To the Editor:Howard Dean is a dangerous man.
But he’s not bad, or terrible, or malicious.
Howard Dean is not the lesser of two evils. To me, someone who cuts the rate of child abuse in Vermont by half cannot even be called evil. Whatever he has done, whichever line he has transgressed, he is truly redeemed by this one act. I call him a true worker of miracles.
Why does no one see that the man who yelled “Yeeargh!” after a disappointing finish in Iowa is the man who stands the best chance of making the most positive changes this country has seen since JFK? Maybe more so. Why is it that whenever any pundits hear someone recite the names of states now, they can’t help but giggle? We’re going to Texas, and Arkansas, and Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. to take back the White House! Really now, what is so funny about that?
According to a columnist in last week’s Quad, Dean’s record as Governor in Vermont is “flawless,” But the same columnist no longer wears a Dean pin. Don’t you realize that the media is twisting and spinning Dean’s “gaffe” from what it was, a cheer at a pep rally, into the epitome of all that is “unpresidential?”
Watch the same scene, not from the perspective of the sound board, but from the view of the audience at www.idiomstudio.com. You will hear what the media is afraid of. Hundreds of people chanting “Dean, Dean, Dean” and “We Love You!” and American flags waving and “No” after Dean announces that we will not give up in each of those states that has become the butt of endless late-night jokes. After all, I’ve never heard of anyone at a sound board edit-ing clips into digestible sound bites.
Howard Dean is dangerous, precisely because he has balanced the budget of Vermont every year in office. He is dangerous because he has provided near-universal health care to everyone under eighteen in his state – and don’t you ever forget the child abuse he cut in half. He is dangerous because he is not accountable to the mainstream media – in fact he has made it clear that he wants to bust up the massive media monopolies, and this was before they were after him. He is accountable only to the people who have made him what he is today: the best damn Presidential candidate anyone in this country has seen in their lifetime.
Thank you, Howard Dean!