taking down the pose.

one thing that everyone noticed howard dean for was his lack of political posturing. uniquely, he said what he meant, and he meant what he said. whether you admired him for it or felt that he just had no idea how to conduct himself is something else entirely :)

i'm relieved to see that he's doing it again. he's cutting through the rhetoric and the pose, and he's quite frankly saying what needs to be said.

"We need to be a national party, we need a national message, and we need to understand why people in dire economic straits — people who certainly aren't being helped by Republican policies — why they vote for George Bush," he said. "We need to respect voters in red states who want to vote for us, but we make it hard for them by not listening to what they have to say."

yes. thank you. when the map of the country has the coasts blue and the rest of the place red, you've got something wrong with your message. john kerry avoided states where he supposedly had no chance of winning. so why would people vote for him anyway? howard dean is going to those states, giving them money, saying, "we want to work with you." he's not going to roll over and cry when he hears the word "values."

shit. maybe there is a chance after all ;)