I like Howard Dean, and I like how his campaign has mobilized so many people on the Net and treated it/them seriously. But then I hear stuff like his bizarre cry towards the end of his "concession" speech last night, and I wonder if he's not showing the signs of strain.
When I was in Iowa over the holidays, Dean was running really strong. Of course, he didn't get the 15-minute commercial 60 Minutes segment that Edwards did, or run himself into the ground the way Kerry apparently did, either. According to my insider reports from actual caucus-goers, the strategy of presenting Dean as someone who couldn't legitimately defeat Bush paid off early and often.
Of course, Kerry and Edwards are duty-bound to ignore the fact that, according to David Brooks, "During the past four decades forty-nine sitting members of Congress have run for President. All of them lost." Not a good sign, when the one serious candidate out of the four not to serve in Congress is the object of widespread gloating by the same media who ballooned him a month ago.
Oh well. I just wanted a chance to link to the audio file of Dean's freaky battle cry.
I have to say that I was marginally for Dean, though my main two stances on the process so far are a) I like Dean, Kerry, and Edwards all about the same, and everyone else a bit less for different reasons, and b) if the democrats were to nominate a houseplant for president, I'd vote for it over Bush.
But Howard did kind of look like a nutburger at that speech, and according to a story I heard on NPR this morning about Dean's efforts to "tone it down a notch" in New Hampshire, he's still being surrounded by a bit of bizarreness at his appearences. For example: to drown out a heckler, Dean started singing "God Bless America." Weird.
I can't believe how Dean's creepiness has really started to affect people. He's weirding people out! That one little explosion-cry was so manic. Oh well. There went that idea.
I like him too, though I'd wish for a Kerry/Dean or Dean/Clark ticket, and that soundbite really hurt him: everyone's playing it here; I think the mainstream AOR radio station used it 40 or 50 times in their morning show. (Please don't ask where I work or why I have to listen to it.)
And I gotta agree with their analogy: more than anything else, it sounds like Dean's channeling Macho Man Randy Savage.