come on, howard, smile a little
January 28, 2004 01:34 PM

Is it me, or do most of the pundits' criticisms of Howard Dean as non-presidential and non-electable ultimately come to the point of: ew, he has emotions. Sometimes not just bland happy smiley ones.

Egads.

Dean was on The Daily Show the other night doing a brief, ridiculous interview with Jon Stewart. Howard rocked this interview. I don't know how pre-scripted it was (certainly the "internal monologue" voiceover portions were read from a script, as we saw in the show's closing credits - I think designed to prove that Dean has a sense of humor and wants to appeal to the kiddies AKA me). But it was good. It was funny, and Dean came across as a serious politician who was fully and happily aware that he was being a complete dork on national television.

It was pandering, without a doubt. Yet I suspect that Dean must actually be the sort of person who can have a bit of perspective on things, if he's either a) enjoying and relishing the whole Jon Stewart experience [Hey, I would!] or b) deliberately and calculatedly acting the freak to appeal to young people.

The screaming thing - well, I rather like that. It fills my little head with images of a president who can take off the poker face and be honest with us. It makes me trust him just a bit more. None of the candidates meets my political requirements, but Dean is starting to feel like someone I could vote for without massively compromising my ideas about representative democracy.

And that's something.