From this week’s The Stranger: Flying High, Howard Dean has gone from nobody to the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. Now he’s a political rock star, and he just went on a coast-to-coast tour to prove it. The Stranger tagged along for the ride.
Toward the end of the tour when one of the other reporters aboard the Grassroots Express asked Dean to describe the most important personal moment, Dean brought up the Seattle rally–I didn’t ask him the question and I wasn’t standing by taking notes; I got this quote from the reporter later, so Dean wasn’t pandering to his Seattle supporters when he said this about last Sunday’s rally in Westlake Center:
“Seeing all those people out there [in Seattle],” Dean said. “The enormity of it all really struck me. For the first time I realized what it really means to be President of the United States–seeing all those people out there, counting on you.”
Reading this article reminded me of one of the primary reasons I’m supporting Dean: for the first time I can remember, I’m seeing a politician who actually strikes me as being honest. When he gives his speeches, I believe him — and coming from someone who’s quite cynical about all this political mumbo-jumbo, that’s saying a lot.