How to Convince the Hippie-Haters

New Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, poster boy for the Democrats' would-be Western Strategy, is interviewed at Salon today (sitting through an ad req'd). Not the most inspiring of exchanges (I have now heard enough about his "heart" to last a lifetime), but he does show trace amounts of libertarianism (as you might expect from a Montana governor), and though the following two exchanges contain more than a whiff of condescension toward his constituents, I still found them funny:

Howard Dean has a record that's not at all unlike what you're trying to pull off in Montana, but it's hard to imagine Dean as the kind of national candidate who would do well here.

The first time people heard of Howard Dean, they heard of him as some guy from Vermont -- and people vaguely know where that is, but it sounds like it's where lots of hippies live -- and that he was against the war. So even before they saw him on TV, they figured he had a ponytail and a nose ring. […]

John Kerry opposes gay marriage, too. But if you took a poll of Montanans today, I'll bet 85 percent of them would say that he supports it.

Oh, they'd probably think that he married some guy.