Speaking of TIME, did anyone else find the Dean profile a complete waste of paper? Apparently nothing much is going on Inside The Mind Of Howard Dean that he cared to share with Time.
Same for Newsweek's cover feature The Dean Dilemma, another bit of fluff for the party faithful. The feature offered no new insights into the man or his policies. Perhaps we news junkies are just too far ahead of a magazine curve to find many stories compelling or informative.
Although Eleanor Clift provides a few laughs as she creams her elite jeans in a Newsweek piece that makes one's skin crawl.
Howard Dean romances the crowd at Renaissance Weekend
Jan. 2 - A panel offering advice to President Bush and his Democratic rivals had just gotten underway at Renaissance Weekend in Charleston, S.C., when a surprise visitor strode to the podium. It was Sen. Fritz Hollings, South Carolina's senior senator, with a word for the assembled strivers.
"Howard Dean is right," declared the silver-haired Hollings, launching into a spirited defense of Dean's assertion that Americans are no safer now that Saddam Hussein has been captured. "Saddam wasn't causing anybody any problem. You have some little smart-aleck announcer on television asking, 'Do you think we're better off with Saddam gone?' What else is gone?
...Hollings reminisced about the good old days before Clinton was Clinton, when he was just "Little Bill." Renaissance regulars looking at this year's contenders yearn to rekindle the passion they felt for Clinton's candidacy, knowing that is unlikely. All the candidates were invited to stop by and make a presentation. Only Dean, Wesley Clark and Carol Moseley Braun accepted. Dean was first, and while everybody crowded into the ballroom and jostled for a good seat, sentiment leaned more to Clark or even to John Kerry. Dean had attended Renaissance two years running, and he didn't light up a room the way they remembered Clinton doing.
And here's the money graf:
What the Dean people saw in Charleston was not the angry, vein-popping politician they see on television, and many came away impressed. One longtime Renaissance-goer pronounced Dean "Clintonesque," the highest compliment that can be paid in this crowd. In response to a question testing his youth-culture awareness, Dean did a brief takeoff of a song by Outkast, the hot hip-hop group. "He knows the lyrics to Outkast songs and, man, can that dude dance," enthused a 16-year-old.
Oh Goodie, I feel much safer now...especially if Outkast attacks the Golden Gate Bridge with an exploding intern.
Actually Bush came across far more likeable in the TIME photo piece taken at the ranch. [warning: Bush haters may become lightheaded and swoony]