Back in July, we looked at the various Democratic presidential candidates and how they might win or lose. Here’s what I said about Howard Dean:
So how could he fail? Simple: Howard Dean has got a great big mouth, and, like most populists, he doesn’t know when to stop it from flapping.
A while back, you might remember Dean publicly musing about the day when America is sucking hind tit to China. OK, he didn’t put it that badly, but he did say that the US “won’t always have the strongest military.” One job the President has, especially now, is to make sure that never, ever happens.
There’s also this, from the Dean 2004 blog:
In the mess hall, Dean has what one might call a gaffe when he goes up to an African-American recruit and says, “you’re not from Vermont, are you?”
That bit of non-PC talk isn’t going to play well among black voters, and if the race stays tight, you can bet Gephardt, Lieberman, or Kerry will be Willie Horton-ing Dean for it.
In the last few days, Dean has made a couple of gaffes, both regarding the South. First, he said he wanted the votes of “guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks.” Now he tells Southerners not to vote based on “race, guns, God, and gays.”
Well.
When I said he had a big mouth, I didn’t know the half of it.
What does it all mean for his nomination chances? Probably not a whole lot. Dean didn’t offend liberal sensibilities
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