WASHINGTON -- Let us turn our eyes from the reports that the economy is growing vigorously again. Let us avert our gaze from terrorists and the Middle East. Consider the Democratic presidential nominating process. For comic relief, all that would improve it would be the presence of Arianna Huffington, and she might make her entry yet.
Things have been going swimmingly for Dr. Howard Dean's presidential campaign until a thick gray storm cloud floated over his shiny oval of a head the other day. In New Hampshire, scene of the first presidential primary, he had forged ahead of his nearest opponent, Senator John Pierre Kerry. Last month, it was the Francophone senator who was ahead, 25 percent to 22 percent. Now, Dr. Howard Dean is ahead 38 percent to 17 percent in New Hampshire. Vast crowds have been turning up all over the country to hear him. In Seattle, 10,000 showed up in another of what the New York Times reports are "seemingly spontaneous crowds." You know, word spreads from Starbucks to Starbucks, from health food shop to health food shop: "Dr. Howard Dean is coming!" All of a sudden, 20,000 Birkenstocks are stomping toward Dr. Howard Dean's venue.
There they will hear Dr. Howard Dean, attired in button-down dress shirt and a nice tie -- he never wears a jacket, sports jacket or otherwise. That is part of his message: "Don't be stuffy." So he leaves the jacket in the plane. He does wear pants, usually the suit pants to the jacket that he does not wear, and he wears leather shoes, but rarely wingtips. Nixon wore wingtips. A lot of Dr. Howard Dean's supporters remember Nixon, not with fondness. Nixon lied to the American people.
Dr. Howard Dean's wardrobe is only part of his magic. He is very angry with President George W. Bush. In fact, of all the Democratic candidates, Dr. Howard Dean is the maddest. This seems to be the reason for the large crowds. They are really mad, too. They love it when Dr. Howard Dean says things such as, "When this president talks, sometimes the opposite of what he says is really the truth." As with Nixon, so with George W. Bush, liberal Democrats do not like to be lied to. That is one of the things they admired about Bill Clinton. He never lied to the American people … unnecessarily.