Reply #27: He did some world-class mind games on some of us.

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Does anybody remember the Howard Dean rally (I forget exactly when and/or where) in which rove was spotted out in public, on the sidewalk, watching the passing crowd of Dean people and hollering "YAY, Dean, Go Howard Dean!"? That unleashed a torrent of comment and second-guessing and hand-wringing about what this really meant. It scared a lot of people into rethinking their support of Dean as a viable candidate - if rove is "behind" him - OMIGOD! WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!?!? (Sigh, rend garments, gnash teeth.) I think rove knew exactly what he was doing - sticking a small bamboo skewer in and twisting it, so that we start slowly bleeding to death.

People were second-guessing whether that meant he wanted us to THINK he wanted Dean - because Dean would purportedly be such an extremist or such a push-over and would drive the moderates away so if that's the candidate the White House supposedly HOPED we'd put into the race, then we can't possibly do what they're hoping we'll do, 'eh? I remember people kicking this one around forever, and then it went from the actual event itself to a booster shot for the overall discussion of whether Howard Dean was going to drive key constituencies away and whether the White House was hoping it'd be him so they could grab the moderates who'd supposedly be scared off by him. The "if the White House is eager to run against him, then there must be something wrong with him" mentality.

That REALLY helped bruise Dean, and pretty seriously, too, as I remember it, anyway.