Howard Dean: Laughingstock
Rewind your mental videotape back to the failed Iowa Primary. Howard Dean tries to rev up a bruised and battered crowd with a confident pep talk followed by what amounted to a "Yeee-hi!!!"
Video of the yeehi began to be played...and continued...and continued...making Dean look foolish. By the New Hampshire primary a week later, it had been played more than 1000 times on cable TV news.
1000 times.
(Photo:Little Dem pictured with Howard Dean when he was governor of Vermont.)
Howard Dean was electronically assassinated by the media. It wasn't an evil plot, but a lazy, silly, sheep-following-other-sheep decision made en masse by the bigwigs in TV news. He became a politically correct target and it was considered okay to openly mock Dean and question if he had a future outside of Vermont.
His presidential aspirations were killed that week, but his power wasn't extinguished. Before long, he pushed for and attained the leadership of the Democratic party. Due to the power of his massive Deaniac database, his creativity, friends made nationally during 5 terms as Vermont Governor, and plans for expanding the party for the 2006 elections made him the most viable candidate to run the Democratic re-election effort. The right wing giggled and gaggled and greeted the news with guffaws and glee. They thought that with Dean running things, it would be a cakewalk.
If you've been living in a cave, you should now be told that the Democrats soundly took the House and the Senate as well. Washington DC is on its ear. The president claims to be conciliatory and willing to compromise (we'll see about that, as tigers changing their stripes comes quickly to mind). And now we have James Carville saying that Dean should be replaced.
I live in Boerne and can't claim to know a heck of a lot about the backroom deals and the real bottom line on national party politics. But the Democrats just pulled something off that they haven't done in nearly two decades. If there's any time to be thankful, to recognize accomplishment, and to not change horses in mid stream, it seems this would be it. Dean's 50-state strategy seems to have made a measureable difference--see Montana, Missourri, Indiana and Virginia if you're looking for examples.
I gotta say, I was thoroughly disappointed when Dean didn't manifest a viable option to be president. But his time at the DNC has been by most any measure a resounding success. Let's give credit where it's due. To Howard Dean.
Video of the yeehi began to be played...and continued...and continued...making Dean look foolish. By the New Hampshire primary a week later, it had been played more than 1000 times on cable TV news.
1000 times.
(Photo:Little Dem pictured with Howard Dean when he was governor of Vermont.) Howard Dean was electronically assassinated by the media. It wasn't an evil plot, but a lazy, silly, sheep-following-other-sheep decision made en masse by the bigwigs in TV news. He became a politically correct target and it was considered okay to openly mock Dean and question if he had a future outside of Vermont.
His presidential aspirations were killed that week, but his power wasn't extinguished. Before long, he pushed for and attained the leadership of the Democratic party. Due to the power of his massive Deaniac database, his creativity, friends made nationally during 5 terms as Vermont Governor, and plans for expanding the party for the 2006 elections made him the most viable candidate to run the Democratic re-election effort. The right wing giggled and gaggled and greeted the news with guffaws and glee. They thought that with Dean running things, it would be a cakewalk.
If you've been living in a cave, you should now be told that the Democrats soundly took the House and the Senate as well. Washington DC is on its ear. The president claims to be conciliatory and willing to compromise (we'll see about that, as tigers changing their stripes comes quickly to mind). And now we have James Carville saying that Dean should be replaced.
I live in Boerne and can't claim to know a heck of a lot about the backroom deals and the real bottom line on national party politics. But the Democrats just pulled something off that they haven't done in nearly two decades. If there's any time to be thankful, to recognize accomplishment, and to not change horses in mid stream, it seems this would be it. Dean's 50-state strategy seems to have made a measureable difference--see Montana, Missourri, Indiana and Virginia if you're looking for examples.
I gotta say, I was thoroughly disappointed when Dean didn't manifest a viable option to be president. But his time at the DNC has been by most any measure a resounding success. Let's give credit where it's due. To Howard Dean.
posted by VTexan at 9:28 AM
1 Comments:
I will never forget coming home to Texas from Des Moines, IA and hearing about this "scream" on the news. I was there in the ballroom and heard the purported "scream" that was not even heard above the roar of the crowd. That was the day I saw concrete evidence of the manipulation of the American people by the press.
Dean's 50 state plan worked, and worked beautifully. Look how many we mobilized in our little tiny county. Thanks Howard!
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