement that had developed before the war, but was squashed (temporarily) by our quick victory. A good read. 
How Clintonian is Dean? In a debate with Liberman he was accused of abandoning Isreal to which he said that his policy on Israel is the same as Bill Clinton’s. Because Howard Dean does not always sound like Bill Clinton increases the likelyhood that he is very Clintonian. Bill Clinton after all was a great pragmatist and Howard Dean sounds like John Dewey at the end of Reconstruction in philosophy.
"Why is Howard Dean doing so well?"
I don’t know, lack of competition perhaps?
I agree with the article, but the truth of the matter is that both Dean and Clinton energize democrats, at this point Dean has cemented the more idealist wing of the party, now he will bring himself closer to Clinton and in fact ask him for help in this race.