Did he not want to be president, or was he incompetent

It's a fair question to ask about Howard Dean, and this article in the Post draws equivocal answers. While it is largely devoted to detailing the bitter Vermont v. Washington schisms in the campaign, it includes several lines like ths one:

The feuding and backbiting that plagued the Howard Dean campaign had turned utterly poisonous. Behind the facade of a successful political operation, senior officials plotted against each other, complained about the candidate and developed one searing doubt.

Dean, they concluded, did not really want to be president.

In different conversations and in different ways, according to several people who worked with him, Dean said at the peak of his popularity late last year that he never expected to rise so high, that he didn't like the intense scrutiny, that he had just wanted to make a difference. "I don't care about being president," he said. Months earlier, as his candidacy was taking off, he told a colleague: "The problem is, I'm now afraid I might win."

Well, we were all afraid of that, and we can all sleep a little better now.
- posted by Anonymous @ 8:57 AM