Selling Dean Short (The Nation)

[dajabr]

What did Howard Dean do to make the media so snarky about his primary run? Now that he has emerged as a major fundraiser with flocks of enthusiastic supporters, a vigorous campaign staff, a bag full of Internet tricks and respectable--and rising--poll numbers, the pundits and reporters have to go through the motions of taking him seriously: In a single August week he was on the cover of Time and Newsweek and had a major story in U.S. News & World Report. But aside from some curiously cheerful coverage in the Wall Street Journal, they obviously don't like him. He's "brusque," "testy," the "ex-Governor of a speck of a state" and "a shrill Northeasterner," Karen Tumulty wrote in Time. "It's hard to imagine Dean's glorious season ending without disappointment," adds John Cloud in his profile in the same issue, in which he draws a labored and precious similarity between Dean and George W. Bush (both come from rich Republican families, both went to Yale, partied hearty, speak Spanish--never mind that Dean went to medical school while George II relied on his father's cronies to set him up in the oil business). "The Doctor Is In--In Your Face!" warns U.S. News. Over at Newsweek ("Destiny or Disaster?"), Jonathan Alter also finds "the diminutive family doctor" "brusque" and says he "strutted like a little Napoleon onto the floor of the usually genteel Vermont State Senate."

A little Napoleon? Is that the problem--Dean is short? (He's 5' 8".) In order to run for President one must not only be white, a man, married, religious and Southern--not to mention whatever the opposite of brusque may be--one must be tall as well? No wonder I love this man! Every time the press pooh-poohs his chances, every time they gloat over some trivial misstatement, every time they make fun of Vermont and describe his supporters as "Birkenstocked" "Deanyboppers," I think about the free ride the media give Bush, who says more false and foolish things in an afternoon than Dean has said in a lifetime, who is unmaking everything good about this country from Head Start to habeas corpus, who is stacking the government with faith healers and fanatics, my fingers itch to write Dean another check.

More: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20030901&s=pollitt

Not bad...

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Yes, you have to be tall.

Just ask Dukakis.

[diplomats]

2. Actually you do

Someond once write that the tallest candidate wins presidential elections. It might not always be true but you can look it up.

[diplomats]

6. I think Calvin Trillin said it

Al Gore was taller than Chimpy, and he won (at least we know he did). :)

[dajabr]

3. Guess we can write off Kucinich too...

I think the article said he was an inch shorter than Dean. :shrug:

[Freddie Stubbs]

5. No way Kucinich is 5' 7''

I have ridden on an elevator with him several times in the past, and he can't be any taller than 5' 6".

[The Sushi Bandit]

16. I have a photo of him next to me and he is 5' 7"

here is the proof! I am 5' 10 1/5"

[molly]

18. You look so very familiar - I used to live in Cleveland

[dorktv]

23. Dean has looks though...Kucinich does not.

[Larkspur]

4. This writer "gets it."

Right now, Dean is the only viable candidate who speaks to the anger, fear and loathing a large number of ordinary citizens feel about the direction Bush has taken the country, while the mainstream media blandly kowtow and the Democratic Party twiddles its thumbs. He has gone out and actually asked for the help of these citizens, rather than taking them for granted.

Dean has embraced our anger and cause and turned his campaign into a crusade against homegrown tyranny.

[Fleshdancer]

7. What's with the media?

Kucinich is ignored, Sharpton is laughed at, Kerry gets criticized over not choosing the right cheese, Edwards gets called pretty, Dean is too short, too liberal, too conservative, and the 280,000+ supporters are either too liberal, or too stupid to know Dean is a centrist. Blah blah blah blah blah. I can read better journalism from any highschool newspaper.

Meanwhile, Bush can point out a reporter, call him a major league asshole and nothing. Imagine if any of the current Democratic candidates did that. Imagine if Gore did that.

Meanwhile, Bush can refuse to throw press conferences and when he does, he gives a 2 hour notice and only calls on pre-chosen reporters he thinks will give easy questions. Imagine if Clinton did that.

