The Balance Sheet for Dean

[papau]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1966-2004Jan8.html

The Balance Sheet for Dean
By E. J. Dionne Jr.

Friday, January 9, 2004; Page A17
RACINE, Wis.<snip>....But every worry is matched by a hope. Bear with me as I go through the one hand/other hand calculations that pour forth from agonized rank-and-file and big-shot Democrats alike.<snip>

On the other hand: Notice how much of the above is about process. What about the candidate? Is he too arrogant, a trust-fund baby, a closet secularist who suddenly discovers religion only after the New Republic writes that his distance from people of faith will doom his candidacy? Why does he keep shooting his mouth off?

<snip>And how much do we really know about him? Could Dean sweep through the early primaries, guarantee himself the nomination -- and only then, too late, will everyone discover that the guy who won the stealth primary isn't ready for the real thing? No wonder a lot of Democrats are rooting for Dick Gephardt to beat Dean in Iowa and cheering the Wesley Clark surge in New Hampshire. Slowing Dean down will give everyone a chance to take a second look at the guy.
<snip>

How do Democrats resolve their dilemma? Here are some tests for Dean, care of Stanley Greenberg, the Democratic pollster who just published "The Two Americas," an important book about the current deadlock in American politics. Greenberg believes the deadlock can be broken by a Democrat who combines John F. Kennedy's sense of national strength with a vision of a "100 percent America" in which opportunity and success are not confined to the privileged.

In an interview, Greenberg posed these questions about Dean: "Can he speak of faith, can he speak of God, can he speak of the culture of rural and working-class America in a way that is natural? Does he transcend the culture of the secular information world that he's part of and speak in a way that people outside that world can see as accessible?"<snip>

[wtmusic]

1. Can he speak of God? Gimme a break

In Europe religious devotion is viewed as a serious shortfall in a politician's credibility.

Faith in a Higher Being is 100% unnecessary (and I would argue, detrimental) to being a moral, committed and effective leader.

[LuminousX]

2. This isn't Europe though

Americans as a whole like a pious man to be their leader. It is a perversion of the puritanical ideals that first came to this country.

[Cheswick2.0]

4. so we have never had a single moral, committed or effective leader

in the history of the US? You don't like any of the democratic Presidents of the last 100 years? Martin Luther King Jr's faith was a problem with you?
This is American and people are still free to discuss religion, philosophy and spirituality.

[bearfartinthewoods]

5. i hate it when bush talks about his faith based descisions

and now dean is talking the same way <sigh>

[Hep]

3. Can he make a three pointer from half court at the buzzer?

???