The Passion of Howard Dean

The Stranger's Sandeep Kaushik takes a look at Dean's rollout of his post-campaign project in Seattle and pinpoints one of the reasons I was such a skeptic about the Doctor.

"In retrospect," he writes "it's clear that long before Howard Dean's bid for the White House ended, he had become more enamored with the passion than the presidency, more invested in the crusade than the campaign."

Now that he's a crusader instead of a candidate, I have to admit that I find Dean's act a lot more appealing. Especially since, as Kaushik also points out, "...But what was most interesting about Dean's announcement (which he later repeated in San Francisco and New York) was that he seemed genuinely determined --even passionate--about electing John Kerry president."

I didn't believe a lot of the message that came out of Dean for America, but I do believe that Howard Dean is serious about helping John Kerry win. I'm not taking back anything I said in the heat of battle, and I don't expect Dean to, but until he gives me a good reason not to, I'm cutting the Doc big slack around here in the future.