GORE AND DEAN: Mickey Kaus says that Gore’s endorsement of Dean is a tribute to web-power. Tim Cavanaugh says that Gore’s “extending his jinx.” Jonah Goldberg observes:
More important, it underscores how unserious Al Gore has become on the war on terrorism. Will Gore say that he should have picked Dean to be his runningmate in 2000? Al Gore claimed that Joe Lieberman would be the best possible stand-in for Al Gore should the need arise. He said that Lieberman’s qualifications were perfect to be president. Now, that was before the War on Terrorism. In the time since then, Joe Lieberman has been at the forefront of the War on Terrorism in the Senate. . . .
In other words, Al Gore not only thinks Howard Dean is more qualified to be president of the United States than Joe Lieberman was or is, he thinks that is especially the case now after 9/11. If you really let that sink in for a second, you can see what an amazingly mercenary and damn close to dishonorable position that is.
Ouch. Well, Gore wasn’t trying to win over Goldberg anyway. . .
It is rather a slam at Lieberman, but politics is politics and Lieberman’s candidacy is going nowhere. Dean’s, on the other hand, is looking unstoppable through the primaries.
At any rate, I’m not sure that Dean, if elected, would be as bad for the war on terror as Goldberg’s post, sort of, implies, or that Dean’s primacy in fact reflects a policy of surrender on the part of Democratic voters. Here’s Dean’s secret weapon in the general election: He’s an angry jerk. Okay, he’s not always a jerk, but he has his angry, jerky side. And that poses risks to his campaign that have been analyzed elsewhere.
But in the current climate (heck, probably in most political climates) an angry jerk is a lot better than a wimp, and Dean doesn’t come across as a wimp. Voters may conclude, and they may be right, that a President Dean would get angry at terrorists and respond appropriately, rather than rolling over and being a wimp. This, at any rate, is one reason why I’m not so sure the Dean / McGovern parallel that some people are drawing works.
UPDATE: Robert Crawford emails:
Your point about an angry jerk being better than a wimp misses something important: the jerk should be angry at the right things. I haven’t seen much evidence that Dean is really upset with the state of the Arab world, the conditions and traditions that have created the Islamist movements. On the other hand, I’ve seen plenty of evidence that Dean is angry at Bush for trying to do something about it.
Yeah, he’s playing to his base. That doesn’t make me feel any better about it, though.
Well, that’s the issue, isn’t it?
ANOTHER UPDATE: Jeff Jarvis has interesting observations regarding both Howard Dean and David Brooks — and on what the Internet means for both. Roger Simon has thoughts, too, while Steven Antler has an economic angle.
YET ANOTHER UPDATE: QandO says that for Dean, Bush is the real enemy, not Islamist terror. But I’m not sure he’s paying enough attention to context, here.
And Daniel Drezner has a roundup of reactions from within and without the blogosphere. Meanwhile, I’m predicting that it will ultimately be a Dean/Edwards ticket for the Dems.
Finally, Obsidian Wings wonders if Dean is tough enough.
MORE: Bill Kristol thinks Dean can win.