Dean And His Personality

I read an article today about a recent Howard Dean interview he gave to Diane Sawyer (Video) in which just six of the 96 questions she asked had anything to do with any of his policy positions (The article's on one of those free password signup sites though).

Now, I'm not a Dean supporter (I haven't decided who to support in the upcoming campaign), but I do think this interview is but an example of how style gets played up far too much over substance. There's enough to debate about Dean's proposed policies and what he's done as Vermont's governor without overplaying the misconceptions about his so-called temper and anger. My own hunch is that Diane Sawyer knows little about Dean's positions on the issues other than anything being played out in the talk-show, sound-bite, press. From the lead of the commentary:

Diane Sawyer's interview with Howard Dean and his wife last week was a textbook case of everything that is wrong with television coverage of politics. It reduced his campaign to the banal level of mere personality and perceived missteps, replacing issues with image — it was a frame-up.

Here's the breakdown (according to the article) of questions during her "interview."

90--personality and temperment
6--vague references to issues
36--the Iowa "meltdown", "alleged" bad temper and loss of momentum
(10 second yell replayed 3 times during the interview)
20--why his wife wasn't on the campaign trail with him
21--about his family life

All the questions to Judy Dean had a shockingly sexist subtext, about her clothes and hair and whether or not she was ready for the prime-time spotlight. She was made to seem like an un-American weirdo for failing to watch her husband on TV, for failing to have cable and for receiving rhododendron plants for her birthday. ("Not exactly romantic … ")

1--question on foreign policy (asked twice) about his position on Iraq.

When Dean tried to move the discussion to matters of substance, Sawyer inevitably pushed it back to negative fluff. ("I just want to make sure that I come back on a couple of things — one thing, you said that — that you decided that you've got to be yourself. That you've got to return to being what you really are…. What were you that was not who you really were?")

The writer of the commentary said Dean should have cut Sawyer off, but that he didn't likely because it would have played to the stereotype that he's a "hothead."

Like I said, get the man on his policies. When you have an extensive sit-down in prime time with a serious contender in his own political party to be the presidential nominee, it's a waste of programming to even air such an interview.