Dean's Roar

I was watching live when Howard Dean made his "concession speech" in Iowa. I was a bit turned off by it. I wasn't sure if that's how he sounds when he shouts, or if his voice was just hoarse from talking too much the previous couple of days (turns out he had a cold). The listing of the states was dumb, too.

But I've gotta say, there's been a huge overreaction. I found the presentation of that speech slightly unappealing, but I really have no comprehension of people who have stopped supporting him as a result of it. What should be important to people is what someone has to say, and not (within reasonable limits) how they say it. Enthusiastic yelling shouldn't lose millions of votes.

Lee Harris has a theory about why people regard this as important, and why they are right: http://techcentralstation.com/012204C.html.

Very interesting. I definitely agree that sometimes opportunities just arise which give you the chance to make judgments about someone, where you would've had to hold your judgments otherwise. For example, 9/11 gave Bush the opportunity to be a very good person, or a very bad person, by his choices. In the same way, I can see how coming in third in Iowa when you expected to come in first is a good opportunity for people to learn about you.

Still, I think people have overreacted, and I'm not so sure that Dean's reaction was all that objectively bad to begin with. It was just mildly annoying. Hell, some might argue that dogged persistence such as Dean displayed is a quality that they want in a president.

i agree. i dont see why the public has such a fear of passion in politics. couldnt we use a little of that right now?

While I think people are overreacting to Dean. But I think that Dean came across as being irrational which would lend to losing voters. Most people wouldn't intentionally put an irrational person into such a high office position.

I agree with you, Camille. But, like you said, it's an overreaction.

Smartest thing you've said on this space yet, Dyffd.

But if I were Dean, no way in hell would I be apologizing for it- but you could probably gather that already.

Berard

hey dave, are you going to post anything about the corruption charges against sharon, or about the resigned cia weapons official testimony about the non-existent iraqi wmds? are those not huge, middle east/terrorism related stories?

Raven,

I have been thinking about what I want to post regarding David Kay's resignation. I'm going to wait till his final report comes out on Friday before writing anything, but it's definitely important and I definitely plan to write about it.

I am aware of Sharon's corruption charges, but haven't been following them. I trust Israel's process to figure out what happened, and I give Sharon, like all people, the benefit of the doubt until it does.

Also, I haven't forgotten about the question you posted over a month ago. I read the article, but I never got around to taking the time to write my thoughts on it. I do plan to, however.

thanks for the response, as always, dave. just playing the devil.....'s advocate

that is a pretty interesting article isnt it? and an excellent site overall, i think