PoliBlog: Who Shot H.D.?

February 22, 2024

Who Shot H.D.?

An amusing title All Dean Got From Press Was This Lousy T-Shirt and the anecdote that starts the piece in amusing, but the thesis that under-girds it strikes me as silly: that somehow the press helped bring Dean down. This is a thesis that seems to be quite prevalent these days in most media-mentioned of Dean's demise.

Mostly the thesis is predicated on the idea that the replaying of Dean's "I Have a Scream" speech is what did him in. However, that argument misses a fundamental point: that he gave the speech after coming in a radically disappointing third in Iowa.

I would argue that Dean's losses in Iowa and NH--both places he was expected to win, where not the result of media coverage (indeed, the media had basically crowned Dean the nominee up and until that night in Iowa), but the fact that in states in which Dean had to campaign face-to-face with the voters, the voter rejected him.

The bottom line is that Dean beat himself, and stories like the one earlier in the week when a former supporter called him "nuts" just helps further illustrates this fact.

Posted by Steven Taylor at February 22, 2024 08:03 AM | TrackBack

Comments

Whether or not Dean shot himself in the foot in Iowa, even CNN *admitted* that they over-played the scream. One count I saw had them running it more than 600 times within 24 hours of the speech. Even if Deaniacs alienated rural Iowa voters, it's absurd to say that the media didn't contribute to the subsequent campaign meltdown. The fact that Dean had been "crowned" early is just support for those who say that the media builds up celebrities just so they can be torn down. The public loves that drama. It's good for ratings.

Posted by: Stephen at February 22, 2024 09:11 AM

That stil doesn't explain 18% of the vote in Iowa when he allegedly had the best endorsements, the best organization and the most money. The Scream is secondary to the fact that Dean himself imploded.

Posted by: Steven at February 22, 2024 01:41 PM

ok first it was 600 times over 4 days not 24 hours. That comes to to roughly once every 10 minutes. If you watch 24 hours news that level of repetition is hardly impressive. The thing that made this more unusual is that it was a 4 day story.

But anyway my personal theory is that the media realized they gave a free pass to a crazy man for the better part of the year. As Iowa came closer they realized they better balance the reporting. They gave him bad press for the week before Iowa and it showed on election day.

After giving him good reason to finish him off they did.

Realistically it should have been an embarrassment to the media that Dean got as far as he did and was still assumed the presumptive nominee.

Think back... Dean imploded for all the reasons many in the blogosphere had predicted he would. We knew he was nutz. I predicted in this blog that Dean would implode just a few weeks before it happened. I even used the word 'implode.'

The media was just playing catch-up.

Posted by: Paul at February 23, 2024 12:11 PM