OK, one more final word about Iowa. Did you happen to catch Howard Dean on TV last night acknowledging that he came in a distant third? In the past few hours, I think I’ve heard almost as much about that speech as I have the actual results.
My first inclination is to say that this speech just doesn’t matter. Who cares what the third-place candidate says to his supporters the night of a defeat? But in this case, considering Dean’s, shall we say, unorthodox approach to conceding Iowa, the speech is generating quite a bit of attention.
Go ahead and watch this excerpt so you can see for yourself.
Former Republican Senator Alan Simpson was on CNN offering commentary on the caucus results when the network aired Dean’s remarks. Simpson said, “Tonight he looked like a prairie dog on speed,” which sounds about right to me.
On the one hand, Dean certainly didn’t look like a guy who had blown a double-digit lead to come in a distant third to a couple of “Washington Democrats.” He seemed positive and up-beat. Very up-beat. So up-beat you kind of wondered if he was going to give himself a heart attack.
Which leads me to the other hand — Dean looked insane. I certainly don’t begrudge the guy for wanting to make lemonade out of lemons, but by repeatedly screaming the names of states with early primaries, Dean was reinforcing his image as the furious, red-in-the-face candidate that turned off a lot of people in the first place.
NBC’s Katie Couric told Dean on the Today show this morning that “some people watching feared you might implode.” Dean said he thought he “owed…a little fun” to the thousands of young people who helped him in Iowa.
Maybe so, but the problem is Dean’s comments were broadcast to a national television audience on multiple networks, most of which was probably wondering why this guy doesn’t try decaf.
Frederick Maryland at Demagogue, a self-described Dean fan who has contributed to the campaign, sounds as if Dean’s outburst is giving him second thoughts about his favored candidate.
“Dean concluded this seemingly endless, rah-rah list of states by adding an unexplainable, guttural yell that sounded vaguely like a cowboy shouting for the cattle drive to begin,” Maryland said. “(If you listened to national Public Radio this morning, you probably heard this oafish soundbite. How much coffee did you spill?) Watching Dean’s speech last night made me feel like a parent who is watching her 6-year-old on a school auditorium stage forgetting his lines in the class production. You can’t leave, but you can’t help.”
And this is coming from a Dean supporter.
For what it’s worth, I think we probably won’t be seeing that side of Dean again for a while. About 12 hours after screaming in Iowa, Dean was in New Hampshire striking a very different tone.
“Today, I am going to give a different kind of speech,” Dean told supporters in Manchester this morning. “Those of you who came here intending to be lifted by…a lot of red meat rhetoric are going to be a little disappointed.”
Be prepared for the new Subdued Dean.