Wednesday, July 09, 2003

Give'em Hell Howard


Short-Fused Populist, Breathing Fire at Bush

Howard Dean was angry. Ropy veins popped out of his neck, blood rushed to his cheeks, and his eyes, normally blue-gray, flashed black, all dilated pupils.

"The only hope Democrats have to beat this president," he said, his left fist punching the air, "is to behave like Democrats and stand up for what we believe!"

"YEAH!" the crowd cheered, standing and applauding.

"Can we afford tax cuts," Dean continued, reddening to his gray temples, "when we have the largest deficit in the history of the country?"

"NO!" the crowd shouted back.

"This sounds very idealistic and naive," he said on a hot afternoon in Iowa between sweaty rounds of house parties, "but we're going to lose our country if somebody doesn't do something idealistic. When I say that a lot of Democrats are more mad at the Democrats than at the Republicans, I get a lot of nods. This party has made a fundamental mistake in not challenging the administration."

Whether it's his message ("You have the power to change this country" is a campaign mantra) or his method, or both, Dean's passionate, bare-fisted pounding at the Washington power structure is obviously working, at least for now.

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