April 2, 2008
Don't Blame Howard Dean (Brent Budowsky)
Howard Dean is not the tallest tree in the forest of national politics but it is bogus for political insiders to blame the Democratic mess on him.
There is one harsh criticism I would have of Dean. He should be speaking far more loudly against attacks that are so destructive they clearly help John McCain.
Howard Dean did not cause the mess and does not have the power to end it, and many with far more power than Dean have remained weak, silent and irrelevant.
Dean does not control 300 superdelegates who lack the minimum political courage to even take a stand supporting a candidate and have the presumption and pomposity to publicly consider whether highly unpopular poliical insiders should scorn the will of the people in primaries and caucuses.
Where is Al Gore, who has had nothing to say of even minimal import in presidential politics though he positions himself as a political and moral statesman? Where is John Edwards, with his interminable invitations to candidates to solicit his support and then his interminable leaks of these meetings and his interminable leaked commentary about why this or that candidate is not worthy of his support?
The list of suspects who deserve blame for the Democratic fiasco is longer than Agatha Christie's list in Murder on the Orient Express.
Howard Dean may be weak, but what is even more pathetic and weak is that those who could have more influence have lacked the courage and stature to act, while they whisper sweet nothings to The New York Times, blaming Dean for their own lack of courage and common sense.
Permalink TrackBack
Email This Post
Share this post
What's This 8 Comments
»
The Hill welcomes comment from anyone and will almost always post it whether it is favorable or critical, as long as it is substantive and advances debate.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
As a defense of Dean this leaves a lot to be desired. It's funny that you can't just point out that Dean is doing his job by enforcing the party rules and isn't in a position to force anyone out of the race or to force superdelegates to declare.
There has to be lots of "Dean may not be the tallest tree" and "Dean may be weak" to show that you too share the universal disdain the chattering class has for the Deeply Unserious gentleman from Vermont.
Comment by lowellfield — April 2, 2008 @ 10:57 am
Also, it turns out Dean's handling of the FL/MI revote worked out perfectly. They're not going to happen, but not because the big bad DNC told them they couldn't. It was because the states don't want to go through the trouble and expense. Thus there's no undermining of the legitimate punishments meted out to those two states but there's no added backlash at the national party.
Comment by lowellfield — April 2, 2008 @ 11:03 am
Hrc shares with GWB a streak of irrational obstinacy that is poisonous for our country and perilous for her party. Take for example his, in the face of it, continuing 'faith' that the mess created by his failed policy in Iraq will bring victory; and her, in the face of it, continuing 'conviction' that the Penn-run disaster of a campaign has a chance at winning the DP presidential nomination. GWB told us the war, which should never have been waged, would be won in 6-months at most; she told us that her heavily financed campaign, which was poorly conceived in the funk of inevitablity, would be won by Feburary 5th. At that time she seemed not at all concerned about voters in the later primaries.
The last person we need in the WH is another stubborn, uncompromising jackass.
Comment by barbara day — April 2, 2008 @ 12:17 pm
Succinctly stated but no surprise as politicos don’t take a side until they know who is winning: More bravado than bravery. Our party of the people has become truly pathetic.
Comment by james d granata — April 2, 2008 @ 12:29 pm
I blame Karl Marx.
Comment by Igor R. — April 2, 2008 @ 1:36 pm
[...] Howard Dean, where are you? Many Democrats are calling on Dean to be more aggressive in bringing the nominating battle to a close. Though Brent Budowsky, writer for The Hill, says don’t blame Dean. [...]
Pingback by Today on The Randi Rhodes Show « Ptp6100’s Weblog — April 2, 2008 @ 2:36 pm
Yes, James, our party of the people is truly pathetic. These politicians making a decision to support Obama before, all the voters have voted, and the Super Delegates have made their decision is pathetic for sure!
Comment by diane b — April 2, 2008 @ 5:30 pm
diane b;
Damn, your hate is showing! What is your problem? Obama ran a very good and competent campaign. He raise enough money to compete with Hillary. He campaign in more states. He didn't squander his money and he was helped by little people like me. Hillary ran a race that she thought would be over on February 5th. That didn't happen and now she is low on money and she is leaving small businesses in the lurch. She even failed to pay her workers health care premiums. If she can't ran an effective campaign, giving that she started with every advantage, how can she run the country?
Comment by Mike Coleman — April 3, 2008 @ 4:32 pm