http://tinyurl.com/38zrw
From today's Boston Globe. Brian is the nicelittle dog the editors brought in when they no longer needed Barnicle. The Plagiarist and Recycler is three times the writer.
I answered with this.
I read your column with interest this morning. I found it amusing and appropriately snarky.
I also think it is wrong. Your column focused on perception and momentum. It was a pretty easy and effortless thing to write, without much research or thought. How do you know that Dean is done? He has a lot of delegates. The tracking poll numbers would have done him in months ago. His fundraising continues to pound along. All of the newscasts and papers continue to lead with "Dean, Dean, Dean, Dean." The rest of the candidates hum to his song.
Dean's campaign was having trouble before the Iowa vote and the Scream Heard Round the World. The "perfect storm" gamble failed spectacularly. In the last few days, I have seen more of the Howard Dean that I came to support. No endorsements, no "rock star", just a guy from Vermont. The Deaniacs have returned with their checkbooks open. You don't explain or examine that. You don't explain what structural problems exist in the campaign (lousy ads, confused policies, where is the tax program). You don't highlight what tactical or strategic smart moves "Liveshot" made. Instead you drop your pants and ask Freud for a quick psychological evaluation. Doesn't work for Krauthammer, won't work for you.
Your column is typical of most of the rest of the commentary on "The Scream Heard Round the World." You decontextualise the event, play it on Karl Rove's TV, and see Faux news play it over and over again. In fear of the Mighty Mighty Bosstone, you toss Dean out for the Beacon Hill Irish. Imagine if, instead of the Scream, Faux ran the image of Kerry "mock-toking" with Peter Yarrow. There would be the same outrage.
You don't argue that his position or his arguments are too extreme or wrong-headed. You could. The tax thing is a huge weight. You don't note how Kerry has adopted much of the Dean stump speech and the anti-Bush tone. Iowa Kerry looks like he is finally in favor of regime change in Washington. You don't note the irony of the war vote then and his anti-war voice now. You don't ask about the flippiest of flops on Saddam Hussein. No, you just proclaim Kerry reborn and Dean dead.
Much of the rest of the press is following this same religious line. Dean is John the Baptist, clearing the way of Jesus Kerry and showing him the true path. We should know better. We saw the Weld campaign.
We'll see if the Cosmic Yawl is Dean's "Dukakis in a Tank" moment. I don't think he is dead yet. Knowing how effortless and trite the political press is, I wouldn't be surprised if Wednesday's story is "Rocky=Dean." That is the next step in the story outline, isn't it?