Ellington

Sidney Blumenthal writes in Salon that Dean's gaffes may well be helping him:

"Every time Dean makes an artless comment his opponents see blood in the water. There may be blood, they may be sharks, but he emerges unscathed. ... By calling attention to Dean's boldness (or rashness) without any effectual action of their own, Dean's rivals are underscoring his fusion of acceptable political credentials as the only governor in the race (an experienced executive) who is also the insurgent. They appeal to a mythical establishment to stop him, setting themselves up as the establishment. But the unions are split with some of the most powerful backing Dean; blacks have no obvious candidate with many leaders backing Dean; elected officials are widely diffused with many behind Dean; Al Gore has endorsed Dean; Jimmy Carter, who sees Dean as a kind of reflection of himself, is quietly helpful; and the Democratic National Committee is peripheral." ...

"The sin of the 'Washington Democrats' in the eyes of Democrats isn't simply their fecklessness; it's that they have appeared as appeasers. Whether Dean or another Democrat can win the war is another question. But the first requirement for becoming the wartime leader is to understand that there's a war." ...

"Among his complaints against Dean, Lieberman has declared that Dean is not in the mold of Clinton in 1992, as though attempting to repeat the past makes a New Democrat born again. But Dean's pragmatic strategy may be another version of the one Clinton successfully adopted after he suffered the loss of the Democratic Congress in 1994. By defining his position apart from the right-wing Republicans and the 'Washington Democrats,' as he calls them, Dean has reinvented triangulation."

Previous Comments

ID

136905

Comment

Just caugt a few minutes of The Daily Show rerun on Comedy Channel. It was Jon and Stephen Colbert discussing Dean's "anger." Jon: But, Steve, what have you, as a reporter, actually witnessed, in terms of angry outbursts from Dean? Steve: It doesn't matter what I've seen, Jon. It's been Widely Reported. That makes it Factesque. It was hilarious. Also, Arianna Huffington's written an article on the Dean campaign, here: http://www.salon.com/opinion/huffington/2004/01/07/dean/index.html "Far from not being able to "compete" with Bush, Dean is the one viable Democrat who isn't trying to compete on the playing field that Bush and Karl Rove have laid out." It's a fun read, if you're interested in that sort of thing.

Author

kate

Date

2004-01-07T20:46:31-06:00