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If he had been shouting in German, he would have sounded like Hitler.

I know I won't be popular for saying so, but I completely disagree.

Mean Dean's little pep rally was spontaneous, unrehearsed, and largely unintelligible. Hitler's performances could not be more different. They were carefully scripted and choreographed down to the last detail, rehearsed, and bone-chillingly focused in message. The only element common to Hitler's rallies and Dean's rally is their anger.

Dean likely believed his team was dispirited and needed to be be whipped up emotionally immediately. He thought it essential that they see him as a "winner" who had suffered nothing more than a minor setback. He has played football and my guess is he reverted to an emotional-coach-in-the-locker-room style because it is the only style he is familiar with for such situations.

I am not familiar with his various gubernatorial campaigns, but I would guess that in those races he never found himself in the same situation that he found himself and his supporters yesterday. If he had, he likely would have discovered long ago that a locker room rant is ill-suited to a gubernatorial or presidential campaigns where peole are scrutinising every word and gesture for signs of emotional instability.

Dean's performace over the past month has been one long concantenation of political pratfalls and whoopie cushions.