May 06, 2008 4:24 PM

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean took to the CNN airwaves today to declare Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., "wrong on the courts, he's wrong on Iraq, he's wrong on the economy, he's wrong on healthcare -- supporting President Bush's veto of the children's healthcare bill. He's even sadly wrong on torture, he went out and stood up against using torture which the United States should not be using if we want to be a great nation and then he supported President Bush's veto of the bill that would have stopped it."

Continued Dean: "This is a guy who is back in the 1940's and we need a president for 2010."

He's back in the 1940s?

Is that yet another subtle dig at the septuagenarian Republican who would be the oldest president ever first elected to the White House? Despite Dean's semi-pledge to not attack McCain directly on that front?

DNC spox Karen Finney says no. "Governor Dean was saying that while our candidates are talking about America's future, John McCain is talking about continuing the failed policies of the past," she says