A Question about Dean

[Guest MikeSC]

This is not really meant as a flame on Dean:

 

But has ANY candidate ever had such a complete and total meltdown in such a small amount of time as Howard has?

 

He went from presumptive front-runner to afterthought in shockingly quick time. He went from favorite to win to less of a chance than Clark of winning.

 

I can say that I've never seen a candidate's support just die in such quick fashion.

 

Does anybody know of anybody who flamed out quite like this? I think a future run for President is impossible for Dean due to this.

-=Mike

[Hogan Made Wrestling 0]

This is not really meant as a flame on Dean:

 

But has ANY candidate ever had such a complete and total meltdown in such a small amount of time as Howard has?

 

He went from presumptive front-runner to afterthought in shockingly quick time. He went from favorite to win to less of a chance than Clark of winning.

 

I can say that I've never seen a candidate's support just die in such quick fashion.

 

Does anybody know of anybody who flamed out quite like this? I think a future run for President is impossible for Dean due to this.

-=Mike

Edmund Muskie? Of course, we all know why that happened.

[Guest Cerebus]

What makes Dean rise and fall so interesting, to me at least, was that the campaign was the first of its kind in American (and as far as I know world) politics as in, it was the first to tap into the enormous potential of the internet. For that we have to thank Joe Trippi (Dean's campaign manager up until very recently). I discussed this somewhat on this earlier thread which contains an excellent GQ article as well as a link to Ryan Lizza's Campaign Journal both of which I think are required reading if you're interested in finding out how and why Dean collapsed so completely during and after Iowa.

 

As for me personally, there are a number of factors I think contributed to Dean's downfall. Many will say it is Dean's lack of electability, apparently Democrats are sick of backing Mondales and McGoverns. Though that is an issue, it doesn't really explain why he failed so badly at the Iowa caucases (though that was a major factor to his loss in New Hampshire). The problem, I think, was the whole internet campaign. Think of Trippi as a Vince Russo (I think one of the best anologies that, unfortunately, only a few will understand outside this board). The guy is half crazed, arrogant, unorthodox, and completly devoted to his work. He created the whole Blog Campaign, the first of its kind ever (as far as I know). Basically he turned an "asterisk" cannidate to the frontrunner in no time at all. Donations and volunteers were coming in and the media were fawning over Dean like nobody's buisness. For a while it seemed that Dean had found the new key to winning political campaigns in the 21st century, the Internet, and would ride high while the rest of the grounded campaigns would be left in the digital dust.

 

Of course all the failings of the Blog Campaign didn't come until after Iowa where Dean placed a miserable third. As it turns out, a large number of the volunteers were suburbanite anti-everything MTV generation kids who were as out of place in rural Iowa as a typical Marilyn Manson fan would be at a Cher concert. Lizza's journal makes notes about the horrible inexperience Dean's captains showed at the caucus meetings losing valuable delegates to Kerry and Edwards's captains before they knew what was going on. In short, the Blog Campaign was pumped up with enough of hot air (from both itself and from the media) to the point they thought they were invincible and it was all in the bag. What the new Blog Campaign didn't seem to appreciate, however, is that the more things change the more they stay the same. The basics of elections havn't changed with the advent of the internet, something that Trippi's Blog Campaign thought it had evolved beyond.

 

Ok ramble over, but I still think this quote from the GQ article is very much telling of Dean's fall:

 

Excuse me, Mr. Trippi, I know you're busy, but..." They tell him they've driven all the way up here with a statue that they'd like to plant somewhere in Iowa but are unsure which precinct is most deserving.

 

"A statue?" asks Joe.

 

"Yeah, man," says one. "It's cool. It's a statue of the corporate guy pissing on the average man."

 

Trippi stares blankly. "Whuh?"

 

"It's, like, what it's all about, man."

 

"Okay," says Trippi. "Thank you. But please. I wouldn't do it today. Please. Just go out and get votes for the governor."

 

In retrospect, this might have been the big mistake. Sending these guys out to knock on doors of Iowans. But this was the monster Joe Trippi had created. Live by the blog, die by the blog.

[Guest Jimbo]

But has ANY candidate ever had such a complete and total meltdown in such a small amount of time as Howard has?

 

He went from presumptive front-runner to afterthought in shockingly quick time. He went from favorite to win to less of a chance than Clark of winning.

I highly doubt a decade or two from now most people will remember just how great of a position he was in. Heck, I doubt people will eveb remember what he was even trying to do. Years from now, people won't be talking about his policy ideas, his position in the race, etc...it'll be the crazy guy who spout out some random crap and went "YEEEEAAAAAAARRRRGHHH!!!"

[Guest Olympic Slam]

The Dean collapse has been simply amazing. I've been following everything via Rush, Hannity, O'Reilly and the rest of talk radio. They went from talking about Bush's potential problems in the inevitable presidential debate against Dean to not even mentioning Dean except to discuss his collapse. This transition from sure-fire nominee to laughing stock happened in a span of 10 days. Unbelievable

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Not counting RFK who was murdered, I can't think of anybody that went from such a clear frontrunner to out of the race in such a short span of time.

[Highland 0]

Is it all solely from his poor finish in Iowa and his subsequent speech (which I still feel the media and pundits blew out of proportion.)?

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Is it all solely from his poor finish in Iowa and his subsequent speech (which I still feel the media and pundits blew out of proportion.)?

No, he was losing steam the whole week leading up to the Iowa stuff. He would still be in this position regardless of the post-Iowa speech. All that did was confirm the belief that he's very unstable.

[Vyce 0]

I saw it theorized on McLaughlin tonight that the Dean "Road to Insignificance" began after the capture of Saddam and Dean's subsequent speech downplaying it.

 

Not sure if that was the exact point, but it's something to think about.

[Guest MikeSC]

Is it all solely from his poor finish in Iowa and his subsequent speech (which I still feel the media and pundits blew out of proportion.)?

I think it was primarily his Iowa finish. By most polls (remember this, Dems), he was supposed to WIN Iowa --- handidly. He ended up getting his BUTT handed to him and it showed that, perhaps, his support was overstated.

-=Mike

[Jobber of the Week 0]

 

My guess is Howie won't be remembered beyond in passing in the future, though you can look for him to be speaking at your nearest moveon.org rally in the next five years.

[Guest Cerebus]

As I mentioned, I think Howie will be remembered for one thing, the new Internet campaign. His campaign was ahead of its time (too far ahead apparently) and people will look back and see how to and how NOT to use the internet effectively in American political campaigning.