January 14, 2004
THE DOCTOR IS IN
Howard Dean puts George W. Bush on the couch:
This president is not interested in being a good president. He's interested in some complicated psychological situation that he has with his father. He is obsessed with being re-elected, and his obsession with re-election is hurting the country.
Dean sounds crazy. He’s acting crazy, too:
Former President Jimmy Carter will offer support for Democratic White House hopeful Howard Dean in a joint appearance in Georgia on the eve of the Iowa caucuses, campaign aides said on Tuesday.
An appearance with Carter? Maybe Dean is obsessed with losing the election. In other campaign news, MoveOn.org’s anti-Bush advertising contest receives a positive review:
"I think the contest has been very effective," says Whit Ayres, a Republican media consultant. "Effective for George Bush. It reinforces the view that those opposed to Bush are incredibly strident, leftwing and out of bounds. At the end of the day, the Hitler ad is all people will remember about this."
UPDATE. Drudge has a partial transcript from MoveOn’s big contest awards night. First prize for incoherent paranoia goes to actress Julia Stiles:
I was worried that some soldiers over in Iraq who are actually younger than I am would see some salacious report on MSNBC and think that I was attacking them and not the government that put them there. And I was afraid that Bill O'Reilly would come and, with a shotgun at my front door and shoot me for being unpatriotic. But I decided that that's actually, that fear that was silencing me is actually why it's so important that MoveOn exist and do this ad contest ...
Relax, Julia. O'Reilly supports gun control, and probably hasn't murdered more than two or three people in his whole life. Meanwhile, following Dean's example, Wesley Clark pursues the angry man vote:
General Wesley Clark unleashed his most blistering attack yet on the Bush administration in the president's home state Monday, vowing to win Texas in November if he is the Democratic nominee.
"I think we're at risk with our democracy," Clark told an audience of about 500 people at a fund-raiser at the Westin Galleria hotel. "I think we're dealing with the most closed, imperialistic, nastiest administration in living memory. They even put Richard Nixon to shame."
Clark voted for Nixon. Twice. Shame!
"They are a threat to what this nation stands for, and we need to get him out of the White House. And we're going to do it."
"A threat to what this nation stands for." No wonder Michael Moore supports him.
Posted by Tim Blair at January 14, 2004 01:10 PM"He is obsessed with being re-elected, and his obsession with re-election is hurting the country. "
How do we even know Bush is going to run for re-election? I haven't heard one peep from the Adminstration regarding a re-election bid. What is it with the people? Are they living in an alternative universe?
Posted by: Dave_Violence at January 14, 2004 at 01:20 PMCarter's the only one Dean could put on the podium to make Dean sound coherent- he tried Elmer Fudd, but Elmer was found to be more credible.
Posted by: Habib at January 14, 2004 at 01:22 PMBesides all his inane malappropisms, ignorant rants, and just genereal lameness; I am alone in thinking that Howard Dean looks like....well like a dork. Like some maladjusted character that Richard Dreyfus would play.
In fact he looks like Richard Dreyfus playing a dork.
Posted by: Wallace at January 14, 2004 at 01:38 PMDave_Violence: it's a given that Bush, like every other first-term president before him for quite some time, will run again. It would certainly be interesting if he decided to retire instead; but he'll probably get voted for by a majority anyway.
That being said, the "my opponent isn't a viable candidate like me, he's just crazy" psych-out is so high-school and passive-aggressive it just adds to the lameness of the Dean campaign. Does the man not have a platform other than "Bush smells!"? Christ.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at January 14, 2004 at 01:45 PMDean’s anger is real, but he is a perfomer & also psychologically controlling.
Dean stands there smiling because he’s satisfied to know that he’s about to turn on the dime & display the real anger building within, e.g., against Ungerer. Dean’s crowd likes the anger & the turn on a dime—the agility. In a sense he’s in contol but in a sense he’s not. He has to keep feeding the little monster that he is within. Again & again one sees evidence that Dean is psychologically controlling.
- Dean’s long smile not warning of the anger that he is about to show.
- Dean’s impatient minimization of the insults he tosses off & of his gaffes.
- Dean’s indignation at every taste of his own medicine.
Dean keeps trying to make himself look good by casting others in the disparaging light that he himself is trying to escape, & by casting himself as the honest one, in the process.
- Dean knew he was the candidate from the lily-white state, so he claimed he was the only candidate to talk of race to white audiences.
- Dean knew himself to be white so he said talking about race means educating the whites.
- Dean’s the one who’s obsessed with winning the Presidential election, & knows it & knows he seems it & folks are talking about his psychology, so Dean accuses Bush of complex psychological obsession.
But—people are talking not just about Dean’s psychology, but that of his supporters—his followers—e.g., his staff who won’t even mix after hours with staff of the other Dem campaigns.
It’s not just from himself but from his FOLLOWERS that Dean is trying to deflect disparaging attention on psychology & obsession.
Dean: a rumor-mongering insult-&-minimize-it glib shallow overassured provincial-internationalist smalltime-ex-gov Park-Avenue crackerbarrel leader of a sometimes cultlike following. If he wins the Dem nomination, the Dems will remain divided. Dean doesn’t need a shrink, he needs a whole clinic.
Posted by: ForNow at January 14, 2004 at 01:49 PMHow about an appearance with Coulter? Much more eye-pleasing, methinks...
nuh, bush aint obsessed, he just gets what he expects ta get like, you know, "re-elected" hell, he don't expect that, he expects "President-For-Life" and he need not even expect it really, 'cause it will just be his for the taking when the oligarchy need a figurehead to dupe the dumbfucks who are presently being ripped off
Posted by: dolebludger at January 14, 2004 at 02:23 PMJust hold to that “oligarchy” interpretation & keep perfectly still & you’ll believe it & everybody’ll believe you believe it & you won’t even shoo the fly away from your cheek & everybody will agree you can’t be fooled & you’re no sap.
