Reply #25: "It's another thing entirely to make up shit"

[Mairead]

Yeah, it had absolutely nothing to do with the longterm retail campaigning he's done for longer (I think) than any other candidate.

I can document Dennis's complete opposition to the Iraq invasion and massacre back to Feb 02 without breathing hard (in fact, TWL has already done it upthread). How about you for Dean? I believe he's on record as being in favor of it through Conason's interview in mid-Feb this year.

And he's peaked now. Or something. Imploding, maybe.

Do you really think so? I don't, worse luck. I hope you're right.

Is that why they had to send in Clark as part of the "Stop Dean" effort?

As Chomsky and others have often remarked, some of the bad guys are opponents of one another as well as of us. When Dean changes his policies such that they don't go on hoovering our pockets, then I'll be happy to agree that he's no longer applying for the position of Gamekeeper Royal.

his politics are closer to my own than Dean's, and yet I can't stand the man

That's truly saddening, and I don't mean that in a sarcastic way. I at least don't have that sort of conflict in my opposition to Dean, which makes my life much easier I'm sure.

I think he'd be less effective as a President than Jimmy Carter.

Well, you might be right. Or completely wrong; I have no solid way to judge that speculation. But there's no way for you to have anything behind it, either, since the only things we know is that (a) he did his damnedest to disrupt 'business as usual' in Cleveland, including some things he laughs ruefully about now; (b) he was willing to sacrifice himself to keep his promise to save Muny Light; (c) he succeeded; and (d) people who've worked with him, including the GOP committee chairs in the state Senate, find him "philosophically awful" (from a conservative perspective) but trust-worthy; straightforward; hardworking; not divisive; a good lawmaker and desirable committee member; painstaking in working for his constituents; and someone who never, ever gives up.