Howard Dean’s political ambitions were cut short by a scream. It really wasn’t that big a scream, but they played it over and over again on TV and that was an end on it. Shame. IMHO, Howard Dean would have made a great president. Mike Dukakis looked really stupid in a tank, wearing a
helmet, and that was enough to doom his chances. Gary Hart got caught with a girl – just one. Edmund Muskie, back in ’72, let a teardrop fall during an emotional speech. You’d have thought he peed in his pants, the way the newspapers carried on.
It’s true. Presidential campaign’s have collapsed for a wide variety of reasons, not all of them political. So, what’s changed?
Both Herman Cain and Rick Perry seem to have unassailable candidacies. That is, as much as the saner segment of society is scratching its collective noggin and saying “Well, by golly, looks like that Cain guy is a pure fool, doesn’t it?” and “Dang, that Rick Perry guy is so dumb, he reminds me of W,” they both have their devoted followers.
But let’s compare the record. Cain can’t pronounce Uzbekistan, doesn’t really understand what pro-life means, only found out a few day ago that China has nuclear weapons, put out a really stupid ad in favor of smoking, wants to rewrite Hail to the Chief, plagiarized his tax code from a computer game and is currently beset by allegations of sexual harassment and campaign finance irregularities. He’s not only still in, he just had a record breaking month for fund raising.
Then there’s Texas Governor Rick Perry. You’d think the Granite State speech, where he looked like Peewee Herman, fondling that maple syrup bottle at the end, would have done him in. Not Rick Perry. You’d think that his lame debate performances up till now would have done him in. You’d have been wrong.
So, is he finished after the other night’s debacle, in which he said he planned to eliminate 3 government agencies and then could only think of two of them? I doubt it. These are Republicans we are talking about here.
