Greider (Nation/P.I.): Dean's brand of politics given a rough ride...

[regnaD kciN]

In 40 years of observing presidential contests, I cannot remember another major candidate brutalized so intensely by the media, with the possible exception of George Wallace. Howard Dean contributed some fatal errors of his own, to be sure, but he also brought fresh air and new ideas, a crisp call to revitalize the Democratic Party and at least the outlines of deeper political and economic reforms.

The reporters, as surrogate agents for Washington's insider sensibilities, blew him off. Dean's big mistake was in not recognizing, up front, that the media are very much part of the existing order and were bound to be hostile to his provocative kind of politics. To be heard, clearly and accurately, he would have had to find another channel.

For the record, reporters and editors deny that this occurred. Privately, they chortle over their accomplishment. At the Washington airport I ran into a bunch of them, including some old friends from long-ago campaigns, on their way to the next contest after Iowa.

So, I remarked, you guys saved the Republic from the doctor. Yes, they assented with giggly pleasure, Dean was finished -- though one newsmagazine correspondent confided the coverage would become more balanced once they went after Sen. John Kerry. Only Paul Begala of CNN demurred. "I don't know what you're talking about," Begala said, blank-faced. Nobody here but us gunslingers.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/161239_focus22.html

[kaitykaity]

1. As much as I can't stop myself from reading them,

these glowing post-mortems of the Dean campaign are really making me tired. I just keep thinking of what could have been, what might have been, how the possibility of real change, of the kind of change we're going to require, sailed away when the Doctor said goodbye.

Kerry may be a 'great closer', but he's still a status-quo candidate.

:sigh:

[lindashaw]

2. I don't think they're completely gone. A seed has been placed into

the ground. Something will happen somewhere, someway -- where, I don't know, but you're right. We have to move past the woulda, coulda, shoulda and keep holding our little candle. Nothing is ever lost; it may change it's shape, but it's never lost. Good luck. :)

[kaitykaity]

4. You too.

:-)

The optimist in me tells me that the Democrats are tired of losing, are tired of being out of power, and are tired of being the whipping posts for the RW hate mongers on the radio, on TV, on Capitol Hill.

If that's true, then connecting with the base of the party, as Dean did, and as he showed the other candidates how to do, gives us at least a chance to come out on top this November.

I'm just not sure which comes first, if one enforces the other, if the base's anger goes away now that Dean is gone . . . there are so many variables and so many things that could go wrong.

I don't much luck is going to help.

:hi:

[SheilaT]

3. What I'm most disturbed by

is the possibility that a seed hasn't been planted, that Dean's brief campaign won't really change everything. That four years from now (maybe less) he'll be the answer to a trivia question, nothing more.

Sometimes I think the real problem is that it hasn't gotten bad enough yet, that too many people are still too comfortable for the kind of real, in the streets revolution that we probably need.

[SharonAnn]

5. It will change things. Because it showed us that there are a lot of

people who want change. A lot more people than any of us knew. Therefor, we know we're not alone.

[Rich Hunt]

6. fantastic article

Good to see someone telling the -truth- about the Dean campaign, for a change - even people who should have known better did not. At least one guy still believes in journalistic responsibility.