Howard Dean's supposedly "bold" strategy of scheduling a major ad buy for Iowa seven months before the caucuses are actually held continues to move the good doctor's numbers in the "invisible primary."
Earlier this week it was Charlie Cook writing about Dean's "big mo." Now it's Howie Kurtz, the Washington Post's smarmy, but widely read, media columnist:
Howard Dean is on his way to winning the David Yepsen primary -- Yepsen being the hugely influential columnist for the Des Moines Register, who now likens Ho-Ho to Jimmy Carter:
(Ho-Ho? Laying the smarm on a bit thick, aren't we Howie?)
Kurtz goes on to quote Yepsen praising Dean in fairly glowing terms:
He is presidential. He has passed a subtle but very real test caucus-goers apply to presidential candidates who show up here . . .. . . Dean's not a career politician. He's a doctor who got into politics. This week, he became the first candidate to start airing television commercials in Iowa this year as he tries to keep that message resonating through the summertime lull."
Then comes the Kurtz tag line -- the cynical crack that's supposed to remind you that Howie is one of the Kool Kids. But this time the joke is not at Dean's expense:
Not bad for a guy who was seen as an asterisk six months ago.
No, not bad at all. A few more media items like this and it will be a trend, then maybe a feature story somewhere -- "The Doctor is In," "Dean Supporters Get the Fever," something like that. A couple of stories like that, and who knows -- we might even be looking at Dean on the cover of Time or Newsweek some slow news week this summer.
Of course, the stories would all imply (or state flat out) that Dean is just capturing the hearts of those fringie McGovern Democrats who haven't gotten over the 2000 election -- meaning he's sure to be a flattened squirrel if and when the Bush Panzer divisions roll over him.
But, at this point, if you're Howard Dean just about any publicity is good publicity -- unless, as the late Gov. Edwin Edwards of Louisana once said, it involves being found in bed with a dead girl or a live boy.
And if were John Kerry at this point, I'd be afraid. I'd be very afraid.
Update 6:00 pm ET: fixed the Edwards quote. dead girl, live boy. My bad.
Fyi, just under the category of "any" publicity:
Dean's son was busted last night as an accessory to theft--he waited in the car while his buddies tried to steal booze from a country club.
Dean is flying home for 2 days.
I'm with you, paradox, but I don't think Billmon was being a Dean detractor in any way. Sounded to me like he was cynical about the media and how they would react to Dean.
Does anyone have access to the archives over at TNR? They did an article about Dean in July and I'd be curious to read it again.
I'm not trying change your mind. I just don't get this.
Marc is very much right, paradox, I'm not trying to knock Dean at all -- In fact I'm leaning in his direction, even though I do have my own doubts about both his sincerity and his electability.
But in this case, I'm just trying to predict how the SCLM will play the story.
And given the, er, problems both Bush daughters have had with alchohol and the law, I suspect this thing about Dean's son is one story the GOP attack machine won't try to make hay with.
Oh! I'm terribly sorry for the confusion.
Please have a great weekend, Mr. Billmon. We'll be back on Monday!
billmon - the edwards quote was "a dead girl or a live boy".
smiley,
which makes far more sense. i thought something sounded fishy there.
Does it really matter which one is dead and which one alive?
marc - call me a stickler for accuracy. does it really matter? in the quote or in politics? in the quote, yes. in politics, probably not -- or only to conventional politicians and their constituents (and opponents), though being caught in bed with a dead boy would probably be the end of sen. santorum's career...
It does to the girl.
to the boy too. (turn off now italics... turn off damn you).
Bilmon:
"Lucky Eddy" Edwards is not the late Gov. although he is the former Gov. He's doing 10 years at the Fort Worth Federal Medical Center prison; he's got about 9 years and 4 months left.
Actually, in politics, yes, it does matter which one is dead. The implication is that a politician could survive being found in bed with a live girl.
As much as I'm for Dean (and I am), I too still worry about his electability.
I can remember a Time Magazine cover with the caption: "Here Comes the Prairie Populist." I was thrilled at the time. It was a feature on George McGovern.
It's also important to note that David Yepsen is a "South of Grand" Des Moines fatcat Republican, who has a well-established record of slandering liberal candidates who arouse his ire.
I did a research paper on his smear campaign against 1982 Iowa Democratic gubernatorial nominee Roxanne Conlin. Over the course of that campaign the same tired but damaging story about Conlin's state taxes appeared in over 80 bylined Yepsen stories (no other newspaper in the state mentioned the issue more than twenty-odd times).
Yeah, people do suck up to Yepsen, but that's only because he's a vindictive prick who abuses his position at the Register to punish progressive candidates whose views have offended David.
Lest you worry about the weirdness of Kurtz's calling Howard Dean "Ho-ho," it is a common term for Dean among the political commentator class up here in Vermont (where Dean was governor for a long long time). It's still weird, but not uncommon.
I always wonder about those people who wonder about Dr. Dean's electibility? What other Democrat seems to them electable? One reason I was drawn to Dr. Dean is he seems to be the ONLY electable Democrat in the group. People, I notice, generally vote with their gut. Brains, and issues matter, but How About these polls indicating Americans BELIEVED AND STILL DO that Saddan and Osama are linked and that potential Iraqi WMDs threaten(ed) us??
Mr. Billmon, you have my greatest respect. I love this blog and have learned a great deal.
I was too young to vote for McGovern. I enlisted in the United States Navy. I was a nominally active Democrat until they did steal the election, whereupon I did everything I could to get these fasciti out of power.
I'm white, male, BA degree (Poli Sci). I'm not a fringie. It is true I can't get over the election--please excuse me, I can't get the at least 1,000,000 US servicemen killed in battle defending the Democracy of the US out of my conciousness. Those men died for our votes to be counted, and I simply can't get over it.
I'm not trying change your mind. I just don't get this. Dean speaks and acts with honor to most of the core principles of the Democratic Party. He earned my vote. I also want ot beat Bush as much as anyone. I think Dean can do it.
What would you prefer, an angry combative campaign that energizes the base and loses (which you predict) or a Bush-lite wimp-out, which is garuanteed to lose? I'll go down fighting every time.