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| When Did The Howard Dean Meltdown Really Begin? | |
| 2004-01-31 | |
| By Larry Elder, EFL Supporters of former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, aka "Deanie-boppers," accuse the media of piling on by repeatedly playing his now infamous Iowa caucus "concession speech," punctuated by his banshee-like "Yeeeaaaaaarggh!"
Only a little over one month ago, national polls gave Dean a commanding 20 percentage-point lead over his closest Democratic rival, yet he staggered to a third-place finish in Iowa. Talk about a meltdown. If Dean continues to under-perform, his campaign ends, and the blame game begins. Expect his supporters to say the overreaction of the media and the pundits to Dean’s, uh, rallying cry, brought him down. Really? Maybe it began when Dean
.. Then Elder goes on to cite over a dozen foot-in-mouth events, amply illustrated with Cox and Forkum cartoons, where Dean’s demise may have actually begun. IMHO, it began when Dean hired the .com bubble master, ‘political mastermind’, and former Mondale aid, Joe Trippi, as his campaign manager. Joe burned through campaign money like he was running a .com company and was well on the way to positioning Dean for a Mondale-like defeat. | |
| Posted by:Gasse Katze |
| #8 Dot. I'm reminded of an internet "can't miss" thing in the industry I work. All the dealers were invited to a local Best Western meeting room for breakfast. The deal was give a grand and be listed as the "go to location" for their product. As I sat there, crumb cake all over my lips, I saw savy guys writing checks. The push was real aggressive and I made my escape. They still sent biz my way as they had to make the customer happy. But sadly the whole net interprise collapsed that year. I'm a cautious guy, I like to wait for things to mature. Sometimes you miss the boat but at least your boat doesn't sink at the first sign of a storm. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-1-31 10:21:18 PM |
| #7 Sigh - so late to the game with this shitty dial-up... Tanx, Dr Steve! I saw this and thought, "Shit! I resemble those remarks!" - but the connection was already (of course) made. BTW, I specialize in corp Intranets / Extranets - where the biz has never even slowed down. The idea that you could get rich selling [insert stupid idea here] just because the Internet offered a new sales channel died the ugly death it deserved. In other words, shit is still shit, even if peddled on the 'Net. Sadly, phools were separated from their money - as per usual - and gave the whole shebang an undeserved bad rap. Intra / Extra systems realy do save companies real money. At the very least, you have the whole world building and maintaining your WW "Wan". And the AT&T "Cloud" disappeared in a puff of logic... heh, heh. As for Dean and his Deaniacs - they suffer from the zealot's curse: I believe in this so much that I'm blind as a bat regards any alternatives. I think Steven den Beste covered it well in his analysis of the inherent flaws of inductive reasoning... in effect, you can talk yourself into believing just about anything - with one or two early decision-point rationalizations... |
| Posted by: .com 2004-1-31 6:38:14 PM |
| #6 Look for Al to be out with a "I didn't know he was nuts!" statement soon. He'll work global warming in there somewhere as a reason he made the call. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-1-31 6:29:12 PM |
| #5 Kind of hilarious actually, Al Gore's knack for turning a mighty wind into a fart. If Modern Science can figure out how he does it-- plus figure out a way to reverse the process-- my wife can tell you that I can single-handedly solve the energy crisis by producing enough wind to power millons of square miles of windmills... and that's even when I'm laying off the bean burritos! Earth to Al Gore: please reveal your secrets of wind-to-fart transformation... the whole gul-durned "Earth hangs in the balance", doncha know? |
| Posted by: WUZZALIB 2004-1-31 4:47:38 AM |
| #4 When Al "Mister Timing" Gore endorses you, just throw in the towel... |
| Posted by: snellenr 2004-1-31 1:27:04 AM |
| #3 I'm sure .com manages his company better than that! If he still has an internet company after March 2000, Steve, I'm sure he manages very well.;) I hope no one misses the opportunity to link on to Elder's article to read the other possible occasions for Dean's decline. |
| Posted by: Gasse Katze 2004-1-31 1:00:11 AM |
| #2 I think Deans a punk. But he's not stupid, just a punk. I also think the national media took him down by making him a laughing stock. Why? Al Gore thought he was da man. Me thinks this has Slick Willey's finger prints. I noticed Winky has been out and about this past week. I think Winky still has many suporters, ala Michael Jackson, that are more than ready to play underhanded hardball! It's easy to make a fool out of anybody. Just take a snap shot and start throwing darts. I saw Deans screech, not a big deal untill the "in crowed" makes a big deal out of it. Shame. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-1-31 12:46:42 AM |
| #1 Now, now, let's be nice to .com, he's one of our favorites here! I'm sure .com manages his company better than that! |
| Posted by: Steve White 2004-1-31 12:28:00 AM |