January 29, 2004
CAN'T RULE IT OUT:
Firing the Manager (Howard Kurtz, January 29, 2004, Washington Post)
A few weeks ago, I was in Howard Dean's Burlington headquarters when campaign chief Joe Trippi gave the staff a pep talk.They had just presented Trippi with a celebratory cake in the shape of Tennessee, in honor of the Al Gore endorsement, and he warned everyone--including his wife, who worked on the staff--that the nomination was far from sewn up. The other campaigns had made the mistake of underestimating Team Dean, he said, and they shouldn't make the same mistake.
He was right. And now, to my surprise, he's been forced out, the first victim of Dean's losses in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Suddenly, Trippi went from the strategic genius profiled on the front page of the New York Times and the cover of the New Republic to chief scapegoat? The man who pioneered Dean's Internet strategy is tossed out like the manager of a losing baseball team? Was it Trippi who suggested that Dean start yelling during his Iowa concession speech?
Mr. Dean's IA speech was so deranged seeming that its content didn't get much analysis, but William Saletan noticed a fascinating passage that suggests a level of calculation to what he said, Howard Dean's Remarks to His Supporters (January 19, 2004):
...we're going to win in Massachusetts. And North Carolina. And Missouri. And Arkansas. And Connecticut.
It's possible, of course, that even in the middle of his Miltown moment he just happened to string together the home states of John Kerry, John Edwards, Wes Clark, Dick Gephardt, and Joe Lieberman off the top of his head, but one must wonder.... Posted by Orrin Judd at January 29, 2004 1:02 PM
I know he tossed in Texas and I think even Wyoming.
Posted by: Chris B at January 29, 2004 2:10 PMNow all we have to do is figure out which opposing politician was running from the state of YAAHHHGGGHHHH....
Posted by: John at January 29, 2004 2:46 PMTom Eagleton, MO
Posted by: oj at January 29, 2004 3:13 PMIt was very obvious to me that he was naming the states of the others at the time. He had Ohio and New York in that grouping as well. I assumed that he flew off the handle on his own. It seems reasonable though that he had the states of his competitors memorized for quick recall when he told his supporters what states they were going to.
Posted by: Matt C at January 29, 2004 3:17 PM