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So the schoolyard bullies of the Media have finally succeeded in driving the Smart Kid out of the playground; between the initial ostracism and the subsequent outright hostility, the Media made no secret of its collective distaste for Howard Dean, and like any sane man would he's finally decided that it's not worth the aggro to fight such an uphill battle. And so concludes one of the more unusual chapters in our recent political history: the notion that ordinary people, like, have a stake in how this country should be run, and all that Communist propaganda stuff. I've not seen Dean's actual statement yet, because the water was off for repairs again and I generally try to schedule sleep-periods for the duration of such events, but from what I've gathered since awakening a short while ago, the attempt will now be made to convert the energy of the Dean supporters from a presidential campaign format into a more general movement to restore this country's democratic traditions. It remains to be seen whether John Kerry will prove an engaging enough candidate to keep the party faithful's attention over the long haul -- but at least Doctor Dean seems to have given his party a much-needed spine transplant in the process of prosecuting his campaign.
So where did Howard Dean go wrong? Well, as I say, the Media had a lot to do with it; just as in the 2000 race, the Media came up with their script at the outset of the process and did its damnedest to fit all the contenders into its Procrustean bed of lies, distortions, and selective presentation of facts.Once the Media decides that a candidate is a liar, or 'just folks', or angry, or electable, it's nearly impossible to get in a word edgewise. Howard Dean got cast in the role of "angry man" at the beginning of the campaign and nothing he did subsequently was allowed to break through the Media's lockstep babbling. Partly this is a fault in the size of the field -- with ten contenders in the starting gate, it was perhaps inevitable that a lazy Media establishment would stick labels on them all as a convenient form of shorthand for their reporting and then never bother to reassess their initial portrayals. The structure of this cycle's primary schedule didn't allow for any breathing room to recover from a stumble, either.
And so the Media has what it wanted all along: a two-man race (having effectively stifled Sharpton and Kucinich before they ever got out of the stable) between John Kerry and John Edwards. The Patrician versus the Lawyer, the Eminence Grise versus the Pretty Boy; what a matchup for the viewers, you'd almost think it was a made-for-tv movie! Except that by now nobody's tuning in anymore, since we've been told how it ends. After Super Tuesday it'll be back to Michael/Kobe/Martha, with the occasional "oh, how those wicked demoncrats beat up so unfairly on our Glorious Leader" thrown in as filler so they can't be accused of having completely sold out their reportage mission to the entertainment industry. Illinois is not actually the dead last primary as I reported here earlier (I found a more complete list), but it's far enough back in the pack that only Pennsylvania could be said to be getting more screwed on a per-capita basis -- but for once the Super Tuesday megastates like New York and California have just as little say in who the nominee will be. Stick that in your bong and smoke it, you blue-state hippies.
As for Edwards, the Media have already decided that he's a Dead Candidate Walking, so I expect to be writing up his political obituary two weeks from today, unless he shows some unexpected gumption by running over Kerry with his campaign bus. I heard one commentator make the suggestion that Edwards would make a better Attorney General in a prospective Kerry administration than the Veep slot, and this idea I very much like; as a trial lawyer, Edwards would seem better suited to the prosecutorial end of government than the more contract-law business of the executive branch. Now if we could get Howard Dean to sign on as Surgeon General, I'd almost be content. Wes Clark for secretary of defense? Al Gore as Secretary of State? Hey, I think we've got a transition team here...
So where did Howard Dean go wrong? Well, as I say, the Media had a lot to do with it; just as in the 2000 race, the Media came up with their script at the outset of the process and did its damnedest to fit all the contenders into its Procrustean bed of lies, distortions, and selective presentation of facts.Once the Media decides that a candidate is a liar, or 'just folks', or angry, or electable, it's nearly impossible to get in a word edgewise. Howard Dean got cast in the role of "angry man" at the beginning of the campaign and nothing he did subsequently was allowed to break through the Media's lockstep babbling. Partly this is a fault in the size of the field -- with ten contenders in the starting gate, it was perhaps inevitable that a lazy Media establishment would stick labels on them all as a convenient form of shorthand for their reporting and then never bother to reassess their initial portrayals. The structure of this cycle's primary schedule didn't allow for any breathing room to recover from a stumble, either.
And so the Media has what it wanted all along: a two-man race (having effectively stifled Sharpton and Kucinich before they ever got out of the stable) between John Kerry and John Edwards. The Patrician versus the Lawyer, the Eminence Grise versus the Pretty Boy; what a matchup for the viewers, you'd almost think it was a made-for-tv movie! Except that by now nobody's tuning in anymore, since we've been told how it ends. After Super Tuesday it'll be back to Michael/Kobe/Martha, with the occasional "oh, how those wicked demoncrats beat up so unfairly on our Glorious Leader" thrown in as filler so they can't be accused of having completely sold out their reportage mission to the entertainment industry. Illinois is not actually the dead last primary as I reported here earlier (I found a more complete list), but it's far enough back in the pack that only Pennsylvania could be said to be getting more screwed on a per-capita basis -- but for once the Super Tuesday megastates like New York and California have just as little say in who the nominee will be. Stick that in your bong and smoke it, you blue-state hippies.
As for Edwards, the Media have already decided that he's a Dead Candidate Walking, so I expect to be writing up his political obituary two weeks from today, unless he shows some unexpected gumption by running over Kerry with his campaign bus. I heard one commentator make the suggestion that Edwards would make a better Attorney General in a prospective Kerry administration than the Veep slot, and this idea I very much like; as a trial lawyer, Edwards would seem better suited to the prosecutorial end of government than the more contract-law business of the executive branch. Now if we could get Howard Dean to sign on as Surgeon General, I'd almost be content. Wes Clark for secretary of defense? Al Gore as Secretary of State? Hey, I think we've got a transition team here...
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