Reply #90: But even established politicians have their mistakes!

[Sean Reynolds]

It's not just a rookie mistake. It's happened to every established politician. The mistake is if the media decides to run with the story.

In this case they did.

In 1992 the established George Bush GLANCED at a watch during a televised debate. THAT was a mistake. Rookie? Hell no! He had served as head of the CIA, Vice President and even President for one term.

Hardly anything rookie about it.

In 2000 Gore was caught sighing and looking awkward throughout the debates. Was he a rookie? No. He was a senator and Vice President.

In 2004 Bush had his 'mistakes', it's just the media really never pounded them home (like the lies about how he never said bin Laden wasn't a priority, or the facial expressions that made him look like someone was pulling his teeth).

The fact is, EVERY candidate, whether they're new to national politics or not, will have a mistake here and there. Dean ran a pretty impressive campaign for 90% of the primaries. It was that final 10% that killed him. That 10% was perpetrated by the belief Dean was unelectable.

Do some research and you'll see that if the New Hampshire primary was held a week later Dean probably would have had a better shot. When Kerry won the Iowa Caucus, polls in Hew Hampshire rocketed in his favor. However after a small down time, Dean began climbing up once again . It was just too late.

I'm sorry, but I wouldn't call Dean's scream speech a "rookie mistake".