Spring Break
Dean talks with News-Letter about college aid, healthcare
Issue date: 10/18/07
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Inviting Howard Dean to speak at this year's Milton S. Eisenhower Symposium was, according to the series' organizers, something of a Hail Mary pass.
The chairs of the symposium shot off a letter to Dean sometime in August, hoping it would make its way to the former Vermont governor, known as much for his maverick ascendancy to the height of political prominence as for his spectacular fall.
A month passed without word from Dean's office, and the chairs decided to move on - programs were printed in the thousands and posters were plastered on walls, and by Sept. 18 the series was under way. Dean's absence had been all but confirmed.
Then came word from his staff at the Democratic National Committee, where he has been chairman since 2005, in late September that not only would he be available to speak, but for free - and in a month.
It seemed fitting that Dean, the patented political outsider who turned to the Internet for support rather than the beltway, and who always seemed reluctant - with eyes rolling and face red - to indulge traditional political "wisdom," would be added to the MSE lineup too late to make the poster.
His speech Thursday night - in which he tried to convince young adults that the America of their youth, the Bush America, was "not normal," and that the Republican Party was "monolithic" - came on the heels of a rally in Prince George's County for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, cast as one of his party's most youthful and dynamic leaders. Obama, the self-described outsider of the Democratic field, trumpeting a vision for political change on a crest of anti-Bush resentment, may very well be the Howard Dean of 2008 - cursed as much as helped by his magnetic rebellious energy.
That same energy was on display Thursday night in Shriver Hall, where Dean issued a stinging rebuke of the Bush administration and how it has warped American culture, the theme of this year's symposium.
It prompted one audience member to hoist an old "Howard Dean for America" sign - an "antique," Dean called it, and sore reminder of his campaign's spectacular and, for his supporters, heart wrenching collapse.
The chairs of the symposium shot off a letter to Dean sometime in August, hoping it would make its way to the former Vermont governor, known as much for his maverick ascendancy to the height of political prominence as for his spectacular fall.
A month passed without word from Dean's office, and the chairs decided to move on - programs were printed in the thousands and posters were plastered on walls, and by Sept. 18 the series was under way. Dean's absence had been all but confirmed.
Then came word from his staff at the Democratic National Committee, where he has been chairman since 2005, in late September that not only would he be available to speak, but for free - and in a month.
It seemed fitting that Dean, the patented political outsider who turned to the Internet for support rather than the beltway, and who always seemed reluctant - with eyes rolling and face red - to indulge traditional political "wisdom," would be added to the MSE lineup too late to make the poster.
His speech Thursday night - in which he tried to convince young adults that the America of their youth, the Bush America, was "not normal," and that the Republican Party was "monolithic" - came on the heels of a rally in Prince George's County for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, cast as one of his party's most youthful and dynamic leaders. Obama, the self-described outsider of the Democratic field, trumpeting a vision for political change on a crest of anti-Bush resentment, may very well be the Howard Dean of 2008 - cursed as much as helped by his magnetic rebellious energy.
That same energy was on display Thursday night in Shriver Hall, where Dean issued a stinging rebuke of the Bush administration and how it has warped American culture, the theme of this year's symposium.
It prompted one audience member to hoist an old "Howard Dean for America" sign - an "antique," Dean called it, and sore reminder of his campaign's spectacular and, for his supporters, heart wrenching collapse.
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