See if you can guess

Where this quote comes from:

Perhaps one reason Dean connects so well with supporters is that on a gut level, he feels the way they do -- frustrated. The former governor of Vermont said he decided to run for president while fuming over a newspaper article about President Bush: "I said, am I going to do something about it, or shut up? Given the choice, I'd rather talk."

If you said Dean's web site, perhaps, or a blog by one of his supporters, you'd be wrong. It comes from this journalistic wet kiss, oddly placed on the Post's front page today.

Actually, it makes interesting reading, once you get by the pro-Dean tone. The author's thesis is that Dean succeeds because he engages in a kind of group therapy with supporters, convincing them that they can have the power and control of the country if they make the right decision in the election:

This is the intended effect, the candidate said in an interview. "People feel horribly disempowered by George Bush," he said. "I'm about trying to give them control back. This is not just a 'campaign,' it's a movement to empower ordinary people. I don't say, 'Elect me.'"

I am no fan of Dean's, but this strategy is obviously paying off in the primaries, as his lead at the polls shows. But I wonder whether it will translate into the general election, when you're trying to woo people who, as the Economist put it recently, "can tell George Bush from Beeelzebub," and who presumably don't feel that the only way to overcome the lack of empowerment caused entirely by Bush, which we all feel, after all, is to have Dean tell them that they're OK. Maybe that explains why now-candidate former general Wesley Clark, a former general who used to be in the military but may not actually be a Democrat (note to Clark: supporting Republicans in the past is nothing to be ashamed of, but stopping is), keeps piling up party insiders. It may also explain why the AFL-CIO is holding off on its endorsement.

Basically, no one has yet emerged as a viable candidate to beat Bush (who set a new fundraising record this week,by the way) in the general election, and Dean, no matter how empowered he makes democrats feel, seems unable to convince the party heirarchy that he's that man. It's too bad, actually, since I think Dean would make most American voters feel very empowered. Unfortunately for him, they'd probably feel empowered to mail him back to Vermont in a small cage.
- posted by Anonymous @ 9:02 AM