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The Mysterious Stranger
The New York Times ^ | 12/09/03 | David Brooks

Posted on 12/08/2003 10:19:11 PM PST by Pokey78

My moment of illumination about Howard Dean came one day in Iowa when I saw him lean into a crowd and begin a sentence with, "Us rural people. . . ."

Dean grew up on Park Avenue and in East Hampton. If he's a rural person, I'm the Queen of Sheba. Yet he said it with conviction. He said it uninhibited by any fear that someone might laugh at or contradict him.

It was then that I saw how Dean had liberated himself from his past, liberated himself from his record and liberated himself from the restraints that bind conventional politicians. He has freed himself to say anything, to be anybody.

Other candidates run on their biographies or their records. They keep policy staff from their former lives, and they try to keep their policy positions reasonably consistent.

But Dean runs less on biography than any other candidate in recent years. When he began running for president, he left his past behind, along with the encumbrances that go with it. As governor of Vermont, he was a centrist Democrat. But the new Dean who appeared on the campaign trail — a jarring sight for the Vermonters who knew his previous self — is an angry maverick.

The old Dean was a free trader. The new Dean is not. The old Dean was open to Medicare reform. The new Dean says Medicare is off the table. The old Dean courted the N.R.A.; the new Dean has swung in favor of gun control. The old Dean was a pro-business fiscal moderate; the new Dean, sounding like Ralph Nader, declares, "We've allowed our lives to become slaves to the bottom line of multinational corporations all over the world."

The philosopher George Santayana once observed that Americans don't bother to refute ideas — they just leave them behind. Dean shed his upper-crust WASP self, then his centrist governor self, bursting onto the national scene as a mysterious stranger who comes out of nowhere to battle corruption.

The newly liberated Dean is uninhibited. A normal person with no defense policy experience would not have the chutzpah to say, "Mr. President, if you'll pardon me, I'll teach you a little about defense." But Dean says it. A normal person, with an eye to past or future relationships, wouldn't compare Congress to "a bunch of cockroaches." Dean did it.

The newly liberated Dean doesn't worry about having a coherent political philosophy. There is a parlor game among Washington pundits called How Liberal Is Howard Dean? One group pores over his speeches, picks out the things no liberal could say and argues that he's actually a centrist. Another group picks out the things no centrist could say and argues that he's quite liberal.

But the liberated Dean is beyond categories like liberal and centrist because he is beyond coherence. He'll make a string of outspoken comments over a period of weeks — on "re-regulating" the economy or gay marriage — but none of them have any relation to the others. When you actually try to pin him down on a policy, you often find there is nothing there.

For example, asked how we should proceed in Iraq, he says hawkishly, "We can't pull out responsibly." Then on another occasion he says dovishly, "Our troops need to come home," and explains, fantastically, that we need to recruit 110,000 foreign troops to take the place of our reserves. Then he says we should not be spending billions more dollars there. Then he says again that we have to stay and finish the job.

At each moment, he appears outspoken, blunt and honest. But over time he is incoherent and contradictory.

He is, in short, a man unrooted. This gives him an amazing freshness and an exhilarating freedom.

Everybody talks about how the Internet has been key to his fund-raising and organization. Nobody talks about how it has shaped his persona. On the Internet, the long term doesn't matter, as long as you are blunt and forceful at that moment. On the Internet, a new persona is just a click away. On the Internet, everyone is loosely tethered, careless and free. Dean is the Internet man, a string of exhilarating moments and daring accusations.

The only problem is that us rural folk distrust people who reinvent themselves. Many of us rural folk are nervous about putting the power of the presidency in the hands of a man who could be anyone.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Vermont
KEYWORDS: davidbrooks; howarddean
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1 posted on 12/08/2003 10:19:12 PM PST by Pokey78
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To: Pokey78
He has freed himself to say anything, to be anybody.

Thats liberalism for ya... truth is, like, you know, totally relative, dude

2 posted on 12/08/2003 10:30:44 PM PST by GeronL (My tagline for rent..... $5 per month or 550 posts/replies, whichever comes first... its a bargain!!)
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To: Pokey78
So basically he is living in a fantasy world. Sounds about right for a cowardly communist.
3 posted on 12/08/2003 10:42:02 PM PST by vpintheak (Our Liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain!)
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To: Pokey78
"It was then that I saw how Dean had liberated himself from his past, liberated himself from his record and liberated himself from the restraints that bind conventional politicians. He has freed himself to say anything, to be anybody"

Uh, this is part of the definition of a psycopath and was part of Bill Clinton's personality.

