Dream on, Howard
: Howard Dean tells broadcasters his Dean Scream speech “never happened.” Yeah, and I go hunting in the wood of Vermont for unicorns.
20 responses to “Dream on, Howard”
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Shit Howard, turn the sound down and just look at your utterly insane visage. People cross the street in a hurry when they see someone who looks like that.
Judging by the difference between his unhinged mania displayed that night and his near catatonia the next day I’d say the good doctor was self medicating throughout the campaign, and with a lot stronger stuff than you and I can readily get our hands on. Imagine him as CIC of the armed forces in the time of war? -
The “Dean Scream” — The Version of Reality You Didn’t See.. or Hear on TV, by Diane Sawyer.
It was the scream Howard Dean says became famous after the media played it nearly 700 times in a few days. Not only that, his camp adds, what we heard on the air was not a reflection of the way it sounded in the room.
After my interview with Dean and his wife in which I played the tape again — in fact played it to them — I noticed that on that tape he’s holding a hand-held microphone. One designed to filter out the background noise. It isolates your voice, just like it does to Charlie Gibson and me when we have big crowds in the morning. The crowds are deafening to us standing there.
But the viewer at home hears only our voice.
So, we collected some other tapes from Dean’s speech including one from a documentary filmmaker, tapes that do carry the sound of the crowd, not just the microphone he held on stage. We also asked the reporters who were there to help us replicate what they experienced in the room.
Reena Singh, ABC News Dean campaign reporter: “What the cameras didn’t capture was the crowd.”
Garance Franke-Ruta, Senior Editor, American Prospect: “As he spoke, the audience got louder and louder and I found it somewhat difficult to hear him.”
Dean’s boisterous countdown of the upcoming primaries as we all heard it on TV was isolated, when in fact he was shouting over the roaring crowd.
And what about the scream as we all heard it? In the room, the so-called scream couldn’t really be heard at all. Again, he was yelling along with the crowd. -
For those who were there that night in Iowa, the scream didn’t happen until we saw it on TV and heard about it from peers. See my post for a link to footage of the scream from a camera on the floor near Dean.
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Sigh, even with time, you’re still not embarassed by the truth or your role in hyping this. Buzz machine, or buzzard?
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First of all, the national Dean campaign had already started to unravel by the time that speech took place. losing Iowa was a tremendous blow to his efforts. And I’m sorry, but to those of you saying that scream didn’t happen, look at Dean’s maneurisms and the intensity on his face when he is speaking. He looks crazy as he is giving the speech. You can try and dismiss all you like, but even after seeing the footage with the crowd noise, it doesn’t change my opinion that Dean just helped the downward spiral his campaign was already experiencing. And now he’s trying to blame someone else for it.
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Heh. Nice subtle reference to WCAX-TV owner Red Martin in the last paragraph. Classy.
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Those denying how Dean came across in that Iowa speech, did you see his speech to MoveOn a week or two ago? The one at the event where Soros said Abu Gharib = 9/11?
Dean was just as hysterical in his mannerisms and tone on that day, and that doesn’t even cover the content of his screed, which included “this is our country,” “we built it,” “we’re gonna take it back,” etc.
Let’s face it – Democrats should be thankful this guy is not going to be their nominee. -
First off, I don’t like Dean. He might have some good things to say (and the article you link to covers several), but much like the asshole who tells you “like it is”, he might be saying something good but doesn’t mean you can stand him for it.
That said, the media went wacky about this scream. I totally believe that the sound cancelling mic screwed him over. And then the media sealed his fate by playing that scream over and over and over. John Kerry and President Bush both are pretty even keel people, but you play something like from either of them (search long enough and you can find something) enough times and we’d start to think they’re whacked to.
Of course, in Dean’s case, he was nuts. -
Jake:
He was (is) nuts. That’s the whole point. The scream was just a particularly poignant illustration. The whole directional mike argument is rendered impotent by turning the sound off and just looking at the escaped mental patient facial expressions and body language. He’s the perfect example of why the left is too immature and divorced from reality to be entrusted with power. Especially now, as we are in a period of our history when we vulnerable as never before. Of course the left can’t grasp this, but that only further reenforces the fact that the left coming to power at this time spells national suicide. -
God, can you people stop f–king this guy? His face got red as he tried to yell above the screaming crowd. Of course he yelled. He also had the most ridiculous-sounding laryngitis that day and the two days prior. He yelled “Yeah!” at a pep rally. He’s not insane because of it.
