My Two Cents

This post from The Editors sums up about as well as anything my feelings re: Howard Dean's recent statements. He takes a point made by David Sirota that's about as dead on accurate as it gets and adds his own observation...

Short version: Sirota accurately criticizes Joe Klein's contention that divisive politics are a non-starter in the US. The GOP is, at present, the sina qua non of political divisiveness, and, not coincidentally, control all three branches of government. The Editors note, though, that electoral success doesn't necessarily make for successful governing (e.g., The Bugman himself, Tom DeLay--of course, you could also throw in a pResident called Dubya, but the point's made).

Check out both posts--and I'll merely note I've mentioned before (but don't really feel like searching through the archives) that the political system here is almost by design made for negative politics. Despite the regular disclaimers coming from all politicians that they "dislike" negative campaigning, the fact is that it works. It's a LOT easier to point to and exploit flaws in an opponent than to come up with easy to define positive attributes, and those who do this best, i.e., the GOPers, tend to be more successful.

The Rude Pundit, as usual, has his own take on Dean. And it's a lot closer to my own position than, say, Billmon's.

Dean, of course, might want to refine his language just a bit, in order to reduce the possibility that dingbat wingnuts GOP pundits have a chance to do a little bit of exploiting themselves. But the fact that he's firing, as opposed to ducking, is a good beginning. It's up to the Democrats themselves to follow up and hit the GOP where it hurts--which is almost everywhere.