I mean, the speech thing: get real. That is nothing more than a hysterical axe job relying on the complete distortion in the media of an otherwise unremarkable event.
Where is the press on John Kerry singing "Puff the Magic Dragon" while strumming his guitar and making joint-smoking gestures at his audience?
Does'nt that count for worse than "yeah!" into a microphone while trying to enthuse an otherwise unhappy crowd?
What has been done to Dean with regards to media distortion is shameful. It is shameful the degree to which alleged progressive "thinkers" and media commentators have joined the usual gaggle of whores in pursuing this campaign against Dean. For a party that has recently witnessed a president being impeached over an extra-marital affair, after 6 years of pervasive "Get Clinton" media opposition to that president, we should all be ashamed to see such a cheerful participation by some of our own people in a smaller version of the same behaviour.
Dean was just trying to pump us his volunteers after a painful night. The axe job that has been done on him is nasty, vindictive, cheap, and, ultimately, a sign that some very powerful people in this party are genuinely threatened by Dean's power and support.
This blade is double-edged. Even if Dean has ultimately been done in by the media campaign against him, the low level to which the Democratic campaign has sunk will mock what comes next: the exact same level of cheap, tawdry negative campaigning against WHICHEVER Democratic candidate emerges into the general season by a vast media machine that, as we will discover again, favors a Republican over any Democrat no matter what.
And noone on this side will be able to say that Democrats don't engage in the exact same sort of behaviour when it suits our power players.