Matt Miller homes in on the precise issue at the heart of the 2004 campaign, whoever is the nominee:
In his big foreign policy address a few weeks ago, Dean called for a “global alliance to defeat terror;” he spoke of the “struggle,” the “effort,” and our “defense” against terror. He urged us to muster courage for the “fight” ahead.
Dean’s omission of the phrase “war” in this lengthy speech was no more accidental than Karl Rove’s choice of it. If the indefinite struggle against terror is a “war,” it de-legitimizes an entire universe of questions about White House priorities and behavior as petty distractions.
I agree with Matt that this is the central issue in the election, but disagree strongly that this is not a war. Above all, I want to see that debate occur – and Dean as the Dem nominee will make that happen.
A MILESTONE: The Dow is now where it was when president Bush took office. I don’t think that’s unrelated to his 61 percent approval numbers.
DEAN, GOD, GAYS: To me, the most telling features of Howard Dean are his contradictions. He’s a blue-blood, running as a populist; He’s belligerently anti-war; he’s both refreshingly candid and then also equivocating. His most appealing characteristic, in my eyes, is his now-lamented propensity to pop off unfiltered observations, to mouth off without consulting focus groups first, to express what many in Blue America feel, as they find themselves culturally and politically cornered by religious Republicanism. Yesterday was a good moment. Far from doing what most politicians do – and steering away from the subject of homosexuality as far as possible – Dean weighed in. He explained his support for gay equality as a function of his religious convictions: “From a religious point of view, if God had thought homosexuality is a sin, he would not have created gay people.” He didn’t offer a careful, non-controversial mealy-mouthed defense of civil unions. He took a stand in defense of a small minority group – and he refused to cede the grounds of faith to the religious right. Maybe, as some predict, this candor will sink him. But that doesn’t make it any the less admirable. As someone whose commitment to gay equality is also deeply motivated by my reading of the Gospels, I felt a little less lonely yesterday.
PLANET FLU: Man, this is brutal. I can’t remember a worse bout. Now I know what everyone was going on about earlier this winter. I had one of those day-nights when you don’t seem to be sleeping but you also don’t seem to be awake. In bed, I get drenched every two hours. Out of bed, I get the chills. Thanks for your many emails. Is this a new genre: flu-blogging?
EMAIL OF THE DAY: “The ultra-polarized and vicious campaign you are wishing on us will obscure at least as much as it clarifies. I recall the scene in Corigliano’s Ghosts of Versailles in which Marie Antoinette is trying to defend herself at her trial while being hooted down by a jeering mob. I thought I was your kind of Democrat: a pro-war-on-terrorism, anti-communist, classic liberal. But now it’s to hell with us, because you’ve decided it will be good for the country to have Bush’s opponent be as atrocious as possible.
Why not wish the same on the GOP — that is, for a total capitulation to the radical Christian right, instead of the selective nods and hedging that Bush has done? A far right vs. far left race would be no more illuminating or beneficial than the shouting fests we get on TV. Yet a sober, informed, thoughtful man like Broder gets a dismissal. You don’t even bother specifying how he is wrong. The substance doesn’t matter — he’s establishment, and the Dean crowd is about tearing down the building. I’m sorry, but I’d rather be a fuddy duddy than twist myself into intellectual knots to celebrate the rise of a nasty, dishonest, unscrupulous, and reckless man like Dean. Even a revolutionary like Beaumarchais (at least the operatic one) had to sympathize with “Antonia” in the face of the Parisian mob. Encouraging Dean is encouraging a very nasty mob. Be careful what you wish for.” – more feedback on the Letters Page.
The Dish 