HOWARD KURTZ: “Why, after a year of more or less being dismissed by the media, is John Edwards getting such good press?”
The answer: Anger is out, and “nice is in.”
Despite my labelling of Dean as “angry,” like the way most of us who observe him from the other side of the fence, I need to assume Bad Faith about his anger: I think it is a calculated move, a shtick, to produce a feeling of disenfranchisement in those who have their lofty ideals and sensitive sensibilities offended by George Bush’s presidency. I cannot believe that a man like Howard Dean can be that angry every day, day after day, throughout his campaign.
He appeals to his supporters’ anger. He appeals to their disgust. I’m just gratuitously mind-reading here, but let me speculate that he does not share this belief, at the end of the day.
Anger is out, and “nice is in,” but the truth is that Anger once sparked into a flame, burns bright and white-hot, but it burns too quickly. Anger expressed is resentment healed, and I think that Dean has gone over the top over the past month or so in letting the Deanie Babies express their anger. That said, some will take more time than others to heal, but by the time he needs to face other Democrat-leaning voters who do not support him, he will need a better platform than “let’s all hate Bush and be happy about it.”
By this time, Edwards, with an assumption of Bad Faith from my side, has been the cold, calculating strategist that a trial lawyer might be, and that charming crocodile grin might very well allow him to overtake the rest. Might.
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