Better late than never: Dean blasts media

When addressing the Democratic National Committee this past weekend, DNC Chairman Howard Dean took some well placed jabs at the media, and with good reason. The media coverage of the primaries have been, to be kind, disgraceful, mostly toward Clinton and Obama. And Dean is more than familiar with what negative coverage looks like (see video below).

Anyway, I digress. What an unpleasant walk down memory lane. (You're welcome! ;) His I Have a Scream speech was replayed, literally, hundreds and hundreds of times in the days that followed.

But, in the video at the top, Dean took some pretty nasty swipes at the media for its coverage, but my big question is, where were these comments 3-4 months ago? I'm pleased that at long last, Dean is blasting away at the media, but talk about being too late. Most of comments in the video (at top) qualify as yelling at a train long after it has left the station.

Dean appeared on This Week over the weekend as well, and his sage words are noted, but seriously, again, too little too late.

Dean shouldn't be completely castigated for all that he's done at the chair of the DNC, however. His 50-state strategy could be setting up the party for success for a long time to come. While I'm not slavishly devoted to the Democratic Party (or Howard Dean, for that matter), I certainly identify with it better than any of the other choices available to me right now in this country.

Pardon the pun, but this spring's primary races, when this is all said and done, will look like a blip compared to what this fall's campaign will look like. And I certainly hope that NO ONE buys into McCain's b.s. about running a "totally clean campaign" in the fall, because it ain't gonna happen. (His wife Cindy dutifully parrots this talking point at every available opportunity, as well.)

In fact, just days after publicly making that proclamation, McCain appeared on The Daily Show, and when asked about Hamas wanting to see Obama win, he repeated the claim that the terrorist organization "...wants to see Obama win. It's a fact. They don't want to see me win, that's for sure." Wow - squeaky clean, senator.

My point in all of this is that Dean had better not sit on his hands and keep his mouth closed when the attacks undoubtedly begin, and they will begin soon. (How about tomorrow - when Obama is all but certain to be the nominee?)

Make no mistake about it, many, if not most of the attacks won't come from McCain, but from groups that are backing his candidacy. One of the more notorious groups, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (or whatever they are calling themselves these days), recently stated that they intend to do the same sort of thing to Barack Obama.

Obama and Dean had better be ready, and I don't mean to just fight defensively.