Saturday, December 13, 2003
Thursday, December 11, 2003
Dan writes:
"I know Clark has lots of Gore/Clinton staffers working in his campaign, but don't you think that Gore's official endorsement raises his electibility significantly?"
It certainly helps his chances in the primary (though why anyone would listen to Al Gore is beyond me. To paraphrase Rob Corddry: it'll be nearly impossible for Dean to recover from this one.)
But seeing him and Gore together helped me finally put the pieces together on Dean -- now I understand his popularity. It boils down to this:
Dean appeals to everyone who watched the 2000 election like an a die-hard Knick fan, screaming at the TV, always on the verge of breaking some furniture, wanting to reach through the screen, grab that stiff neck of Gore's and yell, WHY DON'T YOU STAND UP FOR YOURSELF? YOU SPINELESS ROBOT!
As David Brooks put it in his column on Tuesday, Dean's the guy who will say anything. Or, as I'd put it, he's got chutzpah. Not balls, chutzpah. There's a big difference: if he had the courage to say exactly what's on his mind even if it's not popular, I'd say he's got balls. But the impulse to say anything at all with a straight face is chutzpah.
Brooks' moment of illumination was Dean's "us rural people" comment. Mine came during one of the last four debates (who can keep track of them? They're like Mets games in September -- totally meaningless), when Dean was asked about his Vietnam draft dodge. He not only gave a "I dodged the draft, so what?" kind of answer, he proceeded to turn the question against the other Dems -- naming them all individually, leaving out Kerry and Clark. My aha! moment came at the end of his list, when he mentioned that John Edwards hadn't served in Vietnam. True, except for one problem: John Edwards wasn't drafted because he was too young. To compare your use of a medical deferment to get out of the draft and then go skiing for a year to a guy who wasn't even drafted because he's too young -- that's the very definition of chutzpah. It's the same kind of chutzpah that had Governor Bush criticizing John McCain on veterans' affairs in 2000.
A large majority of Americans like Bush but dislike his policies (see the Time Mag story from a couple weeks ago). A large majority of Americans also need to get out more often. So does the disagreeable little Doc with chutzpah beat the strong, decisive, admirable President with chutzpah?
"I know Clark has lots of Gore/Clinton staffers working in his campaign, but don't you think that Gore's official endorsement raises his electibility significantly?"
It certainly helps his chances in the primary (though why anyone would listen to Al Gore is beyond me. To paraphrase Rob Corddry: it'll be nearly impossible for Dean to recover from this one.)
But seeing him and Gore together helped me finally put the pieces together on Dean -- now I understand his popularity. It boils down to this:
Dean appeals to everyone who watched the 2000 election like an a die-hard Knick fan, screaming at the TV, always on the verge of breaking some furniture, wanting to reach through the screen, grab that stiff neck of Gore's and yell, WHY DON'T YOU STAND UP FOR YOURSELF? YOU SPINELESS ROBOT!
As David Brooks put it in his column on Tuesday, Dean's the guy who will say anything. Or, as I'd put it, he's got chutzpah. Not balls, chutzpah. There's a big difference: if he had the courage to say exactly what's on his mind even if it's not popular, I'd say he's got balls. But the impulse to say anything at all with a straight face is chutzpah.
Brooks' moment of illumination was Dean's "us rural people" comment. Mine came during one of the last four debates (who can keep track of them? They're like Mets games in September -- totally meaningless), when Dean was asked about his Vietnam draft dodge. He not only gave a "I dodged the draft, so what?" kind of answer, he proceeded to turn the question against the other Dems -- naming them all individually, leaving out Kerry and Clark. My aha! moment came at the end of his list, when he mentioned that John Edwards hadn't served in Vietnam. True, except for one problem: John Edwards wasn't drafted because he was too young. To compare your use of a medical deferment to get out of the draft and then go skiing for a year to a guy who wasn't even drafted because he's too young -- that's the very definition of chutzpah. It's the same kind of chutzpah that had Governor Bush criticizing John McCain on veterans' affairs in 2000.
A large majority of Americans like Bush but dislike his policies (see the Time Mag story from a couple weeks ago). A large majority of Americans also need to get out more often. So does the disagreeable little Doc with chutzpah beat the strong, decisive, admirable President with chutzpah?
