Howard Dean calls Al Jazeera America 'The Fox of the Muslim world'

[Douglas Carpenter]

15. I think a lot of people imagined Howard Dean to be a lot more progressive than he actually was or is

IN 2004 there were so few voices who got the attention of the mainstream media who spoke out against the invasion of Iraq - So the most visible candidate who did was labeled by the media as "far left." He also supported civil unions at a time when that was considered almost a marginal idea. So the notion that Howard Dean was some kind of 21st Century George McGovern took hold in a lot of people's minds - both supporters and detractors.

In 1968 a moderate Senator from Minnesota named Eugene McCarthy was willing to challenge LBJ for the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States on the basis of opposition to the Vietnam War. Given his boldness to take on the established sensible center - Eugene McCarthy was presumed to be a very left-wing and perhaps even a radical left figure. In fact like Howard Dean, Sen. McCarthy's actual record and actual positions did not support that notion in the slightest. A couple of weeks before the Democratic convention - with LBJ out of the race and RFK gone from this world - a real war opponent and fighting progressive with a record and actual positions to show for it did make a last minute entry into the race for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. I speak of course of South Dakota Sen. George McGovern. But the left and ant-war supporters had to a large degree already rallied around the campaign of Eugene McCarthy. I recall that some of the McGovern supporters enraged Sen. McCarthy with buttons that said, "George McGovern is the REAL Eugene McCarthy." In other words McCarthy was simply not what his supporters imagined him to be - Sen. McGovern was much closer to what McCarthy supports imagined Sen. McCarthy to be. I suppose in 2004 the button should have read. Dennis Kucinich is the REAL Howard Dean.