Roger Simon doesn't sugarcoat it:
"I think I know why the other night Howard Dean screamed like a squirrel who had just lost his nuts: He had just been told that New Hampshire voters were even more discerning than Iowa voters.
"It is not merely that Howard Dean came in third in Iowa with only 18 percent of the vote.
"No, the magnitude of his defeat is far more stunning than that: Dean campaigned in all of Iowa's 99 counties. He was organized in all them, had precinct captains, staffers, volunteers, and the whole kit and caboodle of modern, high-tech campaigning in all of them.
"Dean ended up winning two.
"He won two counties and tied in two others. Out of 99! That is a staggering defeat."
Wait, it gets worse:
"How likable was Howard Dean in the last weeks of his Iowa campaign? How likable was he when he shouted down a questioner at one of his speeches? How likable was he when he ran negative ads attacking his fellow Democrats?
"And if you were attracted to Howard Dean because he was a new, fresh, non-Washington face, how likable was he when he went grubbing after the old, stale, and very-Washington endorsements of Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin and Al Gore?
"And even if you don't like the news media, how likable was Dean on election day snapping at journalists because they had the audacity to show up at one of his public events? Or slapping away the microphone of a radio reporter because the reporter had the temerity to try and do his job?
"I don't think the Dean staff lied to me. I just think they were drinking their own Kool Aid. I think they were so deep into the mechanics of the campaign, they were ignoring the big picture: And the big picture was that voters who once liked Howard Dean no longer liked him."
This is all the more striking because Simon is an easygoing guy. And if true, this will make it harder for Dean to come back. |
