"Dr. Dean's Diagnosis", editorial from today's Washington Post...

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10305-2003Nov6.html

IT'S BEEN A WHILE since Howard Dean practiced medicine, but the Democratic presidential candidate did a good job of self-diagnosis the other day in the aftermath of the flare-up over his remarks on the Confederate flag. "You know how I am, if somebody comes at me, my tendency is to go right back at them and worry about it later," the former Vermont governor told reporters. In an interview with the New York Times, Mr. Dean elaborated on this theme: "I tend to be reflective rather later than sooner," he said. "Now, unfortunately, we all know that nobody's personality is perfect. So the things that make me a strong candidate are also my Achilles' heel."

Mr. Dean's mythological reference may have been particularly apt: Achilles was a heroic warrior, the Greeks' best hope to take Troy, but he could also be arrogant, obstinate and short-tempered. And so, as Mr. Dean himself recognizes, the very characteristics that appeal to many Democratic voters -- his confrontational, even angry attitude -- could also be his downfall. That, and not bogus suggestions that he is a racist, is the real concern raised by Mr. Dean's flag remarks and their aftermath.

Mr. Dean's rivals went after him for saying he wants to be "the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks." This wasn't racist, but it was doubly insensitive: first, to African Americans and others for whom, as Mr. Dean himself put it, the Confederate flag is a "loathsome signal"; second, to the white Southerners Mr. Dean was stereotyping. Mr. Dean would have done himself a service if he had recognized that earlier, and gracefully -- not after he found himself in a self-described "jam."

<snip>

He gets testy over the words of others, but can be loose with his own. Mr. Dean said he regretted saying that Sen. Bob Graham (Fla.) wasn't in the top tier of candidates, then mystifyingly took issue with those who said he had apologized. When Mr. Stephanopoulos asked about his past strong support of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mr. Dean pounced, demanding, "Where do you get this 'I'm a strong supporter of NAFTA'?" -- though in fact he had described himself as "a very strong supporter of NAFTA" on that same network eight years earlier. And there is an edge, in his remarks, not just of anger but of condescension. He recently likened members of Congress to insects, saying that they are "going to be scurrying for shelter, just like a giant flashlight on a bunch of cockroaches" after he is elected.

Like Achilles, Mr. Dean knows he has a vulnerability. Whether he will be more successful in avoiding its consequences remains to be seen.

[Khephra]

1. Ahhhh, the unnamed "editor" speaks again!

I'll take Krugman's take over that anytime!

Flags Versus Dollars

Howard Dean's remarks about the need to appeal to white Southerners could certainly have been better phrased. But his rivals for the Democratic nomination should be ashamed of their reaction. They know what he was trying to say — and it wasn't that his party should go soft on racism. By playing gotcha, by seizing on the chance to take the front-runner down a peg, they damaged the cause they claim to serve — and missed a chance to confront the real issue he raised.

A three-sentence description of the arc of American politics over the past 70 years would run like this: First, Democrats and moderate Republicans created institutions — above all, Social Security and Medicare — that provided a measure of financial security to ordinary working Americans. The biggest beneficiaries of these institutions were African-Americans and working-class Southern whites, and both were part of the moderate-to-liberal coalition that dominated American politics until the 1960's.

But the right opened an increasingly effective counterattack, with a strategy that included using racially charged symbolism to get Southern whites to vote against their own economic interests. All Mr. Dean was saying was that Democrats need to understand and counter this strategy.

I know these are fighting words. But the reliance of modern Republican political strategy on coded appeals to racism is no secret. Controversies over efforts to remove the Stars and Bars from the top of the South Carolina Statehouse, and to reduce its size on the Georgia flag, played a significant role in Republican victories in 2002. And the evidence that race is still a crucial factor is as fresh as Tuesday's election.

more...........

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/07/opinion/07KRUG.html

[blm]

4. Except Krugman didn't note that Dean was defending his NRA support and

NOT discussing race relations when he made the remark last week.

He fell for the spin that Dean WAS trying to discuss race when he made the remark.

The interview in that article was all about Dean and the NRA's support for him.

If Krugman can find one thing in this interview about race relations that Dean SAID he was supposedly discussing when he made the remark, then I'll be glad to acknowledge that I am wrong.


http://www.dmregister.com/news/stories/c4789004/22649906.html
Kerry criticizes Dean's gun views
By THOMAS BEAUMONT
Register Staff Writer
11/01/2003
------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>
Kerry, a Massachusetts senator, said Dean's opposition to an assault weapons ban in 1992, recorded in a National Rifle Association endorsement questionnaire, contradicts his position as a presidential candidate supporting a federal assault weapons ban.

Kerry supported the 1994 bill that outlawed the sale and ownership of assault weapons, which Dean says he now supports.

"Howard Dean, during the time we were trying to pass it, was appealing to the NRA for their support," Kerry said, while visiting a rural Story County farm.
"We don't need to be a party that says we need to be the candidacy of the NRA. We stand up against that."

Dean has said 2000 Democratic nominee Al Gore lost the election because he failed to win Southern states, where disaffected Democrats who favor gun owners' rights were reluctant to support him.

"I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks," Dean said Friday in a telephone interview from New Hampshire. "We can't beat George Bush unless we appeal to a broad cross-section of Democrats."

Dean said he answered the questionnaire while running for re-election as governor of Vermont. He has said he was never asked to sign a gun control bill during his Vermont tenure.

>>>>>>>

[ThorsteinVeblen]

2. Achilles fought hard and died an honorable death

That is the least we can expect from Dr. Dean - unlike any of the other candidates.

Dean is the manhood of the Democratic Party.

[AP]

5. "Dean is the manhood of the Democratic Party." I'm blushing. "

Is there no point at which this mythologizing becomes simply too much?

Just when you think it can't go any farther...

[blm]

6. The men of the party

like Andy Mills, Spider Sabitch (deceased), etc....

[mbali]

8. Oh, brother! n/t

[blm]

3. The consequences being...Dean's own words, played to the hilt by the RNC

in television ads 40 times a day, EVERY DAY for months.

Dean's lies and gaffes will be used to smear the whole Dem party.

[ThorsteinVeblen]

7. Maybe we should nominate Lieberman than?

The Republicans would have nothing to attack him on (except his ethnicity in the South).

[blm]

9. They can't smear the others with their own words like they can Dean.

Twisted attacks on the others are more easily countered. How can Dean counter the ads showing him lying on camera?

[polpilot]

10. Dean!! Dean!!! Dean!! Dean, Dean!!! Kerry shot 2 birds!! Dean!!! Dean!!

Dean!! Dean, Dean, Dean,Dean!!!!!

Dean '04...Honor & Integrity

[AP]

12. T.V. you know what this post is missing? A priapic analogy.

You sure you don't want to stick a "manhood" in it?

Or are you not up for that?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

11. "as he acknowledges, has a tendency to pop off in ways that he regrets"

But Mr. Dean, as he acknowledges, has a tendency to pop off in ways that he regrets, as well as a hard time backing down in the face of criticism -- troubling attributes in a presidential candidate or a president. Questions about his personality have been a simmering but persistent theme through the campaign. He's quick to criticize, reluctant to say he's sorry. Mr. Dean apologized to Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) for incorrectly accusing him of fudging his stance on the war in Iraq. "The only time I've had to apologize, just for the record," Mr. Dean pointed out to ABC's George Stephanopoulos -- and he refused to back off his equally incorrect claim to be the only candidate to speak about race to white audiences.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10305-2003Nov6.html

Check out Carol laughing at Dean behind his back.