The Barbaric Yawp
Three different sides of the Dean Scream story.
From today's National Post:
Scream may end Dean's dream
Mr. Dean's speech has done serious damage to his campaign because it confirms for many Democrats the things they feared most about him: that he is a candidate driven by anger, that he is inexperienced, that, when faced with adversity, he folds.
From today's Globe & Mail:
Debate gives Dean chance to refocus campaign
Mr. Dean has been desperately trying to refocus his campaign in an effort to shake off the image he showed Monday. His unbridled enthusiasm in the face of defeat, climaxed with a high-pitched yelp,has been lampooned all week on radio talk shows and late-night television programs, including last night's Late Night With David Letterman, where he delivered the host's famous top 10 list.
"I wear suits that are cheap. But I say what I think. I believe what I say . . . I lead with my heart and not my head and that's the only chance we have against [President] George Bush," he said.
And the backstory, from Dave Winer's Scripting News:
I was at Dean headquarters on the night of the Iowa caucuses, and I watched the Dean rant on TV in the office, with the other Web programmers. A few minutes before the speech they had a staff meeting in the conference room...Several times during the meeting a loud crazy-sounding scream came from the room, everyone was doing it, and it was really frightening...This was before Howard Dean's rant. I asked Jim Moore what that was about, he said it's an Indian war yell or something like that, they used to do it in United Farm Workers rallies, and they adopted it at Dean For America.
The press, as usual, is making a big deal of catching a candidate being a human being. But that's what he is. He's not an actor, he's not a commercial, he's not a deodorant, he's not a product, and I'm glad we have a chance to have this discussion.
So now we know. It wasn't a scream it was a haka
(full credit to Doc Searls, btw, for first citing Whitman's "Barbaric Yawp" in this context)
From today's National Post:
Scream may end Dean's dream
Mr. Dean's speech has done serious damage to his campaign because it confirms for many Democrats the things they feared most about him: that he is a candidate driven by anger, that he is inexperienced, that, when faced with adversity, he folds.
From today's Globe & Mail:
Debate gives Dean chance to refocus campaign
Mr. Dean has been desperately trying to refocus his campaign in an effort to shake off the image he showed Monday. His unbridled enthusiasm in the face of defeat, climaxed with a high-pitched yelp,has been lampooned all week on radio talk shows and late-night television programs, including last night's Late Night With David Letterman, where he delivered the host's famous top 10 list.
"I wear suits that are cheap. But I say what I think. I believe what I say . . . I lead with my heart and not my head and that's the only chance we have against [President] George Bush," he said.
And the backstory, from Dave Winer's Scripting News:
I was at Dean headquarters on the night of the Iowa caucuses, and I watched the Dean rant on TV in the office, with the other Web programmers. A few minutes before the speech they had a staff meeting in the conference room...Several times during the meeting a loud crazy-sounding scream came from the room, everyone was doing it, and it was really frightening...This was before Howard Dean's rant. I asked Jim Moore what that was about, he said it's an Indian war yell or something like that, they used to do it in United Farm Workers rallies, and they adopted it at Dean For America.
The press, as usual, is making a big deal of catching a candidate being a human being. But that's what he is. He's not an actor, he's not a commercial, he's not a deodorant, he's not a product, and I'm glad we have a chance to have this discussion.
So now we know. It wasn't a scream it was a haka
(full credit to Doc Searls, btw, for first citing Whitman's "Barbaric Yawp" in this context)
