Who were the Dem frontrunners in Oct of 2003, 1991, etc?

[skipos]

The elections without an Dem incumbent, and without a former VP?

I am pretty sure that Lieberman or Dean were the frontrunners at this point in 2003, but I don't know about elections before then.

I ask because of this quote:
"Historically, the early leader usually bags the nomination"
from this article:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1011/p08s01-comv.html
from this post:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3598686
doesn't seem accurate to me if we are talking about 2008. There are no incumbents or VPs running (yet), and my understanding is that early, non-incumbent, non-VP frontrunners usually DON'T get the nomination.