![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/deanmanc.jpg\")
Photo
\n by Dave Winer<\/p>\n
Yesterday, along with fellow bloggers Dave Dean was discussing Bush’s photo-op Thanksgiving drop-in at Baghdad The Doc was talking from a brightly-lit clear space in from of an enormous Dean stood fairly still in the spotlight, moving his hands for emphasis, He was talking about Prisons, one of the few growth industries among We suspect that what Dr. Dean was getting at was that with enlightened Be that as it may, the rest of Dean’s stock speech was rather standard He took a few questions. And immediately started to tap-dance But then he began to backtrack. His eyes clouded over, as if an It is a fine and dangerous line a presidential candidate needs to walk Dr. Dean has reached the Pact-with-the-Devil stage of his political This was not a giant striding onto the political stage, by any stretch of What is wrong with a system that produced a cast of characters as drab Now, we are not pining for impossible fantasy figures like Cincinnatus When the Dowbrigade was 7 years old, his father took him to hear his One of the most inspirational politicians and public speakers we have This current crop of wannabees couldn’t get a shiver out of the collective The crowd was politely impressed, and approving, and probably most of Photo by Dave Winer Yesterday, along with fellow bloggers Dave Winer and Jessica the Cyber Librarian, the Dowbrigade hit the campaign trail in New Hampshire, crashing events in Manchester featuring Howard Dean and Joe Lieberman. After an engaging drive up … Continue reading
\n Winer<\/a> and Jessica
\n the Cyber Librarian<\/a>,
\n the Dowbrigade hit the campaign trail in
\n New Hampshire,
\n crashing events in Manchester featuring Howard Dean and Joe Lieberman.
\n After an engaging drive up to the Granite State, simultaneously discussing
\n and demonstrating Murphy’s Law, we walked in on a Dr. Dean town meeting
\n at some swanky executive meeting center in the middle of nowhere, on
\n the outskirts of Manchester.<\/p>\n
\n airport, making a lame joke about fake turkeys. There were about
\n 150 people in the room; about a third of them appeared to be members
\n of the press
\n or out-of-state interlopers like us. The remaining hundred, the
\n "real" people, were fairly diverse in age, sex, weight and hairstyle,
\n although there were no black, brown, hispanic or oriental faces to be
\n seen, by this observer at least.<\/p>\n
\n American flag, facing about 80 executive-meeting-center type chairs,
\n stacking not folding, arranged in neat rows with an aisle down the middle. The
\n rest of the rabble, including your intrepid reporter, lined the back
\n of the room.<\/p>\n
\n pointing and gesturing, chopping air with tight, controlled karate chops,
\n but not moving the rest of his body much at all. He wasn’t sweating,
\n but he looked tired, and not quite all there, as if part of his mind,
\n unneeded during the recitation of this standard stump speech, version
\n 37A, was roaming unseen back roads of the political wilderness.<\/p>\n
\n the economic turmoil of the recent past. He described them as "the
\n most expensive and least effective form of social intervention". Catchy
\n phrase, no? He went on to mention a study he claimed showed that kindergarten
\n teachers can identify with a high degree of accuracy, the 5 kids in their
\n class most likely to end up in prison. Needless to day, this did not sit well with the
\n Dowbrigade.<\/p>\n
\n governmental intervention and social support, those 5 kids could be helped
\n to AVOID incarceration. However, it is not far from there to identifying
\n pre-criminals and mandating therapy or coercive participation in pernicious programs BEFORE
\n any actual criminal acts are committed, a la Minority Report. Plus, we
\n strongly suspect that the Dowbrigade would have been one of the five
\n kids picked out by his kindergarten teacher, Mrs. West, God rest her soul.<\/p>\n
\n Democratic themes; jobs, health care, separation of church and state,
\n and taking back Washington from Big Business. He closed with his "blockbuster"
\n line: "We have the power to take back the White House in 2004, and that
\n is what we are going to do." Followed by a somewhat tepid standing "O"
\n that looked more like a groups of tired but polite folk stretching their
\n legs after a long sermon than a spontaneous outburst of approval.<\/p>\n
\n around the issues like a kangaroo in a mine field. A blogger asked what
\n he thought about the major media monopoly of the news, and whether he
\n supported "alternative" media (which the Dowbrigade understood to mean
\n "blogging", but we may have been reading in). In answer, Dean started out strong, agreeing
\n that the major media conglomerates had too much power, and that was why
\n he opposed the repeal of the FCC regulations limiting the number of outlets
