This is not only offensive, but wrong. Howard Dean talking to students at Northwestern:

Though Dean, a Democrat, complimented President Bush, saying he “ran a great campaign” and was “very disciplined,” he compared the president to former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, at least in one regard.

“The truth is the president of the United States used the same device that Slobodan Milosevic used in Serbia. When you appeal to homophobia, when you appeal to sexism, when you appeal to racism, that is extraordinarily damaging to the country,” Dean charged. “I know George Bush. I served with him for six years [as a fellow governor]. He’s not a homophobe. He’s not a racist. He’s not a sexist. In some ways, what he did was worse … because he knew better.”

Reasonable people can disagree about appealing to homophobia, but when did Bush play on sexism and racism? What evidence is there for either charge? And how does what Bush did compare in any way to Milosevic, who is on trial at the Hague for war crimes? In fact, if you compare the President to his father, who exploited the “Willie Horton” issue, W’s campaign was far more restrained in its discussion of racial matters.

(PS My posts titled “What is ___ talking about?” are a homage to Noam Scheiber of The New Republic,” who uses them to great effect on his &c. blog on TNR’s website.)