Will Dean Learn?

In a fantastically titled article for this week's Newsweek ("Scream 2: The Sequel") Howard Fineman writes "Dean's real problem may not be his mouth, but his mindset. ... [B]y labeling the other party a bastion of Christianity, he implied that his own was something else - something determinedly secular - at a time when Dean's stated aim is to win the hearts of middle-class white Southerners, many of whom are evangelicals."

Dean reportedly told senators last week that he is planning to watch his words more carefully, belatedly recognizing "It's important to make the news, not be the news." On Saturday at a meeting of the DNC executive committee, Dean seemed to get back on message (or at least closer to it), noting a need for Democrats to speak about moral values and to be competitive in all fifty states. The problem is that Dean can't seem to get in front of an audience and speak about those issues (or any issue) without firing off a gratuitous zinger that completely overwhelms whatever his real message was.

Joe Gandelman at The Moderate Voice has a similar post to this today, although he looks at things from the angle of the DNC and its apparent support for Dean's method of discussion (and the corresponding finger-wagging at Dean from elected Democrats). Jeff Jarvis at Buzzmachine notes that "Both sides are role-playing into each others' hands. Dean is acting like the rabid underdog and the Republicans are acting like cornered kitties and both are ridiculous." And Rick Heller at Centerfield adds, as I've been saying, that Dean's rhetoric seems quite unlikely to attract new voters from the pool of centrists and moderate Republicans who could see themselves voting Democrat but don't particularly enjoy being insulted.