Keywords

Anger

Politics

Anger is what sets Howard Dean apart. It is anger that has driven so many of us to start up our own blogs, and that is why so many bloggers support Howard Dean. It is funny to hear both the Republicans and Democrats attempting to paint Dean as unelectable because he is too much of a liberal,” in fact he’s not. He’s a pro-business centrist whose biggest claim to fame is balancing his state’s budget. But he’s been able to raise a tremendous amount of money because he alone has given voice to people’s anger at the administration’s march towards fascism. As Amptoons said:

Dean may be a centrist — but he’s a pissed-off centrist, and to many lefties that seems to matter more than his substantive positions.

It isn’t that I like Dean that much, but I like how he runs his campaign. I think it takes talent like that, not just to win the election, but also to push policies through congress once elected. Of course, consensus building is just as important as anything else, and perhaps one of the senatorial candidates would be better at that; but that is also why Senators usually loose elections to governors, who are generally able to be more partisan and outspoken. Body and Soul, always a good writer, captured beautifully how I (and I think many others) feel about this:

I don’t particularly care if Howard Dean ends up as the Democratic nominee. On many issues, I prefer Kerry, or even Gephardt. But I would like whoever ends up as the nominee to have a little of Dean’s fire lit under him (I’m assuming, of course, that the nominee will be male, which I think is a safe assumption, although far from a reasonable one). I’d like him to have proof — and I think Dean offers that proof — that he’ll be rewarded for speaking up, not for caution.

BONUS LINK: Here is an interesting article on Dean’s evolving stance towards the death penalty. This disturbs me, I wish he would have stuck to his guns on this one.

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