(Host) Commentator David Moats reflects on the impressive success of the Dean campaign so far – and on some of the challenges that lie ahead.
(Moats) It says something about the reality of politics that a politician’s bank account has as much to do with establishing his credibility as his ideas. Money translates into power, and politics is about power.
So when Howard Dean reported that he had raised $7.5 million in three months, the political establishment took notice. That was more than any of his Democratic opponents had raised. It meant that people had to take Dean seriously. And people are.
Here’s what the Chicago Tribune said in an editorial: “Dean could be old news before the Iowa caucuses. But for now, he’s the most interesting Democrat in a crowd of candidates who seem cautious to a fault.”
Watching Howard Dean emerge as a presidential candidate after serving 11 years as governor of Vermont offers an interesting lesson in American politics. He has become what is known as a phenomenon. We’ve had them before – Gene McCarthy in ’68, Jimmy Carter in ’76, Ross Perot in ’92, John McCain in 2000.
Money and ruthlessness can snuff out a phenomenon. That’s what happened to McCain. What unites these out-of-nowhere challengers is their willingness, in the eyes of their supporters, to speak truth to power.
To many Americans, probably a minority at this point, much of what President Bush is doing, domestically and abroad, is dishonest, irresponsible and enormously damaging. Dean has taken it upon himself to say the emperor has no clothes. People like that. Or some of them do. So they are sending him money.
In his announcement speech last month Dean went to great lengths to transform himself from a phenomenon to a contender. He talked about the restoration of America to its true self. And, echoing the “Take Back Vermont” slogan that dominated the state a few years ago, he urged his fellow citizens to “take back America.” He talked about a “new American generation and a new American century” – presidential language designed to offer a vision, especially to young people.
Dean still must contend with his propensity to commit verbal gaffes. He has had to apologize several times for things said about his opponents.
But it is a curious thing about gaffes. The press jumps all over someone like Howard Dean for a verbal blunder, as if it is proof of his incompetence.
The expectations for President Bush are different.
He is widely believed to be so incompetent verbally that if he blunders it is par for the course. If he tells a lie, as he did in his State of the Union Address with regard to Iraq’s nuclear weapons program, people don’t want to hear about it. Or they excuse it. It’s the CIA’s fault, Bush says, for feeding him wrong information.
These are some of the obstacles facing the upstart physician from Vermont trying to establish his credibility on the national stage.
Who knows how it will all end? But it will be an interesting ride.
This is David Moats from Middlebury.