Being a fan of Hunter Thompson, I know a few more of the details of the 1972 race than other campaigns. I'm actually re-reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0446313645/qid=1057963275/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_2/002-9530196-6471252?v=glance&s=books&n=507846">his book about 1972</a> at the moment.
Anyway, there's a good article over at <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/07/11/dean/index.html">Salon.com </a> that describes Dean as being much like George McGovern in 1972 - A bit of a way over to the left, appealing to the untapped "internet activist" base, anti-war, candidate for the college-educated, socially liberal, fiscally conservative, etc.
I noticed a bit of what the Repubs would attack as "class warfare" in this Edwards speech. Dean has avoided that by describing the Bush tax cuts in terms of loss of public resources rather than Bush favouring the rich.
This all makes me wonder; if this is 1972 all over again and Dean(McGovern), after getting the nomination, doesn't win; will Bush (Nixon) get his very own Watergate after being re-elected?