Over at the New Republic, Ed Kilgore has an interesting and perfectly reasonable piece about Tim Pawlenty's electoral challenges in the 2012 presidential election. (Kilgore's read tracks somewhat with Jay Cost's, though he's a little less bullish on Pawlenty's prospects.) But one moment in Kilgore's piece stands out.
Speaking to reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast this morning, former Vermont governor and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Dr. Howard Dean shared his thoughts on the Tea Party.
On the eve of Thanksgiving, Howard Dean writes about the troops in an email to his supporters. No, Dr. Dean doesn't find space to thank those who are serving our country--it's just an opportunity to rail against the "shameful policy" of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Oh, and ask for donations:
Via The Hill, former DNC chairman and Vermont governor Howard Dean ripped into the Obama White House this morning on CNN and said that the Democrats' fate in the midterm elections rests on Obama's shoulders. Asked about Obama's bad poll numbers, Dean said:
Yesterday Howard Dean came out against the Ground Zero mosque and, for his trouble, was criticized for throwing in his lot with Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Assorted Evil Monsters, et al. Today, Dean's own grassroots organization has come out against him.
In a radio interview posted on YouTube, former Vermont governor and 2004 presidential primary contender Howard Dean says that the Ground Zero mosque is "a real affront to people who lost their lives, including Muslims" on 9/11. Dean says, "I think another site would be a better idea."
"Islam is really back in the 12th century in some of these countries like Iran and Afghanistan where they're stoning people to death," Dean says, adding that the problem of radicals can be fixed by promoting moderate Islam in the U.S. Dean cites the group pushing for the Ground Zero mosque as one such moderate Islamic group.
WE DIDN'T ARRIVE here overnight, all at once--here at the tail end of this hallucinatory primary season, when politics slipped down the rabbit hole of postmodernism and became an activity that is only about itself. Scanning back through the last few years and my own meager experience, I can find three landmarks that, had I been paying attention, might have offered a hint of what we, the people, were getting ourselves into.
ON THE EVE of the 1996 election, I had a long conversation with a friend on the Dole campaign who was traveling with the candidate as he made his last-minute hopscotch across the country. I had just offered him condolences on the race when he corrected me. Speaking from an airport pay phone in the wee hours of the morning, he explained that Bob Dole didn't just have a chance to win, but was assured of it.
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