PoliBlog: Dean Speaks the Truth

June 17, 2024

Dean Speaks the Truth

Someone once said that a "gaffe" is defined is when a politician accidentally speaks the truth (in bold below). As such, Howard Dean committed a gaffe and had to apologize for it:

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean said Monday he regretted making a disparaging remark about Democratic presidential rival Bob Graham's chances in the race for the White House. Earlier in the day, Dean said at a business leaders luncheon he is the only major Democratic presidential hopeful with experience appointing judges.
[...]

"Bob Graham is a wonderful, decent human being, but at this time he's in single digits in all the states you can't be in single digits in," he said. "I have enormous respect for Bob Graham, but at this point he's not one of the top-tier candidates. I think that's widely recognized."

Source: Dean calls Graham lower-tier candidate

Hat tip: Drudge.

Posted by Steven Taylor at June 17, 2024 11:30 AM | TrackBack

Comments

Yep. I'm surprised he isn't doing better, given his credentials, but he's definitely not a top tier candidate. Not that Dean is, either.

Posted by: James Joyner at June 17, 2024 01:07 PM

Very early on I thought he would be a contender, but he comes across as befuddled and somewhat goofy, which isn't helpful.

Posted by: Steven at June 17, 2024 01:17 PM

Howard Dean is probably a wonderful, decent human being, but as I derive from his statement, he is lacking eloquence in one of the skills you cannot lack eloquence in, that being the spoken word.

Posted by: Rodney Dill at June 17, 2024 04:41 PM

To be fair, President Bush isn't the most eloquent speaker, and he's done pretty well.

Dean's problem is that he comes across as angry, which is probably an asset in the Democratic Primaries, but I think it would be a liability in the general election.

Posted by: Steven at June 17, 2024 06:21 PM

Steven, his angry demeanor has been a source of talk up here for a long time. In the journalistic circles, it's not made him lots of enthusiastic supporters because he had been seen at times as not being cooperative. In fact, he had to fight off at least one lawsuit because he refused to release his official schedule.

Being snippy to a local or state-wide journalist is one thing. People up here can and did forgive his indiosyncracies. Coming across as snippy to someone in the national press corps is going to not come off well.

If someone in the GOP was smart, they'd start reviewing tapes of him during his gubernatorial newsconferences for some juicy quotes.

Posted by: joy at June 17, 2024 09:10 PM