From the Dean Scream, perhaps, but does it redeem him from his spineless pandering to Pat Robertson and his American Taliban?...Outlook not so good.

So does this indicate some kind of official policy shift? No more Kerry-style 'i don't like being a bigot, but jeez, those gays still kinda wierd me out' midwest-vote-pandering? Are the democrats now fully for actual gay marriage?

No, Juris, the Democratic party platform has not changed. The official party position is that the choice to include or exclude gay families from State institutions should be left up to individual states.

Dean, as the representative of said platform, has offered some brave and accurate words... upon which he can expect to be skewered.

But he just does that sometimes.

Oh lord, the Dean Scream isn't in reference to his rant after the Iowa primary, is it? Because that was blown so far out of proportion. He was fired up and was trying to fire up his following. Interpreting that as 'ranting and screaming' was weak coming from Republican detractors, but from liberals as well?!

I hope not, because it speaks volumes about how hopeless the left-wing from top to bottom is if so. "OMG HE RAISED HIS VOICE. WHERE'S MY MEDS?"

Good point, Gomez. So often we lefties end up internalizing and repeating the right-wing talking points without stopping to think about what we're doing.

The so-called "Dean scream" was a creation of some clever right-wing media editors who processed the audio from Dean's mike into an intentionally disturbing snippet. It was then picked up and replayed ad-nauseum by the so-called mainstream media and is now taken for granted. Gotta be a savvy consumer of media in this day and age.

Yeah, my dissing of the scream is largely facetious, as I saw it as much more of a goofy gaffe than a political failing...

So, when do we announce the Beginning of the Bush Blunder?

You know, those continual repeating times when he acts like he just is totally clueless - but does it anyway?

I mean, the guy brings new meaning to the word "incompetent", just like he makes a determined spaz look like a purposeful leader in comparison to his continual foulups.

I may be just ranting to the choir at this point, but the "Dean Scream" ranks right up there with Al Gore claiming he invented the internet. It blew me away at the time that it was enough to derail a Presidential bid.

Did anyone have the intestinal fortitude to watch W's interview with Larry King last night? It was excruciating. Dumb-ya and Mrs. Dumb-ya squirimng and fidgeting as they tried to downplay their relationship with "Kenny Boy" Lay was priceless - W awkwardly blurting out that Lay supported Ann Richards against him for Governor made me chuckle. If a guy like Ken Lay was compelled to vote for a Democrat you can only imagine how incompetant the Republican challenger must have been!

Ummm, sorry this post was about Howard Dean, huh.

What still chaps my ass about the media frenzy related to the "Dean Scream" is that, had Dean been a Southerner, they'd have called that a "rebel yell" and everyone would have whooped and hollered along with him. Because he's a Downeaster, he's not allowed to show emotion. Didn't he get the memo?

Yo, longball, I've met Al Gore, I was on the first ARPAnet, what you now call the Internet, and he had a lot to do with getting the funding for it.

So, anyone got any pics of Dumya and Kenny boy doing the nasty?

Hi Will,

Yeah, i understand that Al Gore was a major player in getting the internet up and running. I was referring to the often heard tale from Republicans that Al Gore is smkoin whacky tobacky cause he claims he "invented the internet". It reeks of irony - the Republicans mis-quote Gore to insult his credibility and their mis-quote almost ends up being more true than not. All this lost on hypnotized legions of Fox News viewers.

When i read my comment now, i realize it implicates Gore as the liar... derp.

What still chaps my ass about the media frenzy related to the "Dean Scream" is that, had Dean been a Southerner, they'd have called that a "rebel yell" and everyone would have whooped and hollered along with him.

Had he actually won Iowa, I can guarantee that's how it would've been portrayed. "Dean's rebel yell as he takes over the Democratic party" etc.

Instead, he got his ass handed to him by Kerry AND Edwards so it came off as a scream of frustration.

I'm constantly amazed that Dean gets trashed for his "yell" and Gore gets trashed for "inventing the internet", but Bush is given a pass for torturing the English language on an almost daily basis for 6 years. I don't know how Bush ever graduated from high school, much less college. He sounds like a retarded 3rd grader (my apologies to any actual retarded 3rd graders who I might have insulted).

Dean's outburst was too close to actual emotion (from a politician no less!) to be 'cool'.

Gore was (and is) too smart and sincere to be 'cool'.

Bush, on the other hand, is all about teh cool. If you're a motherfucking bigot, racist, white trash Praise Jesus fucktard. Which obviously 51% of our country is!

The D's sudden overwhelming endorsement of Kerry was very troubling to me. Before the 3rd or 4th caucus, I had barely heard of John Kerry, and then suddenly this random generic MA senator's supposed to be the guy that takes out Bush? I voted for the guy, but he was about as inspiring as a bowl of rice.

I still wonder today why the party spontaneously decided to hard-sell the blandest, most boring candidate on their roster.