tazmanian devil

Howard Dean Launches His Campaign To Restore America

Howard Dean's declaration of his candidacy tied a number of his "ideas
for the first time into a broad, thematic vision for the campaign.
Though Dean started his race focused on the issues of health care and
balanced budgets, his campaign caught fire in the press only after his
position opposing unilateral American military action in Iraq made him a
hero in anti-war circles. Now he's adding larger questions about
American identity and the conservative assault on American democracy to
his list of pet themes... 'This campaign is about more than issue
differences on health care or tax policy, national security, jobs, the
environment, our economy. . . . It's about who we are as Americans,'
said Dean. It's about restoring 'the ideal of the American community,'
he continued, a place where each person isn't only looking out for
himself or herself, but where people look out for each other and
recognize their obligations to and responsibility for their fellow
citizens."
http://www.prospect.org/webfeatures/2003/06/franke-ruta-g-06-24.html

Last Sunday on "Meet the Press," host Tim Russert asked Howard Dean if
he knew the size of the American military. "Somewhere in the
neighborhood of 1 or 2 million," the former governor of Vermont
replied. (The correct answer is 1.4 million.)

Now, half a million is a fairly large margin of error for someone who
comes from a state of 608,000 people. Especially if that someone wants
to be commander-in-chief of the armed forces. When Russert pointed
this out, Dean - who evidently regarded the whole subject as a trick -
snapped: "That's like asking me who the ambassador to Rwanda is."

Yeah, Rwanda, that dumb place. Nothing ever happens there.

[ Funny, the left poked fun at GWB for his lack of knowledge of the
same kind of thing- OPD]

A different Democratic candidate might have chosen a less offensive
example of obscurity. But Dean is a prep-school aristocrat who lives
in a state with a black population of about 3,000. African genocide is
no big deal in Vermont. If some black Democrats were offended, they
were hardly alone. Dean seemed to go out of his way to antagonize
every core Democratic constituency. It would have been a courageous
performance if it weren't so obviously unintentional - and so oddly
confused.


***s? Dean doesn't think the government should recognize Canadian
same-*** marriages - but he's for *** civil unions. Seniors? He isn't
sure he favors the Bush-Kennedy Medicare drug benefit - but then
again, he might, even though "it won't work." Gun laws? He opposes
federal gun control as a matter of states' rights - but he's wouldn't
repeal any gun laws. Working people? He'd consider raising the
retirement age to 68 - but he hasn't really decided. Bleeding hearts?
Dean supports the death penalty - even though he realizes it is mostly
ineffective and morally wrong.

On the subject of national security, Dean admitted he knows just about
nothing. If elected, he'll hire people who do.

He'll also need a memory coach. Dean said he couldn't decide on a
constitutional amendment to balance the budget - "You know, I go back
and forth on that one" - at which point Russert reminded him that he
has publicly supported one for years.

He also forgot that in 1995 he came out in favor of cutting Social
Security. Confronted with that piece of lost history, Dean went into a
riff, claiming the Social Security fund would be in fine shape until
2040 "or something like that," an assertion so wrong the normally
unflappable Russert blurted, "No, no, no, no, no, no."

On just two of his party's core issues was Dean coherent and
unequivocal. He favors raising taxes "back to the Clinton era" level.
And he is adamantly opposed to parental notification for minors - even
12-year-olds - seeking an abortion. Not, I would guess, a winning
combo, even in the Democratic primaries.

Then there was the matter of Dean's military service. Like many young
men in 1971, he got a medical deferment. Unlike most of his fellow
deferees, he marked the event by spending 80 days skiing Ajax Mountain
in Colorado. It was late in the interview when he related this story,
and Russert listened with shell-shocked equanimity. He had just
presided over perhaps the worst performance by a presidential
candidate in the history of television.

The day after "Meet the Press" fiasco, Dean went back to Vermont and
officially declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination. I
can't wait to see him on "Face the Nation."

eugene kent

And what is Bush. The progeny of street cleaners?
The ones who followed the horses.