And it turns out that the comments from Howard Dean that I labeled unadulterated idocy and that completely got my knickers in a full twist– he never made them:
Several outlets, including the Huffington Post, reported Dean’s comments in the context that he had soured on the president because of the concessions made on health care. The former DNC chair reached out to the Huffington Post to correct the record.
“I said I was going to vote for him and that I support him vigorously,” Dean said. “It wasn’t your fault, Joe heard me wrong. When I looked back and looked at it I can see what happened. But I said I was going to support him and I am.”
The footage from the show does clearly show Dean uttering the word “not” before “vigorously.” But there is enough of a pause in there to suggest that he had been trying to start a different train of thought before changing course. And Dean’s reaction to Scarborough’s confetti line suggests he wasn’t entirely sure what the laughter was all about.
So my apologies, Gov. Dean. You didn’t say anything stupid.
But for all of you who pooh-poohed me when I thought it was disastrous politics and really bad form for the former chair of the DNC to be trashing his own President, you know who obviously agrees with me? Howard Dean, who reached out to correct the record because it would have been terrible to have that out there.