Democratic presidential hopeful former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean acknowledges supporters at a New Hampshire primary night celebration in Manchester, N.H., Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2004. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
If you listen very closely, you can hear what he’s saying in this photo. Put your ear right up to the screen…that’s it. He’s saying, “This flag does not belong to Rush Limbaugh or George W. Bush. Patriotism…oh, fuck it. WE’RE GOING TO CALIFORNIA AND MICHIGAN AND PENNSYLVANIA AND SOUTH DAKOTA AND NORTH DAKOTA AND CENTRAL DAKOTA AND WE’RE GONNA TAKE BACK THE WHITE HOUSE YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAHHHHRRRR!“
I would like at this time to give Howard Dean my personal endorsement for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. Never in our history has a political party deserved a candidate like this so much. In fact, he stands for all that the Democratic Party has come to represent for the last 35 years. Behind those road rage eyes and that humorless persona is a man who acts from the heart, not from the cold mental recesses of the brain… like say David for example. He will repeal all the Bush tax cuts, not because he is a tax and spend liberal, but because it is for your own good and you had better believe that if you know what’s good for you. He will sit down and negotiate one on one with Kim Jong Il and make it clear to that looney oriental despot that we will do whatever it takes to stay in his good graces and we won’t call him any more names. Nosiree Bob. No more preemptive attacks…. no more of this neo-con foreign policy…. no more of this unfair bias toward Israel. From here on out, it will be just like the good old days when Jimmy Carter was commander-in-chief. And woe to anyone who dares oppose affirmative action programs based on racial quotas, because this administration is going to take a brave stand against racism, and woe to anyone opposing abortion on demand through the tenth month, just to cover those overdue pregnancies. So, rally around the flag, boys and support a man who really believes everything he says. He may sound like a somone you would encounter in road rage incident, but you know he’s speaking from the heart. So I join Al Gore and Paul Harkins to endorse this man of the people as the candidate for the Democratic Party in 2004. The crazy party deserves nothing less than a crazy candidate to carry its standard, and I want to hear that cannibal war cry one more time before this campaign is over. As Johnny Weismuller as Tarzan once said in one of his 12 Tarzan films, “In Jungle, strong always win.” Howard Dean could hardly agree more, but he should keep in mind that George W. Bush can bench press more than 200 pounds.
I think you’re partially right here, Ray: my brain has been on recess for some time.