Meanwhile, Bush can blame the media networks for banging the drums of war and sinking the entire US economy because of it and NOTHING! Imagine anyone doing this and getting away with it.

Unfuckingbelievable.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

8. The media is controlled by the same folks who control Bush.

[Nicholas_J]

9. How much shorter can you sell him...

It reminds me of the line in the Woody Allen Movie Love and Death.

About needing special permission from the Tsar in order to be in the army if you were shorter than 5'4'"

[dsc]

10. gee how nice

and aren't you the one lecturing us about Dean's alledged lack of compassion for people. I hate to think what your opinion of Gary Coleman is.

[Nicholas_J]

17. I never said

I had any compassion...

At least not for a FISCAL CONSERATIVE who is the candidate with most obvious record of supporting more special interest groups over the common good.

[Kolesar]

28. oh, please

nobody gave you a segue to change the issue to "fiscal conserative" or "special interest groups"

[George_Bonanza]

11. Sounds like a mob to me

"Dean has embraced our anger and cause and turned his campaign into a crusade against homegrown tyranny."

I agree Dean has embraced anger, but I think that blinds his masses of followers to his policies. Not accusing anybody here of doing so, but regular ignoramuses just flip on CNN once a day to get their presidential nominees news, and you know the rest. There are many followers who love Dean for what he is, but I fear that there are many that don't know jack about him, and are growing into a mob.

[DrFunkenstein]

12. Does That Link Work For Anyone?

I've been trying to get to The Nation website since yesterday.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

19. No it doesn't.

No it doesn't. Maybe their power is still out and they don't have a generator or something. Darn! I hate when I can't read the whole article. Can't comment on an excerpt....

[nocreativename]

13. i do not understand the short thing

Maybe someone can help me. looking back in history there were powerful leaders (please don't confuse powerful with just or good or that dean is any of these people), I just don't get why that is important here. Look at this list Napoleon, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Emiliano Zapata, Benjamin Franklin, Hitlar . . .

[Ripley]

14. I really don't get the shrill thing.

I've never once heard him sound shrill or brusque. I suppose being forthright and not slurring your words is what is considered rude these days...

[The Sushi Bandit]

15. "Deanyboppers" thats too funny!!!!

I think i'll use that phrase to describe any Dean supporter under 50!!

"Oh my god, he is soooo cute!" "do you think I can get his autograph?" "He is so bitchen! did he play football?" "whats a democrat??"

[dorktv]

24. Hey! I am under fifty and I am not that bad!

I do think that Dean has cool eyebrows.

[polpilot]

20. The 'height' debate = cave man mentality. 'I'm voting for the tallest

candidate?????????????' Hyper foolishness.


Dean '04

[SoulLight]

22. Al Gore was the tallest, and most muscular of the two candidates

and he still didn't win by some vast majority. In fact, I'm sure that most of the people who this would matter too didn't vote for him at all. Hell, even john McCain was more manly than Bush and eh still lost. besides, you don't want to tell American men that 5/8 is short, too many are around that height.

[DrFunkenstein]

21. Put Out No Flags

I'm surprised at The Nation for such a lightweight piece, full of so many holes. Not much on what Dean policies actually represent, but more about his populist style. I'd expect that from knuckleheads here, or even at Time magazine, but The Nation?

Well, I guess Katha Pollitt is not David Corn. Oh, well. I can only hope Katrina has more sense.

[dorktv]

25. So you liked the David Corn article on Dean?

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030331&c=1&s=corn

[DrFunkenstein]

26. I Have Tremendous Respect For Corn

That didn't quite come out right.;-)

Seriously, though, Corn is my favorite writer for my favorite magazine. I don't always agree with him, but he is consistently informative about the issues that matter most to me.

Question: Who writes the initial editorial? I've always assumed it was Katrina vanden Heuvel, but I've never seen a confirmation of this. Does anyone know? The opening editorials are by far the best part of the magazine.

[dorktv]

27. Well I know if you look online sometimes they have

the author's...