Katha Likes Dean

SUBJECT TO DEBATE by Katha Pollitt

Selling Dean Short

What did Howard Dean do to make the media so snarky about his primary run? Now that he has emerged as a major fundraiser with flocks of enthusiastic supporters, a vigorous campaign staff, a bag full of Internet tricks and respectable--and rising--poll numbers, the pundits and reporters have to go through the motions of taking him seriously: In a single August week he was on the cover of Time and Newsweek and had a major story in U.S. News & World Report. But aside from some curiously cheerful coverage in the Wall Street Journal, they obviously don't like him. He's "brusque," "testy," the "ex-Governor of a speck of a state" and "a shrill Northeasterner," Karen Tumulty wrote in Time. "It's hard to imagine Dean's glorious season ending without disappointment," adds John Cloud in his profile in the same issue, in which he draws a labored and precious similarity between Dean and George W. Bush (both come from rich Republican families, both went to Yale, partied hearty, speak Spanish--never mind that Dean went to medical school while George II relied on his father's cronies to set him up in the oil business). "The Doctor Is In--In Your Face!" warns U.S. News. Over at Newsweek ("Destiny or Disaster?"), Jonathan Alter also finds "the diminutive family doctor" "brusque" and says he "strutted like a little Napoleon onto the floor of the usually genteel Vermont State Senate."

A little Napoleon? Is that the problem--Dean is short? (He's 5' 8".) In order to run for President one must not only be white, a man, married, religious and Southern--not to mention whatever the opposite of brusque may be--one must be tall as well? No wonder I love this man! Every time the press pooh-poohs his chances, every time they gloat over some trivial misstatement, every time they make fun of Vermont and describe his supporters as "Birkenstocked" "Deanyboppers," I think about the free ride the media give Bush, who says more false and foolish things in an afternoon than Dean has said in a lifetime, who is unmaking everything good about this country from Head Start to habeas corpus, who is stacking the government with faith healers and fanatics, my fingers itch to write Dean another check.

So what if on Meet the Press Dean gave ballpark answers to Tim Russert's gotcha questions about the number of soldiers in Iraq? Compared with the President he's a Talleyrand reborn. On July 14, Bush explained why the United States invaded Iraq as follows: "The larger point is, and the fundamental question is: Did Saddam Hussein have a weapons program? And the answer is: absolutely. And we gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in. And therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power." Eat your heart out, Hans Blix! The President of the United States can bizarrely declare that weapons inspectors never entered Iraq, and that's not a news story. He's "likable," he's tall--he's not a Democrat.

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030901&s=pollitt

Dean has been anointed by the establishment as the safe opposition candidate, so all the punditocracy is going to align themselves either for or against him.

not anointing him to anything.

Dean was universally ignored, dismissed, or attacked until just recently by mainstream pundits. The Progressive even had a good column on how the establishment press has been ganging up on Dean over much ado about nothing.

Along with The Progressive, In These Times, hardly an establishment organ, had a lot of good things to say about Dean in a cover story back in June, when "opposition pundit" Margaret Carlson was saying Dean's star was fading (and that she liked Kerry because of his hair, or some such nonsense...there are plenty of reasons to like Kerry and his damn hair should rank way down on the list, IMHO).

I don't see where Dean is seen as the "safe opposition candidate." He seems to me to be unpredictable which makes those in power antsy.

Being a good web-based candidate alone wont work.

Clintons greatest gift was that he was a great communicator. So was his wife (does Dean even have one?). And yes he was tall, which is a natural advantage in 1 on 1 communication.

Dean has the ideas but not the charisma or communication talent to attract more than the reactionary vote.

I suggest you read the book "How to work a room" to understand what I'm saying.

4,000 people turning out for a rally in Philadelphia says something about Dean's ability to attract a crowd.

BTW, welcome to DU! :hi:

From the same article:

"Right now, Dean is the only viable candidate who speaks to the anger, fear and loathing a large number of ordinary citizens feel about the direction Bush has taken the country, while the mainstream media blandly kowtow and the Democratic Party twiddles its thumbs. He has gone out and actually asked for the help of these citizens, rather than taking them for granted. That is why 70,000 people have sent him money, and why 84,000 have shown up to work for him, and why tens of thousands of volunteers wrote personal letters to Iowa and New Hampshire Democrats and independents urging them to support Dean. His willingness to challenge Bush without looking over his shoulder at the last undecided voter in Ohio is the big story--not whether he signed Vermont's civil union legislation in a private ceremony to avoid publicity, or even whether he insisted on balancing Vermont's budget at the expense of worthy social programs."

He has gone out and actually asked for the help of these citizens, rather than taking them for granted.

He hasn't just expected the support, he hasn't felt entitled to the support......he has asked for it. Some would have us believe this is a bad thing.......remarkable.

Julie--who is sick of entitlement

is the key.