4 posted on 12/08/2003 11:03:36 PM PST by txzman (Jer 23:29)
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To: GeronL
He may lose big if he runs against Bush,but I take nothing for granted.It isn't what he says,it is his way of delivering it.

I saw "it" the firat time I heard him speak.Many people don't pay attention to the details,they just like the impression the speaker leaves .

This is a devastating piece for any dem who is paying attention to read.Gore endorsed this today??
5 posted on 12/08/2003 11:08:12 PM PST by MEG33
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To: txzman
He looks like a psychopath. He is a tight-lipped, beady-eyed man who wants his way. He sounds remarkably similar to Bill Clinton in his chameleon-like ability to morph into whatever people want to see.
6 posted on 12/08/2003 11:09:23 PM PST by The Westerner
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To: MEG33
Yup, the Gore-man sure did... so did, haha, Molly Ivans....
7 posted on 12/08/2003 11:10:07 PM PST by GeronL (My tagline for rent..... $5 per month or 550 posts/replies, whichever comes first... its a bargain!!)
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To: GeronL
Dean has passed the stupid test. That is the reason he is so popular with the voters on the left and making inroads on the moderates.
8 posted on 12/08/2003 11:17:54 PM PST by meenie
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To: Pokey78
Sounds like Al Gore
9 posted on 12/08/2003 11:20:34 PM PST by hosepipe
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To: Ronin; gov_bean_ counter; txzman
This is another view of Dean..it's worse!
10 posted on 12/08/2003 11:21:41 PM PST by MEG33
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To: Pokey78
I'm wondering if the newly liberated Dean is trying to be a combination Ralph Nader/Al Gore and gets confused by which one he is at the moment. If he can keep Ralph out of the race he doesn't need to worry about those votes being siphoned off. He doesn't have to worry about Gore any more.
11 posted on 12/08/2003 11:22:41 PM PST by tinamina
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To: Pokey78; Miss Marple; Molly Pitcher; Dog; Iowa Granny; Utah Girl; MozartLover; PhiKapMom; ...
bttt
12 posted on 12/08/2003 11:25:18 PM PST by kayak (The Vast, Right-Wing Conspiracy is truly Vast! [JohnHuang2])
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To: txzman
"Uh, this is part of the definition of a psychopath and was part of Bill Clinton's personality."

Sounds like John McCain too.
13 posted on 12/08/2003 11:31:09 PM PST by RicocheT
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To: Porterville
Try this view of Dean!
14 posted on 12/08/2003 11:32:27 PM PST by MEG33
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To: vpintheak
He's Clintonizing. It's my bet it's deliberate.
15 posted on 12/08/2003 11:36:19 PM PST by thoughtomator (The U.N. is a terrorist organization)
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To: Pokey78
Everybody talks about how the Internet has been key to his fund-raising and organization. Nobody talks about how it has shaped his persona. On the Internet, the long term doesn't matter, as long as you are blunt and forceful at that moment. On the Internet, a new persona is just a click away. On the Internet, everyone is loosely tethered, careless and free.

On the Internet, everything you ever say and do is being saved to a hard drive somewhere, ready to be resurrected and thrown back in your face if you flip-flop months or even years later.

16 posted on 12/08/2003 11:37:26 PM PST by Timesink (I'm not a big fan of electronic stuff, you know? Beeps ... beeps freak me out. They're bad.)
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To: txzman
The CLINTON rule: To win as a Liberal in America, you have to be a lying psychopath who is good at being all things to all people. A Liberal must be a good liar.

(Gore was a liar, but not a good one, hence his failure to win.)

17 posted on 12/08/2003 11:41:51 PM PST by WOSG (The only thing that will defeat us is defeatism itself)
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To: Pokey78
Liberated from reality
18 posted on 12/08/2003 11:44:34 PM PST by woofie
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To: Pokey78
"...us rural folk distrust people who reinvent themselves. Many of us rural folk are nervous about putting the power of the presidency in the hands of a man who could be anyone."

That is exactly the conclusion that shot through me as I read the piece. Dean cannot be trusted, and if there is one thing the American public can sniff out about a candidate, it is trust. Dean cannot be trusted and for that reason he is, sooner or later, toast.

19 posted on 12/09/2003 12:07:35 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: WOSG
What was Bob Kerry's exact phrase about Clinton? "Exceptionally good liar", wasn't it?
20 posted on 12/09/2003 12:09:17 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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