Posted on 01/07/2004 11:00:18 AM PST by NorCoGOP
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The papers all seem to agree, Howard Dean may be an M.D., but really he also has a Ph.D.: His Playa Hater's Degree. The papers and major news magazines portray Dean as an angry man, perhaps too pissed off for the presidency.
The cover of the Economist declares this "America's angry election year," both Newsweek and Time feature Dean on the cover and The New York Times ran a profile on Dean's temper last Saturday. Behind it all is the question of whether Dean's propensity to say things as he sees them, with a minimum of diplomatic filter, will lead to killer gaffes and slip-ups that will doom his candidacy. The conservative National Review perhaps leads the pack, urgently begging for a Dean candidacy with the assumption Dean's anger would not resonate with voters and he would self-destruct, guaranteeing a second term for Bush.
Alright, I'll buy that anger alone doesn't win an election. But what wins the election is honesty and passion. And right now if other candidates aren't angry and pissed off about the direction of the nation they should be. Either the other candidates are actually angry and hiding it behind slippery phrases or they aren't really that angry -- either choice is unsatisfactory.
Let's look at these supposed gaffes, the things Dean has said in the heat of the moment.
Lately Dean has gotten a lot of heat for suggesting that Osama bin Laden deserves a fair trial before punishment is handed down. It's a sorry state indeed if Dean is attacked for suggesting we follow the rule of law instead of vigilante justice.
Saddam Hussein was captured right before Christmas, making the world safer, right? Well, judging by the increasing casualties in Iraq, the boost to Code Orange and the return of fighter plane escorts of commercial planes, apparently not. Dean was right to point out that the capture of Hussein is not a significant improvement in the actual safety of U.S. citizens compared to Hussein hiding in a spider hole.
Dean has also caught heat variously for suggesting that Bill Clinton is not perfect (he's not), that Democratic national Chairman Terry McAuliffe is killing the party (he is) and that the Democratic Party needs to reach out to poor white southerners (they do).
So what's the problem? The supposed slip ups are in fact right on. That Dean has backtracked a little from these quotes is not evidence that they were wrong, simply that in this hyper media age a few quotes out of context can kill a campaign.
The real reason Dean is getting attacked for his anger is because everyone in power is afraid he will win not just the nomination, but the presidency. Dean is an outsider, who built an entire campaign from the ground up, using real honest grassroots appeal and not relying on the grimy hands of the Democratic Leadership Council to guide his actions.
There's a reason Dean says a third of his followers are under 30. Dean is doing a lot to bring in new members and first-time voters to the party. During the last 15 years, largely under Clinton and the leadership of the DLC, Democrats lost the Senate, the House of Representatives, numerous governorships and the last bit of the South. If Democrats want to sally forth from their bastions of power in the cities, they seriously need to re-evaluate their image, and Dean, despite his supposed Northeastern elitism, is the only one I have seen with new appeal.
In a world where the United States has few allies and where international relations are as sour as the milk I left in the fridge over break, there is something to be said for diplomacy. The Bush administration's efforts at diplomacy managed to actually eliminate the post Sept. 11 goodwill of other nations. Can Dean, with his temper and off-the-cuff remarks, truly rebuild America's standing in the world?
If the organization of his campaign is any guide, then the answer is unequivocally yes. Dean may have anger on the surface, but his ability to build a nationwide coalition of support and to do it over the Internet with minimal central control and open trust is refreshing and stands in sharp contrast to the top-down precision-guided control of the Bush campaign.
While Bush has carefully poll-tested responses and virginally tight-lipped spin control, the looseness with which Dean speaks reveals a confident candidate not afraid to speak his mind or say unpopular truths that the public should hear.
Dean says what he thinks and is called an angry man. If that's supposed to stand in contrast to the other candidates and Bush who apparently hide behind rhetoric and say what they think is popular, then sign me up for Dean.
This all said, of course, by the same people who say there is NO connection between Saddam and al Qaeda, and it was al Qaeda's threats that caused the increase in alert.
But, since it's politically expedient, it is conveniently forgotten for sake of this fallacious, red-herring argument.
Gay men die young.
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