The DLC. Figures.
"I had a front-row seat for this process. Though there were rumblings on the "angry" front before-most notably in a June piece by Matt Bai in the New York Times magazine that concluded by wondering aloud if Dean's "angry message" might not be his downfall-the real launch of the "angry" theme came in the dual cover stories in Time and Newsweek that appeared simultaneously in early August.
Both Newsweek's Jonathan Alter and Time's Karen Tumulty-using language suspiciously similar to that of earlier Democratic Leadership Council memos about the burgeoning Dean disaster-focused heavily on the "anger" theme, openly concluding that the chief "problem" of Dean's candidacy would be convincing voters to get past his "anger," "testiness" and "pugnacity."
Alter, who along with fellow Newsweek butt-buddy Howard Fineman is among the worst swine in the business, went so far as to say that voters simply don't like people like Dean: "Dean's pugnacity might not wear well with voters, who usually favor buoyant, warm personalities."
Alter went on to hold a formal knighthood ceremony for the second great Howard Dean myth, that he is unpopular with journalists: "In truth, Dean is no favorite of working reporters [as opposed to non-working reporters?] who tend to like their candidates funny and solicitous. So do voters."
Tumulty echoed Alter's theme, noting that "Washington insiders" thought that Dean's candidacy early on had "all the resonance of a temper tantrum." Like Alter, Tumulty described Dean as "testy" and "angry." Neither piece, incidentally, did anything more than briefly touch upon Dean's actual positions on the issues; both were frankly and excessively focused on the electability/horse-race aspect of the story."
http://www.nypress.com/17/1/news&columns/cage.cfm