Seeing Calvin Coolidge In a Dream

New at Reason: Jonathan Rauch considers why Howard Dean may be more of a hardguy than people think.

Comments

[Mr. Anon]

they are chickenshit because they are also worthless pieces of shit and don't want to draw attention to it

[joe]

"Dean's position was incoherent because it called for containing Saddam through continued inspections, which continued only because of the threat of unilateral force that Dean would have withdrawn."

The last part of this sentence just isn't true. The threat was UN authorized force.

[Frenk]

I love John Derbyshire.

[eli]

It's not like Bill Clinton was some political powerhouse coming into his first term. He won with a 42% vote; if Dean does the same as Clinton it's still unlikely he will win.

[Steve Skutnik]

Dean's 1998 fiscal report card from Cato puts him at a "C" and came in at #35 for most fiscally responsible governors - in 2000, it was another "C" and rank #36.
Fiscal conserva-wha?
(Then again, Dubya got a "B" in 2000 and #3, so any forecasting from said report may very well be useless).

[joe]

There are two ways a politician can be like McGovern: his positions, and his coalition. McGovernite positions are now probably supported by a third of the public, or less. However, the miserable losing coalition put together by McGovern in 1972 is now well over half of the voting population, and growing. Even with a significant faction of that coalition bolting to Nader, Gore still won by 500,000+.

Do you think that faction is going to bolt next time?

[Steve Skutnik]

On that note, Dean had a "B" in 1996 but was #42 in 2002 with a "D". It's not exactly what I'd call an encouraging trend. More like a consistent slide.
(In fairness to Mr. Dean, his "fiscal policy scores" were respectively: 58, 44, 53, 46. In that sense, it looks like Cato was grading on a curve as far as letter grades go out - still, it doesn't speak too highly of Mr. Deans fiscal credentials).

[Eric the .5b]

The last part of this sentence just isn't true. The threat was UN authorized force.

So? If invading Iraq was wrong, what would have been the benefit of the approval of China and France?

[Nate]

We already have someone who spends irresponsibly in the White House. At least a Republican congress would fight spending proposals from a Democrat president.

[Kevin Carson]

If Dean appears weak or vacillating, it will kill him. He needs to say what he really thinks about Bush, and not pull any punches out of fear the GOP will play the patriotism card. And when they play the patriotism card, or say "shame on you for taking the low road," he needs to dig his teeth in even deeper. Before the 2004 campaign is over, the American people need to hear all the dirt on how absolutely worthless a piece of shit George W. Bush really is--the dirt the mainstream Democrats and the mainstream media have been too chickenshit to say.

Unfortunately, Dean's backpedalling and squirming ("uh, what I really meant...") after the Confederate flag remark make me wonder if he has the balls to say what he really thinks and then stick to it when the heat is turned up.

[joe]

Not arguing right or wrong, Eric, just pointing out that one can quite easily support UN sanctions and oppose unilateral invasion.