|
If anyone needed a graphic demonstration of the principles
espoused in "A
Note of Caution" they need look no further than the savagely
efficient 10 day evisceration of Howard Dean.
Our take on the episode is a variation on the conventional wisdom which
now says Dean was undone by the press, and hinges on the horny question,
"Is the Major Media being consciously directed by an evil fraternity
of mega-mogels or is it merely thrashing around like a blind bull in
an Apple Store, reacting to threats in some sort of instinctive mob protectionist behavior?”
The answer, we fear, is a little bit of both, and goes far in explaining
what happened to Dean. The peons and pikemen of the Press Machine, aspiring
Junior Members of the Media Mafia, authentically liked the good Doctor
back in the Fall, and felt he could be a refreshing story throughout
the election. Furthermore, they really "got" the whole Internet
angle which got the Dean movement off the ground; they knew what blogs
were
and some of them even read them.
Fueled by the enthusiasm of the young Deaniacs and the lower echelon
of media minions, the Dean phenomena took off. And then the whispers
of what was going on reached the grownups upstairs like a waft of intoxicating
herbal smoke, and the Daddies decided to check out, and then throw out,
the weird new Doctor who was hanging out with their kids.
At the time we joked that when the Major Media powers saw that the Dean
Campaign were signing on internet luminaries like Jim
Moore and Dave
Winer, they panicked and decided to pull the plug. Perhaps it’s not
a joke. Apparently, as soon as the information infrastructure in this
country felt that individuals
who pose an actually threat to its continued dominance were approaching
the reins
of
real
power, they reacted.
Any Dean holdouts hoping for a resuscitation of their movement are whistling
Dixie. Get over it, Dudes, and MoveOn…..
Meanwhile, the Dowbrigade is convinced that JFK Redux will be able to
give the Bushites all they can handle. The guy is not a Dorky Do-gooder
like Gore, he knows how to give as good as he gets and learned more than
his lanky liberalism from the Kennedys, who certainly know how to steal
an election as well as any family in American politics, Bushes included.
John Kerry is not about to get the wool pulled over his eyes the way
they did to Big Al back in 2000. As much as it pains us to say it, as
a Dyed-in-the-wool Harvard Man, but in a no-holds barred scum-slinging
street fight between a Harvard Man and a Yale Man, always bet on the
Eli. They’re much better at fighting dirty,
|