The Dean Disappointment

Posted January 8, 2004, 4:21 p.m.

A great read from contributing editor Peggy Noonan at the Wall St. Journal opinion journal.

This is the best encapsulation of my feelings on the Howard Dean campaign that I’ve seen yet. It explains why he’s going to lose the general election if he gets the Democratic nomination (as he probably will).

The Dean Disappointment.

Among the Democratic contenders, there are some who would stand a chance in the general election. There are many who are generally respectable. Dean falls in neither category, in my humble opinion, and if the Democrats really want the White House they’d be wise to select somebody else in their primaries.

Mark my words ;-) and mark Peggy Noonan’s, her words probably have more weight than mine.

And some have asked about my endorsements . . . it’s WAY too early for that kind of talk. Once the Democrats select their candidate, I’ll make an endorsement from among the 2004 General Election contenders for the Presidency. Chances are it’ll be Bush, Dean, and some third-party people . . . but anything can happen between now and November, and my opinions are still forming.

Scott Bradford has been putting his opinions on his website since 1995—before most people knew what a website was. He has been a professional web developer in the public- and private-sector for over twenty years. He is an independent constitutional conservative who believes in human rights and limited government, and a Catholic Christian whose beliefs are summarized in the Nicene Creed. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from George Mason University. He loves Pink Floyd and can play the bass guitar . . . sort-of. He’s a husband, pet lover, amateur radio operator, and classic AMC/Jeep enthusiast.

Quotes

Our contemporaries [have] two conflicting passions; they want to be led, and they wish to remain free. . . . They strive to satisfy them both at once.

For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: If any one will not work, let him not eat.

If you go flying back through time and you see somebody else flying forward into the future, it’s probably best to avoid eye contact.

Wars produce many stories of fiction, some of which are told until they are believed to be true.

The books that help you the most are those which make you think the most.

No Reformer believed in private interpretation of Scripture, but they had no clear way to discern whose interpretation was the correct one. [They] quickly discovered that casting off Rome’s authority solved one problem but created another.

Penance! Penance! Penance! Pray to God for sinners!

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses. On the lips of him who has understanding wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks sense.

My faith in the future rests squarely on the belief that man, if he doesn’t first destroy himself, will find new answers in the universe, new technologies, new disciplines, which will contribute to a vastly different and better world in the twenty-first century.

There is no such thing as public money; there is only taxpayers’ money.

[Pure] democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.

Regardless of its hypothetical virtues . . . the implementation of Marxism was a disaster everywhere it was attempted. . . .

Interest groups . . . are made up of people who willingly support those groups with their time and money. They aren’t some diabolical, nebulous enemy of our democracy; they ARE democracy.

It is better to be vaguely right than exactly wrong.

To be aware of limitations is already to be beyond them.

Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation

To flee vice is the beginning of virtue, and to have got rid of folly is the beginning of wisdom.

With the return of school I’ve gotten back into my stressed-out cycle. In this cycle I go back and forth between ‘OH MY GOD I HAVE A MILLION THINGS TO DO!’ and ‘Ah, screw it.’

If you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the precipitate.

For my own part, I doubt whether man can ever support at the same time complete religious independence and entire public freedom. And I am inclined to think, that if faith be wanting in him, he must serve; and if he be free, he must believe.