This writer provides zero context for what Dean said “never happened,” since those two words are quoted twice and repeated in the headline, but those are the only two words of that sentence that are quoted. But what we saw on television was obviously not what happened. And the only reporter at the event that this story could find backs Dean up, not you guys. -
Note to Dean: You “never happened”, little man, now get over it. Debasing yourself with the Clintonesque “I never had sex with that woman” revised account is lame. You were caught on tape, more accurate than written accounts. Another whiney loser, Gore, was “cheated” out of an election too. Of course, the common thread is someone else lied and did me in. Also, if you couldn’t handle the “gotcha question” on Tim Russert’s show, how, little fella, were you going to handle the gotcha moments in the White House? It seems Iowa voters answered that for you.
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Jesus. Not to speak for Jeff, but I think it’s the word choice of “never happened” that’s galling. Of course it *happened* in the sense that it took place. Dean said exactly the words picked up by the microphone, and made the exact yell picked up by the microphone. Feel free to argue until the cows come home that the impression of the scream is misleading if it’s separated from the ambient room noise, but don’t insult our intelligence by claiming that it “never happened.”
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In Dean’s own words in a CNN interview shortly after The Scream…..“Was it over the top? Sure, it was over the top. Do I do things that are a little nutty? Sure, I do things that are a little nutty. But the truth is, I was having a great time.” Besides a bad scream, seems like Dean has a bad memory. Disowning what you once “owned” is most circles is another term for lying.
But, then unrehabilitated Deanists in the same fashion of old duped Stalinists can always retort that the interview didn’t happen. -
Excuse typo – make it: Disowning what you once “owned” is in most circles another term for lying.
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What a deeply tedious man Howard Dean is. I hate to say it, but there is barely an interesting person in American politics today. What happened?
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The article never says WHAT Dean says “never happened.” How did he qualify that excerpted phrase? We don’t know.
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What happened Roger, is tendencious bigots such as yourself decided to throw in your bags with the same big media idiots you excoriate to play the same game as the weasel politicians: smear and smear again.
God forbid some politician take a change or say what they feel, you, Kaus, Totten, and Jarvis will be all over them and won’t let them live it down. You and Jarvis, et. al, will play along with the weasels all the while tsk, tsking.
Interesting politicians? Like Johnson scratching his balls all the while implementing civil rights? Like FDR leading our nation to victory while hiding his infirmities?
You claim you want an interesting person, but Simon forbid they are actual human and have foibles.
Shame on you. -
Roger, doesn’t the death of Reagan put into sharp contrast how far we’ve fallen in the political leadership level? Bush is a campy cut out of what he thinks Reagan was. Kerry is just a stiff. And I can’t think of many people on the national stage who have much to offer.
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Anyone can make a politician look bad by selective editing.
The biggest example of this is the “Bushisms” which have received so much coverage that many people genuinely believe Bush is incapable of coherent thought.
Democrats can hardly complain about the treatment of Dean when their side has done that to Bush. -
OneCent hit it on the head – lil’ howie never happened.
The man represents what a very small, very vocal minority of Americans want. He failed at it, and now is trying in multiple ways to carry on his 15 minutes.
The quip about telling the man to sit and be quiet while pointing his finger at him as though little howie had the capability to do something physical. Coward Dean the avenger…. eeeek.
The whacked scream on stage.
The lies he spread for his eager ilk – about the war being based on deception. Seems he forgot about the same scenario taking place under Clinton in 98.
To avoid the Iraq war would have been to kick the can down the road to be dealt with later – after Saddam had rebuilt his arsenal. Any objections – state your case. You either supported the war, or though it was ok to leave Saddam where he sat. Bitching about internationalization is to show an extremely short memory – because that is what happened when Bush went to the UN.
I am glad to watch him fail.
