Gotta Love It
My admiration for Howard Dean as a practical politician rises every week.
Before this year no one knew he had the speaking chops – he’s got ‘em. No one knew he had the personality for the grind – he’s got it. But, the press all figured (and the trolls still assume) he’s the LIBERAL – he doesn’t stand a chance.
Or is he?
Look at some of these stories. He’s a gun nut, says the Brady campaign. He’s “anti-black,” says Al Sharpton. He’s squidgy on Medicare, charges Gephardt. And look what Wesley Clark is now saying on Iraq. While Dean says Bush has been captured by ideologues, the General has to go one-better, and now says Bush is responsible for 9/11.
Do you see the pattern? On issue-after-issue, Dean’s opponents are now running to his left, thus pushing Dean (by contrast) to the right. More precisely, to the center, where elections are won.
And that’s the game. It’s not the nomination. The election is the game. Beating Bush is the game.
And here’s my favorite. "I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks." Dean said this in Des Moines. It appears to have sent Kerr-hardt into paroxysms of apoplexy. They’re practically calling Dean a Bubba.
And he is. As in “Bubba” Clinton. Only without the bimbo eruptions, or the money-grubbing, or the whole collection of public-and-private faces that made Democrats defending the former President feel like the therapist in “Three Faces of Eve.”
At some point, and very soon, my guess is Joe Lieberman is going to take a swipe at Dean from his left, or perceived left, and the transformation will be complete. Or, rather, the triangulation will be complete.
What the Dean wannabes don’t get is that not being “Bush-Lite” isn’t defined by a set of position papers. It’s defined by an attitude. You might call it a kind of Iowa stubborn since that caucus comes first. But perhaps Bush himself said it best. . Fool me once, shame on...you...Fool me twice, I won't get fooled again.
Before this year no one knew he had the speaking chops – he’s got ‘em. No one knew he had the personality for the grind – he’s got it. But, the press all figured (and the trolls still assume) he’s the LIBERAL – he doesn’t stand a chance.
Or is he?
Look at some of these stories. He’s a gun nut, says the Brady campaign. He’s “anti-black,” says Al Sharpton. He’s squidgy on Medicare, charges Gephardt. And look what Wesley Clark is now saying on Iraq. While Dean says Bush has been captured by ideologues, the General has to go one-better, and now says Bush is responsible for 9/11.
Do you see the pattern? On issue-after-issue, Dean’s opponents are now running to his left, thus pushing Dean (by contrast) to the right. More precisely, to the center, where elections are won.
And that’s the game. It’s not the nomination. The election is the game. Beating Bush is the game.
And here’s my favorite. "I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks." Dean said this in Des Moines. It appears to have sent Kerr-hardt into paroxysms of apoplexy. They’re practically calling Dean a Bubba.
And he is. As in “Bubba” Clinton. Only without the bimbo eruptions, or the money-grubbing, or the whole collection of public-and-private faces that made Democrats defending the former President feel like the therapist in “Three Faces of Eve.”
At some point, and very soon, my guess is Joe Lieberman is going to take a swipe at Dean from his left, or perceived left, and the transformation will be complete. Or, rather, the triangulation will be complete.
What the Dean wannabes don’t get is that not being “Bush-Lite” isn’t defined by a set of position papers. It’s defined by an attitude. You might call it a kind of Iowa stubborn since that caucus comes first. But perhaps Bush himself said it best. . Fool me once, shame on...you...Fool me twice, I won't get fooled again.
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