perfidy

Last night I had an opportunity to attend the live broadcast of MSNBC's "Crossfire" at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government, featuring the smooth vocal stylings of Howard Dean.

I'm pretty wiped out right now and about to commit felonies on co-workers, so how about I merely advertise in this space that I'll write something substantial about this later today, mmmkay?

In the meantime, check out this quickie discussion by brdgt that hits most of the major points.

[wik] ....well, it's later.

Howard Dean came to the Crimson Permanent Assurance yesterday as part of the Chris Matthews "I'm a JOURNALIST, dammit!" Travellin' Jolly Roadshow." I managed to snag a hoi polloi ticket through certain connections (my ibogaine dealer is a Juris Doctor candidate at Harvard Law), and showed up at the appointed hour.

My first thought is that they hold these events in a wildly inappropriate setting. The room they use is an atrium at the Kennedy School that consists of a fairly small main floor and two upper levels looking down. Great for studying, but terrible for affording 500 people sightlines to the action. I know why they chose that room: security is easy to control, the building opens to the street and not to the inner campus, and because a super-damn-packed room looks grrrreat on camera.

My first thought: Chris' Matthews' producer must be hell to work for. Maaaan.

My second thought: Chris Matthews has orange skin. And it's not makeup!

I was seated two levels up from the action, with a clear view of the back of Matthews' and Gov. Dean's heads as well as the VIPS in the front rows. Since I could not see Dean's face, it was hard to tell whether he merely sounded less enraged, or whether he had actually quit doing that terrible smile-grimace that makes him look like Bruce Banner simultaneously trying to Hulk out and pass a peach pit. Brdgt, watching from home, corroborates my conclusion that Dean was more at ease than in past TV appearances. Goody for him. One thing is for sure-- in person he has definite charisma and a prickly charm that doesn't always translate on camera.

My sense is that Dean did himself a pretty good service by appearing on Crossfire. Matthews stuck to some issues that Dean can score pretty easily off of: gay marriage/civil unions; runaway spending, and stayed away from the stuff that could be really bad for him: how he's going to pay for his national health plan; his recent protectionist trade posture. That being said, it's a little scary how Dean doesn't have a dissembling bone in his body. Last night, when pressured, he said: that he was hoping not to get drafted during 'nam; that he would support breaking up media conglomerates; and that he would pursue international solutions to terrorist crises.

I don't think that the Vietnam issue is going to play for Dean's opponents. He went to the draft board; they kicked him free. Whether not he spent the next few years skiing is immaterial-- was he supposed to keep a vigil for all the people that went 'in his place'?

The media breakup question is a tougher one, because it means toughening up antitrust and competitiveness laws that are simultaneously toothless and burdensome. In the actual exchange during the show, it was clear that Dean is not planning on crusading to break up Fox and GE, but (I paraphrase), "if a bill came across my desk to that effect, I would sign it. I'm just not going to push for it." Fair enough.

Dean had many kind words for Colin Powell last night, though he stopped short of promising him a cabinet position in the event he wins. Dean seems committed to pursuing something like the Powell doctrine of international relations, something that could work out well for him as President though it might make it hard to win the actual election. Where he is strongest is in taking the Bush administration to task for squandering the US's goodwill on quixotic tasks, while ignoring the practical, achievable things the government should be doing domestically and abroad to combat terrorism.

Dean's favorite film: A Beautiful Mind. A safe choice.

His favorite musician: Wyclef Jean. A wacky and ill-considered choice. Wyclef's albums are tending more and more to stinky-turd status with every passing year. If he wants to be hip like this, why not tout the genius of Sean Paul, Keb' 'Mo, Robert Randolph, or even Outkast? But, what the hell. Anything, anything to keep Fleetwood Mac away from the White House.

His favorite book: Dean dodged this question to present Chris Matthews with a dedicated copy of his new campaign book, Winning Back America. Funny. During the commercial break, I heard Dean say as an aside to Matthews that he had thought better of citing "Sometimes A Great Notion" instead. Matthews replied "yeah, Kesey, right? That woulda been bad. Drugs." Indeed. Dean then floated the idea that "All The King's Men" would have been a good thing to say. I can get behind this-- Ken Kesey and Robert Penn Warren are hallmarks of a well-rounded mind.

The audience questions were all pretty good with one or two exceptions: one snot-nose from Harvard asked why Dean was too "busy" to meet one-on-one with students. Brdgt's take on this, which I fully endorse: "I feel really sorry for a privileged Harvard student who doesn't get to talk one on one with every presidential candidate - really my heart goes out to you. Really."

One person asked about Dean's sealing certain records from his terms as governer, and the reply was classic: in essence, "everyone does it. If you wrote me a letter as a private citizen, and you had HIV, and you were asking for state HIV research funding, would you want that letter to be public when I leave office?" I'm sure there's more to it than Dean lets on, but the Republicans are going to have to work pretty hard to make this into more than a one-news-cycle story, especially when literally everybody does this.

Someone else asked about Dean's foreign policy experience, and Dean replied that he had as much experience as Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and Bush43 before they became President. QED.

Overall, I came away favorably impressed with Dean's forthrightness (even when it has to be dragged out of him), his clear-headedness, and his seeming willingness to table issues that he won't be qualified to discuss until after he becomes President.

Best quote of the evening: "We have to stop making every election in this country about abortion, god, guns, and gays."

Worst verbal tic: Dean kept saying "Soviet Union" for Russia, in a discussion of the nuclear threats posed by North Korea and Iran.

Dean/Clark: that's my prediction.