I moved to Vermont a few weeks ago, away from Seattle with all of its growth and gridlock and hypercaffeination. I moved to Vermont where winter is still winter and the current one is just moving in. I look out my window and watch the slate gray sky and the stone gray water of Lake Champlain. Hibernation weather, good for a long winter’s nap. But it was not to be. Just like the other fellow who tried to take a long winter’s nap, my rest was disturbed by the sounds of the season and I don’t mean Christmas. I mean the never-ending campaign season. I arrived just in time to learn that Vermont’s governor, Howard Dean, wants to be president.
You won’t hear this from Governor Dean himself. Every time some member of the press asks him about it, he gets mad and stomps out of the room. Hardly seems gubernatorial, much less presidential. But this talk has been rolling around the state for some time now. Governor Dean, who in his non-political life is a physician, shouldn’t be upset when spin doctors return a diagnosis of Potomac Fever. Let’s take a look at the symptoms:
First, Doctor Governor Dean has been out giving speeches and attending dinners in places that are distinctly Not Vermont. Of course, he has reasons for this; he is the outgoing chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. On the other hand, that’s a group that gets smaller each November, so how much time could it take? And, as it turns out, a couple of these dinners, one in Los Angeles and one in Washington, DC, were fundraisers for the good governor.
Meanwhile, back in the statehouse, Governor Dean has in six years compiled a record you could feasibly run on. He has, appropriately, been an advocate for health care, particularly for children. All children in Vermont are visited by a doctor in their first few weeks of life. All Vermont children have health insurance until the age of 18 and child abuse is down sharply. Governor Dean has gotten federal funds for light rail for our more populous areas and pushed to make Vermont one of the first states to require welfare recipients to work for their benefits, a popular item on the national agenda.
Just as I was unpacking my boxes, the governor announced he is switching his long-held position and now supports the death penalty. He added quickly that he will not press the legislature to institute a death penalty in Vermont as he knows a majority of citizens and politicians oppose it. A sure sign of a politician contemplating higher office is when he starts wanting to have his cake and eat it, too.
A week later he admitted to high-school students in a mock press conference what he would not admit to the working press in a real press conference: he is thinking about running for president. Two weeks after that, it was on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. Governor Dean, who has a media advisor in DC, said he didn’t know how it got there, refused to answer any more questions and retired to his office to brood.
There are a few obstacles remaining for our centrist Democrat – one is Vice President Al Gore, still the heir apparent, fund-raising troubles notwithstanding and there’s also the ’98 Vermont gubernatorial race.
Right now, this is a localized outbreak of Potomac Fever, but in the months ahead, I think there will be a near epidemic in state capitals and the US Senate. Several former victims will probably suffer relapses. My prescription? Take a grain of salt and call me in 2000.
Greeting of the Season
I moved to Vermont a few weeks ago, away from Seattle with all of its growth and gridlock and hypercaffeination. I moved to Vermont where winter is still winter and the current one is just moving in. I look out my window and watch the slate gray sky and the stone gray water of Lake Champlain. Hibernation weather, good for a long winter’s nap. But it was not to be. Just like the other fellow who tried to take a long winter’s nap, my rest was disturbed by the sounds of the season and I don’t mean Christmas. I mean the never-ending campaign season. I arrived just in time to learn that Vermont’s governor, Howard Dean, wants to be president.
You won’t hear this from Governor Dean himself. Every time some member of the press asks him about it, he gets mad and stomps out of the room. Hardly seems gubernatorial, much less presidential. But this talk has been rolling around the state for some time now. Governor Dean, who in his non-political life is a physician, shouldn’t be upset when spin doctors return a diagnosis of Potomac Fever. Let’s take a look at the symptoms:
First, Doctor Governor Dean has been out giving speeches and attending dinners in places that are distinctly Not Vermont. Of course, he has reasons for this; he is the outgoing chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. On the other hand, that’s a group that gets smaller each November, so how much time could it take? And, as it turns out, a couple of these dinners, one in Los Angeles and one in Washington, DC, were fundraisers for the good governor.
Meanwhile, back in the statehouse, Governor Dean has in six years compiled a record you could feasibly run on. He has, appropriately, been an advocate for health care, particularly for children. All children in Vermont are visited by a doctor in their first few weeks of life. All Vermont children have health insurance until the age of 18 and child abuse is down sharply. Governor Dean has gotten federal funds for light rail for our more populous areas and pushed to make Vermont one of the first states to require welfare recipients to work for their benefits, a popular item on the national agenda.
Just as I was unpacking my boxes, the governor announced he is switching his long-held position and now supports the death penalty. He added quickly that he will not press the legislature to institute a death penalty in Vermont as he knows a majority of citizens and politicians oppose it. A sure sign of a politician contemplating higher office is when he starts wanting to have his cake and eat it, too.
A week later he admitted to high-school students in a mock press conference what he would not admit to the working press in a real press conference: he is thinking about running for president. Two weeks after that, it was on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. Governor Dean, who has a media advisor in DC, said he didn’t know how it got there, refused to answer any more questions and retired to his office to brood.
There are a few obstacles remaining for our centrist Democrat – one is Vice President Al Gore, still the heir apparent, fund-raising troubles notwithstanding and there’s also the ’98 Vermont gubernatorial race.
Right now, this is a localized outbreak of Potomac Fever, but in the months ahead, I think there will be a near epidemic in state capitals and the US Senate. Several former victims will probably suffer relapses. My prescription? Take a grain of salt and call me in 2000.