Reply #9: Thoughtful Article

[tsipple]

Blumenthal makes some interesting points. I don't agree with everything here, but the bulk of what he writes is, I think, spot on.

The Saddam comments certainly were not gaffes. (Blumenthal qualifies this by saying "apparent gaffes." Even that's too strong. More like "rhetorical traps" for his opponents.) Another recent rhetorical trap was Dean's comments about Terry McAuliffe not exerting strong leadership. Several non-Deans pounced on him for that, which put them in the weird position of essentially defending nasty, mean, personal attack politics. (So far as I know there's not a huge constituency for that.)

In fact, the Saddam comments even evoked a response from George W. Bush at his press conference. That's pretty amazing. The word "Gephardt" certainly isn't in Bush's vocabulary right now, for example.

Regardless of what happens, you can be sure the political experts will study the Dean campaign for years to come. So are you working on your next book, Will? :7