Dean and the Net

Why did Dean attract an Internet following? The answer is far clearer than one might think, and uniquely tied to the war. No matter which news agency you watched, you were likely to hear an almost uniform beating of the war drums before the Iraq War. Many people wonder about the lies, when it is obvious they emerged from Ahmed Chalabi and Doug Feith at the Office of Special Plans, but that is not the point. The point is that "left" or "right," the media was not willing to seriously address the idea that the UN was completely succesful in disarming Iraq, that the sanctions, under the auspices of the UN were misapplied. That the US/UK bombing during the sanctions period was ill-advised, uniting Middle Eastern anger against us. Much the same with the recent war. The internet allowed the voice of the non-mainstream to be heard. The relative truth of the idea that Saddam was not a threat to the United States is now established, and this probably means the Dean campaign for truth is over. Watching Haley Barbour, a very smoothe man, makes me think Dean should be learning from him.