Monday's New York Times reports that Howard Dean, who has raised over $9 million to date for his presidential campaign, has moved into the top tier of contenders. Much of the money was raised on the Internet.

Dr. Dean's aides said he would report raising at least $6.2 million in the three-month period that ends at midnight, on top of $2.6 million he raised over the first three months of the year. Dr. Dean announced the figure 36 hours before the filing period ends, timing the release for a slow-news Sunday afternoon.

What does this mean for the other candidates? Analysts say it looks bad for Joe Lieberman and Dick Gephardt because their poor showing in the fundraising department this quarter will cause the perception (we'd call it a reality) that they are not viable candidates.

As to John Kerry, some analysts think Dean's progress is bad news for Kerry because he and Dean will be competing for the same voters. But, Kerry's campaign says it's not a problem because it will reduce the race to two contenders and it's easier to run against one person than eight.

If their fund-raising projections are accurate, then perhaps it makes it a two-candidate race," Mr. Jordan said. "If so, it makes it clarifying and helpful to us."

A week ago, Dean had raised only $3.2 million. Why the big increase? A large part may be due to the MoveOn internet primary in which Dean made a strong showing.

Joe Trippi, Dean's campaign manager, thinks Dean was helped by his appearance on Meet the Press last week( full transcript here) while many others thought Dean's performance was poor because he didn't know the answers to some questions and changed his position on some issues. If there's one interpretation we are not buying into, it's this one:

"My own theory of it is when Howard Dean says things like, `I don't know the answer to that,' the echo chamber in Washington says: `Oh my God; he doesn't know the answer!' " Mr. Trippi said. "But the guy at home says, `Hey, someone who admits he doesn't know the answer. We haven't seen that before!' "

That may be true in a municipal race, but we doubt anyone wants a President who doesn't have answers.

On the other hand, as we have done before, we congratulate Dr. Dean for his success. He's been determined and dogged on the campaign trail, his staff is fired up and it's clear his heart is in this race. He's not our first choice right now, but that could change, and if he's nominated, he'll have our full support.