"He...never thought he could ever win..."

Wow. Dean for America stalwart Karl Frisch offers an advance peek at Dean pollster Paul Maslin's campaign autopsy coming soon to an Atlantic Monthly near you. It's interesting to watch the finger pointing coming out of a campaign that presented such a strong 'us against the world' image for so long.

It's an interesting look at some aspects of the campaign that didn't get much attention while it was active. One bit that stood out was this description of a meeting among the campaign leadership when the Gubenatorial records flap hit...

"Dean was increasingly uncomfortable with the discussion, and I felt some regret for pressing so hard when, in the end he lowered his head and said to us all, but mostly to himself, “I’d rather end the campaign than have the world see everything?” Seldom have I heard a candidate so open about his feelings (one of Dean’s refreshing qualities); more seldom still have I seen someone on the brink of political success be so conflicted about it. To this day I am convinced that no “smoking gun” exists in those records. What is probably there is an accumulation of cuts from a man who routinely made acidic or even profane comments to all around him, in conversation and in writing."

"I felt worse half an hour later, when - after Dean had left the headquarters having decided not to release the records - Trippi called McMahon, Squier, and me into his office. He shut the door and said in a compassionate voice, rare for him, “He just lost it in here. He basically told me that he never thought he’d be in this position. Never thought he could ever win. Never thought it would come to all this. He was just about in tears, and for once, I really feel for him. He said, ‘I don’t know why I say the things I do.’ He ain’t gonna release the records, even if it costs us everything.”

You've gotta give Dr. Dean some props for his willingness to put everything on the line for principle, however misguided the principle might have been.

Nobody, though, comes off very well in Maslin's tale, including Maslin himself, who seems willing to betray confidence and dis friends (although in Arlo's famous words, "They're not really your friends, are they?") in exchange for a byline...