Howard Dean, Savior
By dcmediagirl on April 7, 2008 at 4:23 PM in Democrats, Howard Dean
Imagine my surprise when I found out no one had posted on No Quarter about this fawning WaPo “article” about Howard Dean, which I read several times this weekend to make sure my eyes weren’t deceiving me. So I guess I’ll do the honors.
To call this article a puff piece cobbled together by a hack that would probably be rejected by Tiger Beat magazine for being too soft is an insult to puff pieces and hacks everywhere. Remember, this is a profile of Howard Dean, the Democratic party’s equivalent of a failed state.
Many are the laugh lines. Here’s a sample:
But Democrats have some good reasons to stop kicking Dean around. You don’t hear the word “prescient” used very often to describe the much-maligned chairman, but one can make a pretty plausible case that his six years on the national Democratic scene have had a significant impact on his party — on machinery, message and methods. If the Democrats win in 2008, they may come to thank Dr. Dean for providing the medicine that cured some of the party’s ills.
But those shortcomings don’t tarnish the underlying point: Howard Dean has been a man ahead of his time. When he leaves Washington for good next year, the improved fortunes he has helped bring to his party may be enough to make him want to scream.
Here’s the opening graf. Italics mine:
As the Democratic presidential race turns into the political equivalent of the Battle of the Somme, lots of Democrats are glaring at the party’s nominal leader, Howard Dean. The Democratic National Committee chairman (and 2004 White House hopeful) has not been able to force the race to a close or to fix a mess he helped create by tossing out the results of primaries in Michigan and Florida after their state parties violated DNC rules by jumping toward the front of the line in the campaign season.
Shorter WaPo article: Dean is a visionary who could lead the party to the promised land if only a) Hillary would just fuck off once and for all and put an end to all this tedious, messy democracy; b) voters in Michigan and Florida should put a sock in it and just accept the fact that their disenfranchisement is the fault of squabbling party leaders, but let’s not dwell on that unpleasantness too much…Look at the shiny object over there! It’s a cool 50 state strategy!, and c) Democrats are a bunch of ungrateful children who can’t appreciate Howard Dean for the political genius he is.
It’s hard to imagine a more tone deaf article than this one, written by a more clueless reporter and which had to have been approved by an “editor” of some sort before publication. Yet in a strange way it’s fitting that this piece ran. It perfectly illustrates the tremendous gulf that separates the so-called “professionals” who report on politics from the voters and consumers of what passes for news these days.
Your comments are welcome.
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