The Note noticed

The Note has a nice survey of links to various articles reacting to Dean's $7 Million Monday - and has this to say about the pundit class' perceived self-importance:

Kurtz lists some of the tougher media shots Dean has taken, but the standards he is being held to are still lower than those faced by the other top-tierers.

When, how, and if that will change, and when, how, and if it will matter, is for now the dominant dynamic of the whole Invisible Primary (and if you are wondering if this is our nut graph, it is).

But the growing reality (known in Burlington forever) is that, for what Howard Dean needs to accomplish politically in 2003, it simply might not matter what the BosWash media Establishment has to say about him.

While (by our estimate) approximately 7,000 people ponder Dean's place in the meta-political world, in the REAL world, state budget crises, affecting the real lives of real people, are marching forward.


Exactly. Dean, unlike Bush or Kerry or even Gore, is running a campaign rooted in the real world. Not in the hallways of Power but on the Main Streets of America. And watch as the media backlash against Dean grows for that very reason, as his real-world performance (eg. $7 Million Monday) continues to excel even as his Pundit-Bizarro-World performance tanks (eg, Russert and MTP).

Does Dean need the media? not with the internet, he doesn't - and that's exactly what Joe Trippi means when he says that the Internet is poised to "undo" the effect of television on politics. The Note recognizes this reality (as should anyone with a brain who saw how history was made yesterday):

"'He's blunt, but that didn't bother me,' Gordon says. 'He is not a touchy-feely guy. With John Edwards, John Kerry, even Joe Lieberman, you'll get the hug and kiss as a female reporter. You don't get that with Howard Dean.'"

(Note Note: kissing aside, how much time should a candidate have to spend on relations with the Fourth Estate? Ask Bill Bradley. Or John McCain.)

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