Getting to know you, getting to know all about you...

The Philadelphia Inquirer's Dick Polman went north to meet the people that know Howard Dean best, reporting that...

"They see him on TV, firing up the liberals, and they're dumbfounded, because they always knew him as a tightwad governor who spent 10 years excoriating liberals..."

Of course, by now we know he's not a liberal. Nope, he's the guy who's going to get up in George Bush's face. I mean, check the record...

"...whatever happened to the Howard Dean who, when asked to render an opinion about the governor of Texas back in 1999, always gave the same answer: "I like George Bush, he's a good guy."

Or don't. That doesn't matter, though, because this isn't a campaign about Dean, right? This is a campaign about the people. Right?

"He's an adulation junkie who has always wanted to be famous, the most self-consumed man I've ever met," said Garrison Nelson, a local academic who met Dean more than 20 years ago..."

OK, then, wrong. But he's the guy we need to bring the world together, a natural diplomat with a common touch, right?

"...he would often rant at his detractors, calling them "lunatics," or confronting them with "the finger in the face," as Nelson calls it. At times he would get so mad that the skin on his thick wrestler's neck would redden to the color of raw meat. No some folks used to call him "Little Napoleon."

Oh, well, at least he's a champion of civil liberties, willing to take political risks to make sure that everyone gets equal protection under the law, right?

"The state Supreme Court had virtually required the legislature to write such a (civil unions) , and Dean received antigay mail from all over the country. He replied in letters saying that he had no role, that it was all up to the legislature...

Uh huh.