You know why I love being a Dean supporter? It's fun.
It wasn't fun there for 24 hours, but I'm seeing the light. That clip that made us all so sick? In context it's a goddamn moment of triumph, and it's already been put to great humerous use in many a remix online. It's outplayed Bush's state of the Union speech. I'm lovin' it.
Listen up. I know people like playing for the winning team. That's why mo' matters so much. But Kerry and his core supporters are hacks. They're bitter professionals who don't have a clue why they're doing this other than that they want to win. They're the people who went negative on Dean in frickin' April. Well, ok, that was Lehane and he works for Clark now, but you get the point.
I don't mean this as a knock against any JFK lovers out there. I'm not talking about you; I'm talking about your campaign operatives. And I'm talking about why I don't think big John will be able to hold his edge. There's no there there.
Howard Dean is the real deal. His campaign is a community that wants to bring a better kind of politics and a better kind of politician to the American people. We're here for all the right reasons, and we have the best guy for the job and the best chance of socking it to Dubya.
We face an uphill battle against 4 serious competitors and a somewhat hostile press. We have a campaign with a lot of newcomers; political newbies who have never seen the thick of battle before.
But we've got a few things. We've got a passionate, principled, fact-respecting, doctor/wrestler/governor for our candidate, and we have a legitimately positive message that has proven effective with 30%+ of dem voters in the past. We've got a campaign that's legitimately people-powered, and we've got a fighting chance.