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Why Dean is Still the Democrat to WatchThen there’s the candidate himself. Howard Dean, at least as a candidate, is a shark in Land’s End clothing. He is always moving forward and always on the attack. Most of his rivals genuinely loathe him at this point, but Dean doesn’t seem to care. He’s looking to inspire voters, and thinks his combative style is what they want. He thinks that Democrats want some anger in their candidate to confront Bush’s Red State triumphalism. Dean appears to draw inspiration from the cutthroat side of the Kennedy legacy, Bobby and Jack in particular. Their rhetoric soared and their ideals were noble, but their tactics were tough. When they wanted to dismiss someone as a nonentity, they called him a “nice man.”
Dean is not a nice man. His Web page, for example, derides Kerry as “The Anointed One.” In the latest polls, he and Kerry are running neck and neck in New Hampshire, where only one of them will survive the primary next year.
posted by
Matthew Carroll-Schmidt at 5:32 PM
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