While I think Dean’s been treated too roughly over his caucus speech, he gets no empathy from me on this:
His complaints concern the internal debate that unfolds in each precinct after the initial round of voting, when supporters of different candidates try to sway one another. Dr. Dean said he had been surprised to learn that aides to one of his rivals, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, circulated booklets to Iowa precinct captains with instructions to paint Dr. Dean as “an elitist from Park Avenue” and Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts as “part of the failed Washington politics.”
Senator Edwards, who condemned the booklet when it surfaced on Wednesday, said Saturday that Iowans “don’t need instructions from me” on how to run the caucuses.
Why did Dean lose Iowa? I’m no expert but negative campaigners who complain when others play a smarter game come off like sore losers. It was the impression I formed when he ran to Terry McCauliffe before the caucuses and this complaint doesn’t help dispel that suspicion.
Dean’s call for the caucus process to be monitored suggests he considers Iowans uninformed and easily manipulated.
Maybe we’re more intuitive than he thinks.