Howard Dean's Iowa Scream

I find it really depressing that the event derailing Howard Dean's campaign is not the third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, but his over-the-top speech afterward. Yes, he looked silly and not very presidential. But is this the most important criteria for choosing a president? It just really bugs me how much attention the media gives to something so superficial when there are really pressing issues that get ignored. I also feel sorry for Dean's very active army of supporters. Dean was probably going to lose the nomination anyway, but it would have at least been nice for him to maintain his dignity by losing it on real issues. It's all so hypocritical: We usually find our politicians so boring, so robotic in their carefully rehearsed public images. Then a guy like Dean comes along who speaks more off-the-cuff, and he's cruxified for it.

Comments

[Sara]

Well-said indeed. The members of the media who exploited and over-exposed such a ridiculous issue should be much more humiliated than Howard Dean himself.

[Allan]

Amen. Heaven forbid that we should have a human being for a president. We sure don't now.

[Tom]

Howard Dean looked like an idiot. I cant believe he still had all of the support that he did after that insane speech. As for President Bush not being human, that is such a retarded comment I don't even know how to respond. What are you saying? That because the President is mature enough to act like an adult on the campain trail, he is not human? So immaturity = humanity? That makes sense... right...

[Brian]

Tom, you are reading into my comments way too much. I never said George Bush was inhuman. In fact, I never made any partisan comments at all in this posting. Instead, I was referring to the trend that transcends parties of candidates often seeming wooden and not very natural onstage. As someone who writes for a living, I just find most politicians lack of natural charisma frustrating, save for the rare talent like Clinton or Reagan.