I love Samantha Shapiro’s NY Times magazine article on the Dean phenomenon. It gets a lot of the enthusiasm — and the lovely absurdity enthusiasm engenders — right. For example:

There are now 900 unofficial Dean groups. Some of the activities undertaken on behalf of Dean qualify as recognizable politics: people hand out fliers at farmer’s markets or attend local Democratic Party meetings. Others take steps of their own invention: they cover their pajamas with stickers that say ”Howard Dean Has a Posse” and wear them to an art opening, or they organize a squadron to do ”Yoga for Dean.” They compose original songs in honor of Dean. (About two dozen people have done that; another man wrote a set of 23 limericks.) They marry each other wearing Dean paraphernalia. Overweight supporters create Web pages documenting, in daily dispatches, their efforts to lose 100 pounds in time for Dean’s election. … I saw a middle-aged man at a garden party in New Hampshire preface a question to Dean by saying he was associated with Howards for Howard. Dean nodded, as if the man had said he was with the AARP.

And this is crucial:

…they say the point is to give people something to believe in, and to connect those people to one another. The point is to get them out of their houses and bring them together at barbecues, rallies and voting booths. …
Dean supporters do not drive 200 miles through 10 inches of snow — as John Crabtree, 39, and Craig Fleming, 41, did to attend the November Dean meet-up in Fargo, N.D. — to see a political candidate or a representative of his staff. They drive that far to see each other.

And this is right, too:

At the headquarters of most political campaigns, there’s a familiar organizational structure: a group of junior employees carrying out a plan devised by a bunch of senior advisers. The Dean headquarters feels different: a thin veneer of Official Adults barely hovers above a 24-hour hive of intense, mostly youthful devotion. When the adults leave, usually around 10 p.m., the aisles between cubicles are still cluttered with scooters and dogs; when they return in the morning, balancing just-microwaved cinnamon buns and coffee, they climb over pale legs poking out from beneath their desks and shoo sleeping volunteers off their office couches.

It seems to me that the Dean blog is getting better about including negative news. For example, the blog reports that Dean has a slight lead in South Carolina but also reports that the poll says Bush would beat all the leading Democrats in head-to-head matches 8-18%. I like the fact the blog doesn’t bother pointing out that Dean, along with Clark, is one of the 8%’ers.

And the blog prominently links to The Club for Growth site where you can see the TV ad they’re running that claims that Dean wants to raise taxes by about $2,000 on every man, woman, child and dog in America. In typical fashion, the Dean campaign immediately used the attack ad to prompt supporters to raise money for an ad to counter it … and within a couple of days, raised $85,000 more than the $200,000 needed.

I don’t expect a candidate’s blog to be the best aggregator of news about the candidate. But frankness is good.

Categories: Uncategorized dw