Wednesday, January 21, 2004
HUGH HEWITT OFFERS SOME ADVICE FOR HOWARD DEAN (scroll down past the stuff about Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats). He even gives Dean a draft of what should be his first speech at Thursday's debate. Snippet:
"On Tuesday night I spent 15 seconds trying to fire up my volunteers who had a disappointing night Tuesday --congratulations John and John, but overconfidence is a dangerous thing, as I've learned-- I spent 15 seconds pointing at signs and recognizing people from faraway states who'd driven thousands of miles in some cases to stand on corners in sub-zero temps, and I fire them up and try to show that I am not down for the count because they're not down for the count, and television, radio, Matt Drudge and Rush Limbaugh and your network, Brit, try to turn me into a deranged psycho. Fred Barnes called me cracked, for goodness sake. I've been a medical doctor treating crisis cases in emergency rooms for twenty years, and a governor making life and death decisions for ten years, and the American media, threatened by my message that big corporate interests are out of control--and there is no bigger corporate interest than Fox-- decides to marginalize me using a quarter minute of tape."There's more and Dean might do far worse than to listen. However, I suspect that images/sounds like this will end up being far more powerful than anything Dean might say in New Hampshire. Even as I recognize that focusing on one moment in Dean's campaign is unrepresentative and unfair, I can't help but laugh at another Lileks masterpiece. If others in the country are like me, Dean is probably toast.
