Spin, spin, spin the globe...

If you have spent anytime watching CNBC over the last couple of years, you've probably heard the catchy jingle which accompanies a series of vapid commercials for the German multinational Siemens.   The only lyric (at least that I can recall) is "spin, spin, spin the globe".

Lest we forget that politics is mostly spin, you should read Dorothy Rabinowitz's column in today's Opinion Journal regarding former Democratic frontrunner Howard Dean.   While I don't agree with her premise that it is too soon to write off Dean's candidacy, she makes the interesting point that Dean's famous "meltdown" in Iowa is largely a media artifact:

...on that famous night, the media bulletins referred to Mr. Dean's anger--the angry candidate had finally blown his top, his rage had exploded, etc. In fact, anyone watching that scene without the nudgings of expectation would have been hard put to find anger in that wild exhortation: though one would have found no lack of the posturing characteristic of Mr. Dean on the campaign trail--aggression that had made him the hands-down choice of those possessed by hatred of George W. Bush.

...All that said, Mr. Dean's performance was a far cry from an angry rant. He seemed, in truth, to be having fun. But the fun stopped cold, almost immediately when the consequences of this night made themselves clear. Word was now out: that Mr. Dean was practically finished, that he had borne out earlier suspicions about his incapacity to be presidential. Above all, there were the cartoons, the rhetorical questions, about whether a man of such angry temper could be trusted with the nuclear button. An absurdly antic concession speech had been transformed into an event of menacing size. So much so that the candidate's mental stability was now in question. By the next day Howard Dean's name had been added to the list of presidential aspirants alleged to have been undone by famous "defining moments." Picture Muskie weeping.

Rabinowitz makes an excellent point, but I think that its fair to say that there is some aspect of Governor Dean's character that American voters (including those in Iowa who made their decision before watching that famous "Aaaaargh!") found to be not quite Presidential.   I suspect that most voters have decided that Dr. Dean is just too angry and a little too volatile to be the leader of the free world.   The rant in Omaha merely provided entertaining evidence to support this conclusion.

Another one of my favorite female columnists, Peggy Noonan, had an excellent column in today's Journal persuasively arguing that General Wesley Clark is too weird to be President.   I've long been of this belief, but found Noonan's prose, as usual, compelling:

Gen. Clark gives off the vibrations of a man who has no real beliefs save one: Wes Clark should be president. The rest--the actual meaning of his candidacy--he seems to be making up as he goes along. It seems a candidacy void of purpose beyond meeting the candidate's hunger. He is passionately for the war until he announces for the Democratic nomination facing an antiwar base, at which point he becomes passionately antiwar. He thanks God that George Bush and his aides are in the White House, then he says they're the worst leaders ever. Anyone can change his mind; but this is not a change, it's a swerve, and without a convincing rationale. Last week, Brit Hume asked Gen. Clark when it was that he'd "first noticed" that he--Gen. Clark--was a Democrat. There was laughter, but that was a nice big juicy softball. Gen. Clark flailed and fumbled. Later he blamed Mr. Hume for being a Republican agent.

Clark should go back to Arkansas, where he belongs, and see if he can get his old job back at Stephens Inc.