As I've said before, if Dean wants to dish it out, he should be prepared to get his, too:
Yesterday, Howard Dean failed miserably in the eyes of all but 10 members of the Gang of 500 by performing - by Gang standards - absolutely unfabulous in a key Beltway ritual.We could go into great detail about the substantive and stylistic reasons why Dean's performance was an utter disaster in the eyes of the Chattering Class, but doing so might give you a misleading impression.
Kit Seelye in the New York Times calls it straight: "Dr. Dean, a Democrat who prides himself on his straightforwardness, equivocated on several issues." LINK
Even the AP wire hinted at how gruesome it all was: "Interviewed Sunday on NBC's 'Meet the Press,' he seemed unsteady on some issues and prickly when second-guessed." LINK
Here are a few quotes they include from Dean supporters:
--"Could someone please explain to me why Dean said we need MORE troops in Iraq? … I am an avid Dean supporter because I THOUGHT he was against the Second Iraqi War — not for it."--"Sitdown interviews are Governor Dean's worst venue … "
--"Did the DLC submit the questions for Tim Russert?"
--"What Dean forgot on today's MTP is that he's not running against Tim Russert. (Incidentally, I'm a liberal Democrat, and the notion that Russert is a conservative is rather silly.)"
--"I was really really disappointed with the interview. I thought it was Deans big opportunity to really mark his place, but he failed. I feel like Tim is overly tough on Dean, compared to how easy he has gone on many other people in the past."
Count me as one who still does understand the Dean Dem activist bandwagon, other than it's a bandwagon built on anti-War sentiment and not much else. The Note staff is also largely ignoring Edwards, but so are a lot of people. Oh well.