How do you stop a Dean Scream?

[ProfessorPlum]

Bernie Sanders' Dean Scream moment is surely ahead of him. He will at some point do something that will be taken out of context or otherwise blown out of all proportion, and the media will in unison cluck its tongues and decide he is unfit for office.

Mrs. ProfessorPlum, who is usually very astute, said yesterday that the takedown of Dean was the sign that Dean wasn't a very seasoned politician on the national stage, implying that he could have somehow prevented the media from getting an isolated microphone feed at a rally and then pretending it had anything to do with anything (going out of their minds to pretend it disqualified him).

I'm not so sure. Is there _anything_ a politician, especially one running an insurgent campaign like Bernie, can do to protect themselves from this kind of issue-free hatchet job from the press? Because if he gets much stronger, they will surely be coming.

[cali]

1. I doubt it. Bernie is very different from Dean.

Look, yes the scream was blown out of proportion, but Dean has and never had any filter. Bernie does and he's a far more skilled politician and much more savvy on national politics than Dean was when he run. As a Vermonter, I've watched both for a very long time.

[ProfessorPlum]

2. That's a reasonable answer

Thanks. I worry a lot for Bernie. But I guess the fact that he has been taking calls from the public on Thom Hartmann's show for so many years now means he is a lot more measured in his responses.

[cali]

3. Howard really doesn't have a filter. He was famous for that as guv

[HereSince1628]

4. Reality is -all- politicians face the possibility of embarrassing themselves

Not very long ago someone was posting just the opposite of what you said, claiming knowledge of Sanders since before the first dry land appeared on the planet. People can write anything.

Experience says....There are old politicians and there are bold politicians
but there are few a old bold politicians.

When you find one, you've found someone who probably has good control on the boldness or they wouldn't have survived.

[winter is coming]

6. Excellent point. n/t

[Cosmocat]

19. "Filter" has nothing to do with it

This country spent two fucking months hashing over how it was some kind of major issue that BHO did not wear a flag pin ...

Such time as Bernie passes Hill as the presumptive democratic candidate they are going to do to him what they did to Bill for 8 years, Hill for the last quarter century, Gore in 98, Kerry in 03, Dean, BHO for the last six years.

Bernie is awesome, he is tough, he speaks it like it is, and is in fact a very skilled politician.

But they will do what they do the democratic head, attack at every thing they can grasp at relentlessly until the pubic gets fed up with them and satiates them by agreeing to focus on something in an effort to make it stop.

This is how they do it, this is what the country did in 99, people were fed up with the bullshit they threw at Bill and said, OK, we will elect the moron you would have a beer with ...

[zipplewrath]

5. I think you've learned some bad history

All the clucking was because he came in 3rd, and a relatively distant third as well. It was a huge over reaction to their own over prediction. A lot of people called that race wrong and the next day they needed an explanation. Even Dean will tell you that his race was lost before he ever screamed.

And that's the real answer to the intent of your question. Don't over sell your candidate. There's a reason people like to run as the "underdog". It sets low standards for performance, that can be easy to exceed. The front runner, especially one with huge predictions behind them often don't achieve them and then winning can still become losing. Bernie shouldn't want to be the "front runner" yet. If he wins in Iowa, fine. But coming out 2nd or 3rd won't be a deadly result as long as he "exceeds expectations". And he can wait for some other front runner to collapse and then he can be the "heir apparent".

Bill Clinton didn't win the Iowa caucus, not even close. But he became the "comeback kid" later on. And this was after the whole Jennifer Flowers shtick.

[ProfessorPlum]

7. Dean's strategy to go all out in Iowa did hurt him. You'd have thought he would have saved some

juice for NH.

[artislife]

8. Funny, if you said the same thing about Hillary

You would probably be accused of sexism, the alerted, hounded then banned.

But you didn't.

[brooklynite]

12. Clinton came in with 29.4% of the vote...

...nearly making it into second place.

[artislife]

13. I am talking about the

word "scream" because anything that sounds remotely like shrill is a HUGE no no.

[leveymg]

9. If there is no Dean Scream, they'll just keep pushing him, or simply invent one.

But, first, they'll poke and prod and push and provoke -- they've already tried rushing the stage, twice, and even pushed him, last time -- to get him to react in some desired way.

This campaign against Sanders is turning into a fascinating exercise in political dirty tricks.

[brooklynite]

14. "They" have?

You're suggesting that the BLM protests are part of a calculated plot tied in with "the MSM", "the Party Bosses" and (I guess) "the 1%ers"?

I guess it's always convenient to have an excuse handy...

[leveymg]

16. Just because Nixon wasn't ever proved to order the Watergate break-in doesn't make him

an innocent man. Or, was that just tinfoil, too?

But, I think your political memory is a bit short of that.

[Skwmom]

10. From what I've read the Dean scream was manufactured to stop his campaign.

In regards to Bernie, there have already been distortions. I think that is one of the reasons people are screaming at him. They are trying to get a reaction that they can then distort. But, Bernie is really good at keeping his cool.

[azmom]

18. I think you are right. One of the women on stage

Actually pushed him. I couldn't believe my eyes. That was definitely intended as a provocation.

[brooklynite]

11. I think the voters decided that before the "Scream" occurred...

...if you recall, it happened after the vote count for the Iowa Caucus in which Dean, despite his enthusiastic crowds, came in a mediocre third (18%). And the "scream" had nothing to do with the poor campaign management I saw when I went to New Hampshire the next week.

[AgingAmerican]

15. Thus far he has done nothing of the sort

Wishful thinking at best.

[azmom]

17. I think the best way to battle this is to

Explain to people how the establishment will try to discredit him,and how they will use every dirty trick in the book to defeat him. When I speak to people about the political revolution, I always tell them not to believe anything they hear on MSM.

[Cosmocat]

20. You can't

Hill has dealt with this shit for a quarter century, but the same people who live in a fantasy world that Bernie has no kryptonite skewer her for putting up the guards to TRY to avoid it.

Such time as Bernie passes her as the presumptive democratic candidate it will get real. All the squeeling from some of his supporters here over "DIRTY POLITICS" he hasn't seen anything yet. To this point he has mostly gotten the scrappy underdog treatment.

When the Rs think he is a truly viable candidate they will do what they do, throw shit at the wall time and time again, with the "liberal media" gleefully putting it out for them, until the sheeple of this country get tired of it and go along for the ride.

Bernie is great, but people are discounting the stupid out of hand. He is tough, he is skilled, but the stupid is what this country is.