And yet, I’m still not thrilled at the idea of President Dean.
From this week’s Doonesbury FAQ—
What’s up with Trudeau running a big Howard Dean campaign the last few weeks. Is Trudeau in the tank? —M. Mahoney, Sacramento, CA
Damn near. Here’s the skinny for full-disclosure buffs: GBT and Dr. Dean were childhood buddies, having first met at summer camp. During a camp wrestling tournament, the puny Trudeau pinned the athletic Dean twice, an humiliation (attention, biographers) that has haunted Dean ever since. After attending Yale together, the two lost track of one another until Dean became governor of Vermont and told a reporter that he’d developed his sense of humor hanging out with Trudeau. Trudeau wrote him to protest, because during his teenage years, GBT didn’t actually have a sense of humor. This may explain why reporters don’t think Dean has one, either. Actually he does, at least around Trudeau, so GBT gave him $2000 (maxing out early) on the promise of relief from daily Dean-For-America fundraising spam, a promise that his friend has yet to make good on. Dean has also refused to soften his position on gun control, drug reform, or any other issue of importance to GBT, so a lot of good it’s done.
Which is apparently the second source NewsMax relied on when it proclaimed that Howard Dean is the media-elite darling:
Dean is “the media’s favorite long shot for president” and enjoys an “adoring national press,” confirms Editor & Publisher magazine. Why? Because he loathes President Bush even more than his rivals do and attacks him on everything possible: Operation Iraqi Freedom, tax relief, education reform, national defense…
He has more in common with the Bush administration than he’d like to admit, however, notably the secrecy he so hypocritically attacks. The frequently out-of-state guv refused to reveal his campaign trips on his schedule. It took a lawsuit filed by local yokel newspapers and an order by the Vermont Supreme Court to force him to make public his trips campaigning for the White House.
By the way, here’s the inside story of why Bush-hating cartoonist Garry Trudeau gave Dean extra publicity in “Doonesbury”: The two are longtime friends who met at summer camp when they were 13, a fact Trudeau fails to disclose in his free plugs.
Of course, Dean and Trudeau attended Yale at the same time as President Bush. Small network, ain’t it?
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We had just been thinking about Dean and Yale and 1971 graduations because we learned from Innocence Project director Barry Scheck that he was in Dean's class at Yale. So the class of '71 included Trudeau, Dean and Scheck. Bush graduated in '68, not much overlap.
Like you, we're not thrilled yet with Dean-- but neither are we thrilled with the alternatives. So we're trying to let Dean grow on us.
The ruling class is as the ruling class does.
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Shrill admonitions from this party re: ruling class.
But what are the alternatives? Kevin? Jake? I am not decided but so far he looks better than the rest. He is the only one out there criticizing the Bush machine.
I got no problem with what he's been so vociferously against, and my heart leaps every time he says it's time to take our country back. It's way past time, goddammit. But it's what he's said he's for, so far--police powers, the drug war as-is, most of the Patriot Act, a balanced budget amendment--that kicks my heart right back down again.
It doesn't help that the man is largely to the right of Clinton, yet is being smeared as a raving leftist. Kerry's to his goddamn left on most issues; if I can't get Kucinich (note the foolhardy conditional), I'll take Kerry over Dean. Fire in the belly is great, but I'll take substantive work towards the world I want to see over belly-fire.
LAwoman:
There are 8 other Dem alternatives & who knows how many 3rd party alternatives. If Dean looks like the best to you, vote for him. Of course I think you err in your assertion that Dean is "the only one out there criticizing the Bush machine." I think that you'll find that Kucinich & Sharpton, at least, are doing that as well. Perhaps you meant that Dean is the only one of the Dems who you otherwise like that is vociferously criticising the current regime? If the most important thing for you is getting away from the ruling class, cast your vote for Sharpton or ,ugh IMHO, Mosely-Braun.
My problem with Dean is that he travelled to Israel at the end of last year as a guest of the American Israeli Political Action Committee, spent no time in Palestinian areas, and came back telling us that his position on the Middle East is the same as Israel's position.
Well, since the real problem is not getting rid of Bush, which will happen sooner or later, but that we need peace, something which is not going to happen either sooner or later under Presidents like Bush or Dean.