our blog buddy
eric alterman (co-author of
the book on bush) has an interesting observation today:
howard dean is like the old reel-to-reel tape in "mission impossible." he gave the rest of the candidates their instructions and then self-destructed. in doing so, he may have helped save the party and the country. thanks howard.
we ourselves are rather sorry to see
dr. dean's campaign ending, not with a bang but with a whimper. though we hadn't endorsed his candidacy, we were very pleased to see how he was able to make the grassroots of the democratic party get excited about being democrats again. we hadn't seen anything like that since, well, probably never.
we hope the feeling and excitement and party cohesiveness continues. we hope the party leaders will not forget that the party is made up of people, of voters, and not of money and contributors. we hope democracy thrives, and we hope american once again becomes a country of the people, by the people and for the people. but mostly we hope next week's group of contestants on american idol are better than last night's.
special bonus trivia question that has nothing to do with politics or blogging: peter graves, who played mr. phelps on "mission impossible," came to that role in the second season of the tv series. what actor played the man he replaced, and what was the character's name (and what famous current tv show featured that actor in what role for many years)?