Too Little, Too Late
by Becky Burgwin
OpEdNews.Com
The press did its job of destroying the most
innovative and gutsy candidate in the race with its usual skill and
aplomb and a bunch of mea culpas aren't going to change that.
Here's what they did. They brought down the candidate who's done more
for the Democratic Party and politics in general than anyone in recent
history, at a time when our country was in desperate need of a shot in
the arm. They beat him to death for 6 months and then they kicked him
when he was down. I know, I know this is how they operate...
Yesterday, Diane Sawyer admitted that Howard Dean's "I Have a Scream"
speech was played by the media in a way that was misleading. You think? To
hear her say this is vindicating, but it's way too little and way too
late. Even I knew that the feed from the microphone was editing out the
crowd noise, so why didn't she? Then she says she called a bunch of the
cable news channels and they all admitted to getting carried away and
airing the clip way too many times.
Wow. I feel so much better. Unfortunately, the press did its job of
destroying
the most innovative and gutsy candidate in the race with its usual skill
and
aplomb and a bunch of mea culpas aren't going to change that.
Here's what they did. They brought down the candidate who's done more for
the Democratic Party and politics in general than anyone in recent
history, at a
time when our country was in desperate need of a shot in the arm. They
beat
him to death for 6 months and then they kicked him when he was down. I
know, I know this is how they operate and I'm just a neophyte to think
that anything's going to change for Howard Dean.
It reminds me of the way they treated Al Gore. One of the "mishaps"
that the
press beat Gore to death with during his campaign (For Dean, it's "gaffes."
For Gore, it was "mishaps.") was the Connecticut River mishap.
He was on a
boat on the Connecticut River talking about his environmental policies.
The dam that was up river from them routinely lets 500 million gallons of
water into the river causing the river to rise. The Secret Service asked
them to do it a few hours earlier than usual; to make sure that the V.P.'s
boat wouldn't get
stuck. But the press did its usual hatchet job of getting the story and
for-getting the facts. The press reported it as 3 billion gallons "requested
by Gore" costing the taxpayers 7 million dollars for a photo op, thus
proving that Al Gore is all show and no substance. This was the theme they
made up for Gore during his campaign. It was only after the election that
the truth came out.
There are countless examples of this type of treatment of Gore by the
press and, thanks to them, we now have the administration from hell.
The theme the press made up about Howard Dean's campaign is that it runs
on sheer anger. Then what is Kerry's campaign running on? Sheer ennui?
Sheer lack of inspiration? Sheer apathy? His performance during the period
of time leading up to Iowa was not only dismal, it was vicious. When
Saddam Hussein was captured, all Kerry had to say was that it proved how
wrong Dean was in his opinion about the war. Now, AGAIN, Dean has been
proven to be right about the war and right when he said that capturing
Saddam did not make our country any safer.
So now what we have left is John Kerry? the candidate that the press seems
to like. Boy, that right there would make me wonder what I'm doing wrong.
He has run the most lackluster campaign I have ever seen. Some seem to
believe that he's the most experienced. However, decorated veteran that he
is, he voted against Desert Storm and he voted for Operation Iraqi Murder,
I mean Freedom. Even I knew that the president was lying about Iraq when
he said, "Saddam won't let the inspectors in." You see the
inspectors were already "in."
Not only that, but they were asking for more time to inspect before we
sent hundreds of thousands of our kids over there to kill and be killed.
John Kerry didn't pick up on that. Joe Lieberman didn't pick up on that.
John Edwards didn't pick up on that and Wesley Clark, well, we don't know
exactly what he did or didn't pick up on. No. All of these Democrats all
rolled over as Bushco staged a military coup in our country.
Kerry has never balanced a budget. He's never drafted a plan to insure all
of
his constituents. He wouldn't have a clue how much one would cost. He
voted for "No Child Left Behind" and "The Patriot Act,"
which, I will grant you, sounded nothing at all like the debacles they
turned out to be, but he didn't have the guts to tell the American people
how grossly they were mislead, until after Howard Dean had been saying it
for months.
Dean spoke out against the war at last year's California Democratic
Convention and was booed! He was booed!! Did that did not stop him from
continuing to harp on his message for one second? Nyet. It's called
chutzpa. Kerry doesn't have it. Not very many politicians do.
If indeed the GOP wants Howard Dean to be their candidate because he's so
"unelectable? (another theme the press has latched onto) why did they
run ads against him? And does the man who, admittedly or not, indirectly
condoned an ad attacking Howard Dean that was every bit as vile as the ads
that Herr Rove and his gang ran against Max Clelland, really deserve to be
the Democratic nominee? We won't know that until it's too late. I just
know that I haven't seen any ads targeting John Kerry, so I'm guessing
that no one's too worried about him if he indeed does get the nomination.
However, this is about as mollifying to a hardcore Dean supporter as
knowing that if we have to vote for John Kerry, (which we will, if we have
to), at least he's had his botox injections.
Sour grapes??? You better believe it.
Ms. Burgwin's writing
has appeared in Newsweek, Time, New York Magazine, the Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette and the Tribune Review as well as several online Op Ed sites.
She is also involved in gay rights, women's issues and the environment.
She lives in Pittsburgh with her family.
