Ah, would he though?
Dean would have lots of problems. For one, he couldn't keep his mouth shut - his campaign team found him almost unmanagable. Speaking your mind during the nomination phase in order to the win the heart of your party might be good, it would be less good during a general election.
And how does the public generally react to Dean? I think he would be riding a very unsteady horse. He's got no foreign policy experience, or even a whiff of it - Dean could counter that with his running mate and by turning the argument back on Bush, but it would still be a sore point. Dean would likely also experience the 'Obama problem' of a lack of appeal to blue collar workers. His political positions do not easily fit into a convienient box - fiscally tight, socially liberal. This could go either way, but you would have to say that it doesn't provide a very firm basis for support. That was part of Dean's problem in the primaries, and I can't see it going away for the general.
I agree. Dean running his mouth would run him into the same kind of problems Goldwater had in 1964. Bush could then just bury him with his loose statements to undermine his credibility.