'The Dean Connection', in today's NYT magazine, explores the grassroots campaign as a quasi-spiritual refuge for the romantically unlucky & the socially isolated .. but mainly the romantically unlucky. That these people gravitate toward the Dean campaign as opposed to, say, online dating is basically explained by the existence of a Dean personality cult. Says one supporter, '''The thought that he'll be president is a side effect. This campaign is about allowing
people to come together and tell their life stories.''
There seems to be precious little that's actually political here, according to this particular picture. I found the take rather weird, coming on the heels of the Kristof screed. Taken together, the general image of the campaign is of a gang of misdirected, starry eyed younguns looking for love in all the wrong places.
For those of you working with the Dean campaign, I'd appreciate your take.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/07/magazine/07DEAN.html