"irreparable harm"
"prone to outbursts"
"fits of pique"
"unqualified to be president"
As insane as this sounds, that's just the first paragraph. In the rest of the story, you'll also find these lovely pejoratives, all, except where noted, written by the writers - not quotes:
"emotional meltdown"
"rabid dog" (quote by Charlie Cook, newsletter writer)
"shrieking"
"manic'
"wild-eyed"
"mentally unstable"
"borderline psychotic" (quote from Don Sipple, a GOP strategist)
"screeching"
"volatile temper"
"He'll melt and melt and melt" (quoting Sipple again)
"Had he been drinking before he went on stage?"
That last one, by the way, was the writers' quoting of a comment at the Dean Blog. Ever been there? There are generally no less than 150-300 comments for every entry. This meant the Times' Mark Barabak and and Faye Fiore had to wade through possibly thousands of comments to find that choice quote. Nice use of your time, you pitiful excuses for journalists. Just more scribes trying to win an AP award by traveling no further than you are right now to research a story.
Did they even bother to touch on the context and setting of this speech? Oh, yeah. About halfway into this lengthy diatribe, you can find these few sentences:
Indeed, the speech seemed to play well within the fevered confines of the retro disco ballroom of a West Des Moines hotel where Dean spoke soon after the results were known. Some in attendance said they felt the candidate resorted to shouts to be heard over the roar of the crowd.Then the editorial-disguised-as-news-story resumes with the next sentence:
"Anyone who thinks Dean was over the top last night obviously wasn't there," wrote one website supporter who was.
But when carried on worldwide television, the speech seemed to cross an invisible line from passion to self-parody.Needless to say, this story was accompanied by several unflattering pictures of a flailing-armed Dean.
It's the story that the media won't let die - because it's all they've got. And they didn't have much to begin with.