Posted by: ForNow at January 14, 2004 at 02:42 PMhey, i'd do the job too if it was offered, i'd even pretend to be fooled just like everyone else pretends to be fooled,
Posted by: dolebludger at January 14, 2004 at 02:54 PMperhaps if you learned how to speak properly, people would actually listen to you.
Posted by: samkit at January 14, 2004 at 03:18 PMOligarchy = ruled my a SINGLE person/entity right dolebludger???? Only in your universe pal.
Posted by: Jake D at January 14, 2004 at 03:27 PMNo doubt Dubya will become President-for-Life in the same way Clinton became President-for-Life, by declaring a state of emergency after Y2K.
Posted by: Rick C at January 14, 2004 at 03:28 PMBush? Clinton? I thought FDR was still President...
Posted by: Jerry at January 14, 2004 at 03:33 PMFwom Elmer's endorsment appeawance:
My Fwewwo Amewicans. Twoo widdle has been done fwo us in da past fwoo years. Tax cuts fwo dew wich and middle class, no tax cuts fwo dew poor dwat pay no tax anyway. An unpwesidented funding of education dat, uh, is bad. Pwescription dwug benefits that, uh, that...
But hew wis ouw Next Pwesident, Howawd Dean! Kill da wabbit! Kill da wabbit! Twoo wabbits in every pot!
I am Elmer J. Fudd, millionaire. I own a mansion, moveon.org, and a yacht.
Feh. Dean is nuts. Everybody has a complicated psychological relationship with their parents, it's to be expected. The people who raise you and have a strong influence on your adult personality? Why wouldn't your relationship with them be complicated?
I'd like to see some info on Dean's relationship with his parents - I bet that's where Dean got his passive-aggressive behavior and his anger from in the first place.
Posted by: Alice at January 14, 2004 at 03:42 PMActually that’s an excellent impression of retired Senator Metzenbaum (Dem) of West Virginia.
He looks like Nosferatu,
He talks like Elmer Fudd,
His name is Howard Metzenbaum
And he wants to dwink yoah bwud!
ForNow, I think that's ret. Senator Metzenbaum of Ohio, but the doggerel is unaffected.
I'm dubious of even "legitimate" psychiatry, but Dean's interview comments are very strange territory for a serious presidential candidate.
Comedians and writers were mopey when Clinton termed out, fearing a dearth of good material. Well at least until November, it seems, there's a new bumper crop, and Tim and you guys here are doing a great job of harvesting it ...
Posted by: IceCold at January 14, 2004 at 04:20 PM
Methinks Howard has peaked and is heading for a flame-out. Don't forget, Clinton won neither Iowa nor New Hampshire in '92. South Carolina could make it interesting by going for Edwards, who's the best-looking of the bunch (not to be underestimated in presidential politics.)
Dolebludger-
If Bush is still president in February 2009, I'll eat the couch in front of your trailer.
Posted by: Dave S. at January 14, 2004 at 06:52 PMAre we sure Dean and Clark aren't Republican Trojan horses. Surely no real person is that crazy.
Posted by: Quentin George at January 14, 2004 at 07:27 PMDean Has decided that he is going to speak much more about God when he tours the south..
Posted by: Todd at January 14, 2004 at 08:14 PMYo Dave are you sure? That is one dirty couch.
Anyways you are all wrong. There has been various replicons holding the office of the Presidency since after the JFK assasination. It is well documented.
The Zionist corporate oil barons who run the country no longer felt comfortable about having flesh and blood figureheads and so they decided to use robots instead -- think about it: Could RR really have survived that assasination attempt?
Posted by: hen at January 14, 2004 at 11:05 PMWe must move forward, not backward, upward not forward, and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom. -- Kodos
Posted by: LB at January 14, 2004 at 11:17 PMSorry I erred, IceCold is right, Metzenbaum is a ret. Dem. Sen. of Ohio.
Posted by: ForNow at January 15, 2004 at 02:22 AMMy very first vote, at age 20 (the voting age had just been lowered that year) was for Richard Nixon. I feel no shame for that vote, if the same election were today, I would pull the same lever. Yes, I know he's dead. Better a dead Nixon than a breathing McGovern. BTW, I am voting in the Dem primary in March.
Posted by: Rick at January 15, 2004 at 02:35 AMGoddamn it. I liked Julia Stiles. Why do all these Hollywood asshats keep opening their mouths off camera and proving how vacuous they are? That chill wind must not be doing its job...
Posted by: Chrees at January 15, 2004 at 04:54 AMMoveOn is collecting money to broadcast its winning video during the Super Bowl telecast. Here's a link that describes what they're up to:
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/business/technology/7684606.htm
For you non-Americans, the Super Bowl is the championship of American football, and is the closest thing we have to a national religious holiday; it's always one of the most popular shows on television. So, MoveOn's ad will be seen by millions of football fans. No doubt, Karl Rove is delighted; hell, if MoveOn wants to broadcast the Bush=Hitler ad, I'll chip in a couple bucks! What a bunch of maroons ...
Posted by: Brown Line at January 15, 2004 at 05:12 AMActually, Brown Line, the closest thing the US has to a National Religious Holiday is Christmas and our National Secular Holiday is the Fourth of July (Independence Day).
The Super Bowl would be a religious holiday if my Chicago Bears played in it because that would be a fucking miracle!
Posted by: JDB at January 15, 2004 at 08:43 AM