Reply #48: Your answer is

[H2O Man]

subjective; while there is nothing wrong with giving your opinion, it would be a mistake to ignore that Dean is charismatic. Any objective examination of his primary campaign, particularly in terms of support from youth and the internet fund-raising, clearly indicate that Dean fits the definition of a charismatic politician. If this isn't enough proof, look at how his primary campaign ended.

Bureaucrats supporting Dean is simply not a factor .... in terms of if he is charismatic or not. Lots of bureaucrats supported both JFK and RFK.

The important thing to remember is that in understanding systems, it doesn't make even a tiny bit of difference if you or I think Dean is charismatic to us. (I don't in the least. And I never thought Elvis was appealing. But I do know that in our society, he had charisma.) Dean is by every definition playing the role of a charismatic in democratic politics.

In the primaries, only one other candidate had charismatic appeal, and that was General Wesley Clark. He had an obvious bureaucratic history that, for a nation looking for a powerful military leader, was clearly unmatched. There was a belief in some circles that his charisma might be enough to beat Bush in a one-on-one contest. I think that many of us still believe this.

Finally, it is pretty easy to identify John Kerry as lacking charisma as a packaged politician. Yet he had charisma as a soldier, and especially as an anti-war leader in the early 1970s. Had he relied upon his own strengths, rather than allowing the bureaucracy to define him, he would have done better.