Another key quality is being able to mediate your own relationship with the public. Bad candidates are defined by the media. Good candidates define themselves to their public. You can only do the latter if you are able to connect directly with the public. This was the big struggle between Clinton and the Republicans. Clinton was so adept at defining himself through directly connecting with the public that the Republicans had to spend tons of money and go way overboard and expend a ton of political capital (think of the cost to Gingrich and even Starr, who can longer be a Supreme Court Justice) just to try to get their message about who Clinton was out in front of Clinton's own message about who he was. And even though part of who Clinton is is a guy who got blow jobs from an intern, in the end Clinton will get the last word on who he is (a really good, Democratic president during one of the darkest periods of American history when the threats to Democracy were internal, and not from abroad).

Dean, in my opinion, is successfully doing both. I base this mainly on the fact that his crowds are growing (I remember when I was impressed that 2500 gathered in Austin to hear him); you can only attract attention for so long before you either connect or you fizzle. Maybe you'd say Dean will fizzle, and maybe you'd be right. I haven't seen that, though. Time will tell.

I also think Dean is doing a great job getting people participating in the process again; he's putting part of the responsibility on us for taking back the country, not in simply looking to him to do it for us.

And if Dean isn't successfully defining himself, then I guess defining oneself is impossible.

I agree mostly with what you say about Clinton. I was deeply frustrated with him throughout his two terms (and over more substantive things than who was giving him blow jobs), but he was one of the better presidents we've had, IMO.

but he was the first candidate ever to use the internet as a tool to kick off his campaign. And he has done it masterfully.

Not gonna read your book. I've seen the man in action.

He sure communicated to me that I like him and I know the reasons why in concrete facts. His wife is a doctor, who if she becomes First Lady will be one of the first to actually work while residing in the White House. Working women and feminists everywhere will relate to her.

won't they need to be accompanied by Secret Service people which would be a no-no for patient-client-privilege? Just asking because I cannot figure out how it would work.

with her, but this is no different than her going shopping or having lunch out with a friend. I imagine there will be a lot of problems to solve. She has stated though that she won't give up being a doctor. She also probably won't be much of the First Lady hostess type either, but then neither is Laura. It does remain to be seen.

I don't think they would like any democrat frankly.

He's relaxed, connects with the group, excites people
who haven't been attracted to politics in a long time.

We've had to live with a pResident who not only
can't put coherent sentences together without cue
cards, but can't manufacture human emotions in reaction
to real disasters.

Throwing pizzas in this case won't work here.

And if he couldn't connect, as I say above, he'd be fizzling now. I mean, Bush has always had the advantage of appearing before hand-selected, highly partisan groups where ever he goes, so sure he has the illusion of popular support. To my knowledge, the 4,000 Dean supporters in Philly were just regular people and Dem activists who are excited by Dean's candidacy.

Keep the critisism comming. they wouldn't bother if he wasn't a threat.

"Nobody shoots at you on the way down" - Dale Eldred, American sculptor 1934-1993

Keep 'em coming!

thing to say! Has he said anything about the way bush swaggers around?
I hope he reads Katha Pollet's piece on Dean!

SpiderMan is 5'8"! I know of a firefighter who jumps from airplanes into forest fires who is 5'7"...doesn't detract from his bravery!


bush is about as "likable" as slug. and he's not even a republican..more like some mutant, neonazicon, religious babble, nut!

So often I see criticisms of Dean addressed with the statement "but have you seen Bush?" That's about the weakest argument for a candidate there is.

that he is running on.

Massive information dump on Gov. Howard Dean
http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=7343

I agree: That's a stupid argument to make in support of Dean; it's also not what Dean is about at all.

Dean attacks Bush quite aggressively because he and his campaign manager, Joe Trippi, are working under the assumption that the Dem candidate in 2004 must clearly distinguish himself from Bush and give voters a clear alternative to the radical rightwing agenda Bush is hawking.

In addition to attacking Bush's ideology, Dean also offers his own vision of what he hopes to help America accomplish under a Dean administration.

It doesn't stop the press from pandering.

According to this account: http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/t43.htm#7

I'm 6'0" and I'm pretty sure I could look down at him. Actually, a lot of people shorter than that already do LOL.

Bush a six-footer? Not unless a whole lot of the guys in this picture are a lot taller...

around 5'11. I don't believe it. He doesn't seem much taller than Laura in pictures, and she's not a tall woman. I'm 6' and I know I'm taller than that little squirt.

I'm taller than Howard Dean, too. Some guys do have that Napolean thing going, but I don't think he's one of them. He's just confident. He shook my hand and chatted with me - without a scrid of discomfort about my being taller. Trust me, I'd know. I've had a lifetime of short men being annoyed with me. ;-)

but Tom Ridge is like 6'5''

I would say his character is more like Napoeon's than Howard Dean. I never paid much attention to Alter in the first place.