\n in a particular market that can be owned by a single company or group.<\/p>\n
\n alarm somewhere had gone off and a red light was flashing somewhere deep
\n in the politically reptilian part of his brain. He had almost bitten
\n the hand that feeds him, the hand that could just as easily slap him
\n upside the head and leave him bruised and broken in the trash heap of
\n history with the Gary Harts and the Dan Quales, former golden boys who
\n had outlived their usefulness.<\/p>\n
\n these days. The only real issues that get the voters riled up –
\n health care, corporate power, homeland security and the media monopoly
\n – threaten the very institutions the candidates need to cozy up to in
\n order to even have a shot at the Big House. Dean is finding out, the
\n closer he gets to the prize, the more tenuous the footing, the more
\n dangerous the opposition. And the more treacherous the allies. <\/p>\n
\n ascension, and how he handles it will go a long way toward determining
\n the ultimate impact of his campaign, if not its objective success. But
\n aside from the relative merits of the many forms of Doom possible for the
\n Dean campaign, one thing struck us strongly as we watched the good doctor
\n listlessly strut his stuff in front of the stars and stripes.<\/p>\n
\n the imagination. This was a sincere but sad and sorry little man, tilting
\n at windmills and earnestly exhorting his classmates to vote for him like
\n a
\n nerdy sophomore
\n running for student council. The unfortunate fact is that neither Dean, nor any of the other hacks and
\n shucksters we have seen, in person or on screen, is in the least bit inspirational.<\/p>\n
\n and dubious as this one? Is it possible that the most powerful and productive
\n nation in the history of the human race on this planet can find no one better
\n than this to lead us through these troubled times?<\/p>\n
\n here. But I have seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears orators
\n who can light fires behind the eyes of multitudes, who can create a leap
\n of faith, of soul, of inspiration that is all about the best of politics;
\n the ability of inspirational leaders to take a group, a people, a nation,
\n and raise it up to accomplish things that it would not have even imagined
\n possible without that leader.<\/p>\n
\n first presidential candidate speak. And when John Kennedy gave a speech, he
\n sent chills up and down the spines of his
\n listeners, even a 7-year-old who could understand only a fraction of his words. People went crazy, like it was the Beatles. Are people too cool
\n for that these days, or have our candidates been watered down, emasculated
\n by fear of the media and of offending special interests?<\/p>\n
\n ever had the pleasure of watching work was Alan Garcia, head of the APRA
\n party and President of Peru from 1985 to 1990. Six-five and darkly
\n handsome, Garcia had a charisma and personal magnetism which was mesmerizing
\n and almost
\n magical.
\n We have been in a number of rooms with him, smaller than the room in
\n which we saw Dr. Dean last night, and from the moment he entered, every eye
\n was on him. He seemed to radiate energy and light, as though he were constantly
\n surrounded by a thousand tiny spotlights which illuminated his every move.
\n When he got up to speak in public it was with an ernest and exuberant oratorical
\n style that caught his listeners up in a cascade of words and ideas. Waves
\n of energy would race through the crowd as the strode across the stage, gesturing,
\n exhorting, inspiring. Of course, he was defeated in disgrace at the
\n next elections and has since been almost universally reviled as one of the
\n most inept and corrupt Presidents of this century, but hey, nobody’s perfect,
\n and the guy is still one heck of a public speaker.<\/p>\n
\n spines in the seats if they forced everyone to sit on icecicles when they
\n came in. There was definitely a buzz around the candidate when Dean ended
\n his speech, but it was more like a too-many-cups-of-caffine buzz than the
\n way you hear the helicopters and see things with celestial clarity after
\n a good hit of Bolivian coke.<\/p>\n
\n them will vote for Dean in the primary on January 27. But the Dowbrigade
\n doubts that there was anyone there, even the hard-core Dean operatives in
\n attendance, who would be willing to give their lives for the cause. Is that
\n so crazy, typical Dowbrigade hyperbole, lamenting the absence of fatalistic
\n fanaticism in our political campaigns? Maybe so, but we are shopping
\n for a president to lead us into battle with a shitload of people who want
\n to wipe us off the face of the earth, and who are ready to lay down their
\n lives to do so. It would be nice to have a leader who can inspire a
\n little fanaticism of our own.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"