In Howard Dean's concession speech, as you read it, he hardly looks angry at all. The words are charged, and there's disappointment lurking, but the heat of his delivery doesn't come through.
All the radio and TV news shows are airing a particular moment of the speech where he's getting really excited and rattling off a list of states: "We're going to South Dakota, and Oregon, and Washington, and Michigan. And then we're going to Washington D.C. to take back the White House! Yeah!" He starts to choke on his words at "California", and on the word "yeah" his voice breaks off into a strangled cry.
If that's all you watch of this speech, you're almost certain to conclude he's angry. But if you check out the entire video, or most of it, you'll see that he's essentially just very excited, and hoarse -- and trying to do things with his voice that he shouldn't. It looks like he could use a tutorial on microphone use. His rhetorical tone still might be too "hot" for TV, but that can be practiced out.
NRO's Byron York is twisting the clip into evidence of Dean's mental instability this morning...
And what's this? Jonathan Alter, reading off the same talking point bulletin York is, thinks Dean was off his meds last night. That Jonathan Alter? Yup:
He was just trying to be feisty for his supporters," Alter told radio host Don Imus. "But he just went way over the top. He was about as presidential as Howard Beale in 'Network,'" the liberal columnist observed.Dean's not angry, he's crazy! Doesn't matter what I've seen, Jon, it's been widely reported, and that makes it fact-esque.
Anyway, whatever happens to Dean, I'll still be happy for John Kerry. I had written his campaign off like everyone else, but I still held a soft spot for him due to his comments that "we need a regime change in the United States" last year, and particularly his refusal to retract them under serious fire from Repubs. That, and he does seem, like many Iowans were saying yesterday, presidential somehow. Capable. If he can stay clear on his new anti-war stance, and explain it repeatedly and consistently, I'll definitely give him more consideration.
Posted by Chris at January 20, 2004 06:50 AMI haven't heard the now-famous [AHEM!], but I did hear it referred to on NPR this morning. Commentator's response: "In this business, sometimes you have to clear your throat."
It's amazing how ready the world is to skewer a public figure over anything that avers from Ken-doll perfection (although simple stupidity is generally greeted with a hug by the media and public).
Posted by: Scot Hacker at January 20, 2004 10:13 PM