WP: Dean's Loss Of Nerve

[Manix]

<snip>


But the truth is that Dean's campaign was doomed from the day in December when he won the endorsement of former vice president Al Gore.

Put aside for a moment the question of why he thought Gore's endorsement could do him much good. By the end of last year, Gore was really not the Washington insider Dean seemed to think he was securing. The former vice president lost his key to the clubhouse when he so narrowly blew the 2000 campaign and then -- in part for admirable reasons -- absented himself from politics for the next two years.

No, it was the mere act of wooing and winning Gore's imprimatur that doomed -- or at least foretold the death of -- Howard Dean's crusade. For it undermined the very premise of Dean's campaign, which was that politics could be about the voters' passionate belief in one man who hedged no bets and played no traditional games. The endorsement was Dean's capitulation to the idea that he ultimately needed the Washington establishment on his side. From that time on, he made a series of compromises, amateurishly executed, that showed a fatal loss of nerve.



Washington Post

[Jim Sagle]

1. Whadda buncha shit.

[The Zanti Regent]

6. More lies from the WHORESHINGTON POST

Yellow journalism, Rove-Style, at its' finest!

[Maccagirl]

2. Totally misreading the facts

There are many reasons for Dean's loss of fortune-but Al Gore's endorsement isn't one of them. Obviously Marjorie Williams is an astute political observer and critical thinker-NOT! In her world Watergate was just about the break-in and Bush "grew" after 9/11.

I give up.

[aquart]

3. Wow. Two funerals for the price of one.

Anybody here think of Gore as a Washington insider these days? Sort of lost that title when Washington abandoned him to follow Bush like a bunch of mentally challenged puppies.

My, the spitefulness of this piece. And I do so admire the tidy box she's burying Dean in: "the very premise of Dean's campaign, which was that politics could be about the voters' passionate belief in one man who hedged no bets and played no traditional games."

I don't support Dean because I'm even slightly passionate about him. My support is because he got off his ass and said what the cowards in Congress wouldn't: that the war was wrong and the tax cuts had to go.

I had been waiting YEARS to hear that. My passion is for the promise and the constitution of the United States, not any man.

[LosinIt]

4. yet another example of TBM,Trial By Media

There are examples everywhere.

[Democat]

5. A lot of people had second thoughts about Dean when he got Gore

I don't agree with everything in this article, but the premise has some merit. I talked to a number of people who were angry about the Gore endorsement.

[Snappy]

7. The Media

The Media are mostly suckups to the Repubs. They got on board to trash Dean because he is a firebrand, real and threatens the status quo of the Repubs and Dems.