Howie, we hardly knew ye. Ted Rall - 'Of course he had to go'

[caledesi]

Excellent article by Ted Rall.


NEW YORK--At least they didn't shoot Howard Dean (news - web sites). Usually, when an American political figure speaks truth to power, he ends up conveniently dead. RFK, Malcolm X, some say Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone: all martyrs to the quaint ideal of telling it as it is as loudly as possible. Like them, Dean scared the establishment. His aggressive style roused youngsters whom aging Boomers prefer to see somnolent. His populist Internet-based fundraising freed him from the corporate donors whose influence keeps the citizens of the world's richest nation living under a Third World system of social protections. Al Gore (news - web sites)'s endorsement transformed a candidate who came out of nowhere (Vermont) into a genuine threat to the southern conservatives who have hijacked the Democratic Party since 1992. Dean was a pro-business moderate, yet he stood poised to radically transform both his party and the American political system.


Of course he had to go.


The same journalists who issued get-out-of-scrutiny passes to George W. Bush for everything from electoral fraud to assassinating U.S. citizens he declares "enemy combatants" to lying about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction nailed Dean for, of all things, "screaming" into a microphone the night he lost the Iowa caucuses. (For the record, those in the audience say, they could barely hear him over the din of the crowd.) The Hotline political newsletter reported that national TV news programs aired Dean's "I Have a Scream" speech 633 times within four days--and that's not counting local news or talk shows. Even Roger Ailes, the right-wing svengali pulling the strings at Fox News, conceded that it was "overplayed a bit." According to the Center for Media and Public Affairs, only 39 percent of Dean's coverage was positive during the following week, compared to 86 percent for John Edwards (news - web sites) and 71 percent for current frontrunner John Kerry (news - web sites).


One indignity followed another--all because, God forbid, the guy got a tad rambunctious. "Is Dean Too Angry?" headlines spread across the nation. DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe, who refused to run interference for Dean when he was leading the pack, stepped into the fray to protect Kerry. "Democrats are still so angry about Al Gore's loss in 2000 and the Iraq (news - web sites) war that they simply will not stand for intramural squabbling," the New York Times quoted McAuliffe on February 17. "I'd much rather have a unified party with money in the bank." (He was singing a different tune in December.) Dean has the second largest number of delegates, yet the media refers to Edwards as Kerry's principal challenger.

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=127&u=/uclicktext/20040218/cm_ucru/howiewehardlyknewye&printer=1

[WatchWhatISay]

1. Been wondering all day how I was going to retire my avatar

This truthful article seems as dignified a place to do it as any.

America - even her Democrats - are not ready to handle to truth.

Thank you Howard Dean.

[paulk]

2. But how do you explain Iowa, Ted?

And Kerry is the official DLC candidate? The one the "Southern Democrats" picked?

I used to have a lot of respect for Mr. Rall, but this article is a pile of tin hat conspiracy bullshit.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. I feel Dean has started something

And we will see what it is in years to come

That said, John Kerry has my vote in November,

ABB

[DemoTex]

4. Kerry, maybe.

Otherwise, ABB.

[Bucky]

5. Alas, the usual sloppy thinking from Rall. Cool cartoonist, weak writer

"Of course he had to go." ?

He had to go because the voters rejected him. Someone should remind Rall this is a bit different than, say, being martyred. Rall seems to see "Howard's End" as only a slight variation on being murdered. Look at the category he puts Dr. Dean in:

"Usually, when an American political figure speaks truth to power, he ends up conveniently dead. RFK, Malcolm X, some say Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone."

Too much of a stretch, Ted. Bobby Kennedy and Malcom (X) Shabaz were murdered 36 and 40 years ago respectively and only RFK was (probably) killed by the powers that be. Shabaz was murdered by Islamic extremists, not exactly zealots of the American establishment. Wellstone, of course, died in a plane crash.

In the generation since those tragedies hundreds of activists have come along and taken up the noble struggles of these great men without getting shot. I guess you could argue that Dean was in their mold, if not exactly their footsteps. But his "wounds" were entirely self-inflicted. He didn't fail to take off because the networks made too big a deal out of his "rambunctuous" "concession" speech in Iowa. Sure, they did make too big a deal out of it, but that night on DU, right as he made the speech the reactions of DUers, including his supporters, ranged from mild WTFs to suggestions that he had "lost it" or was "freaking out".

But the real reason he lost the votes was that his message didn't gel and his personality thru all his campaign appearances just didn't add up to Oval Office material. From his mixed political record (tiny state, big prison builder, ineffectual Dixicrat pandering, NRA rating) to his McCarthyistic tendency to call everyone a Republican whenever he disagreed with them, he did not present himself as a guy who would be everybody's president.

Howard Dean won't be president, at least not this year. He won't get there because he shot himself in the foot. That's what you get when you stick you foot in your mouth while you're shooting your mouth off. It's not the same as being murdered. It doesn't take a conspiracy. It just takes being a second rate politician.