There's little doubt that Howard Dean's clumsy remark about winning over the "Southern white folk" who drive pickups with the confederate flag recently can be counted as unfortunately characteristic of the outspoken Democrat. While many disenfranchised liberals cheer him for his unwavering ability to undermine the overt dissembling of the White House (as well as most of the established "new Democrats"), his punchy tone -- which is a source of his strengths -- can come off rather simple-minded at best, downright laughable at worst, and repeatedly serves as one of his greatest weaknesses. Take his claim a few months ago that he would ensure the incorporation of an additional 200,000 troops from foriegn nations to help in Iraq if he became president. That figure was meant to convey his intent to heal the international sundering for which Bush was responsible and initiate a truly multilateral operation in rebuilding Iraq. However, his penchant for inaccurate mathematics overshadowed his meaning by painting him as someone who has no clue about the current status of either foreign policy or global militarization. I winced when I heard him say it, and I winced when I heard his "Southern white folk" comment.

But, again, his intentions were in the right place, even though his words muddied the message. This article from The American Prospect and this one from Alternet cover Dean's ill-chosen sentence, but unlike most of the sound-byte-driven media stories, both explore the very accurate sentiment Dean was trying to articulate -- how subtly effective the Republicans have been playing the race card for over thirty years -- a fact most Democrats have yet to figure out, which is why Dean remains my candidate of choice...for now.

  posted by S. Parker @ 2:24 AM