Howard Dean had the organization, the passion, the volunteers, key endorsements, saturation media coverage and even the money. Yet he still lost Monday's Iowa caucuses. Why?
Iowans got a closer look at Dean than the rest of us, and decided he wasn't fit for the job. Nearly as important, they got a closer look at Dean's supporters, who left an off-putting impression as well.
Howard Dean's Monday night meltdown was scary, but not half as scary as getting cornered by one of his supporters. Their tirades make Dean's look Churchillian by comparison. Who says opposites attract?
The candidate of unchecked passion attracted volunteers of unhinged temperament. And it was the former Vermont governor and his eccentric followers, rather than John Kerry or John Edwards, who did in the unlikely front-runner.
Dean's angry army invaded Iowa by way of Harvard Square, Telegraph Avenue and Greenwich Village. Unsurprisingly, Middle America chose not to enlist. The same crowd that protested the war last winter in New York, Washington and San Francisco coalesced behind a candidate. Just as they undermined the anti-war cause, they undermined the anti-war candidate.
In the weeks leading up to Iowa's vote, Dean supporters brawled with College Republicans, cheered their candidate's call for a fair trial for Osama bin Laden, and tried to infiltrate a rival campaign. Their passion got the better of them.
Yelling and screaming may prove cathartic, but it rarely succeeds in winning converts. Unless your object is group therapy (something Dean and his flock might want to look into), red-faced tantrums don't work in the political arena. Dean learned this lesson the hard way shortly after rolling up his sleeves and roaring "Yeeeeeeaaaaaah!" and "We will not quit, now or ever!"
His campaign may never recover. This lesson is one that his supporters – who in earlier incarnations rioted in Seattle, lionized convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal and compared Saddam Hussein favorably to George Bush during the anti-war protests – will never learn.
Three-quarters of Iowa voters opposed the war in Iraq, but not even one-fifth of Iowa voters supported the only major candidate who opposed the war.
In addition to suggesting that other issues matter in this election cycle, the anti-war Iowa Democrats' rebuke of the anti-war Dean suggests that the way Dean and his supporters opposed the war was a factor in their rejection of the Green Mountain State doctor.
USA Today reported that Paul Maslin, Dean's pollster, believed "Dean's workers did get the vote out – even if it wasn't for Dean. 'We knocked on everybody's door,' he said. 'We turned out Edwards and Kerry voters, I'm absolutely convinced.'"
Prior to Monday's caucuses, pundits noted that Dean's supporters were the type of true believers who would go to the polls even if it rained fire, or, more relevant to this year's Iowa's caucuses, if the mercury dipped into the single digits.
What went unnoted was the fact that such zealous supporters often turn off voters through their immoderation. This seems to have been the case with the Deaniacs.
In 1968, the youth volunteers for Gene McCarthy had a saying: "Get Clean for Gene." Translation: Hippies knocking on doors scare voters, so unless you want to drive people away, go get a haircut and take a bath before you get involved with the campaign in a public way.
That's just fuckin' classic! Man that's some funny shit!
Thirty-six years later, the third-place finisher in Iowa could have benefited from adopting a "Get Clean for Dean" policy. Or maybe not – you can remove the rings from your nostrils, change your Birkenstocks and dye your hair back to its natural color, but fanaticism is something more difficult to hide.
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