[lbo-talk] Dean's Self-Demolition

Michael Dawson -PSU mdawson at pdx.edu
Wed Jan 21 14:38:01 PST 2004



> He has a lot of other problems as a candidate -- chiefly his abrasive,
> "too hot for TV" personality, which I don't think he can do much to
> alter at this point. I guess Vermont voters didn't mind his style, but
> I don't think it will play on the national stage.

I'm shocked by this interpretation. I believe this whole trope is 100 percent a confirmation of Herman and Chomsky's media theory, 100 percent a product of commercial media censorship of anything out of bounds. In my experience, most people are literally aching to find a politician with real ideas, authentic, real-time reactions, and an actual honest, open approach to politics. Dean might be this, in some major ways, but the major media are bashing him for it, for the very reason Louis Proyect (!!!) discusses today on Pen-L -- such authenticity and spontaneity suggest a lack of submission to elite handlers.

If the media were spinning Dean's demeanor as something that apathetic Americans have been waiting for, Dean would have won 80 percent in Iowa. Instead, he's "unelectable" and "unpresidential."

Nauseating in the extreme. And, btw, ain't no way, no how I'm ever voting for that fake-ass boob John Kerry!



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