The Dean of the College of Madness?

Howard Dean will make a spectacle of himself, and nothing will stop him from doing so. He initially indicated that he would drop out of the Democratic race if he lost Wisconsin, but now he says he will stay in for the long haul:

Acknowledging that it was an “obvious contradiction” from his fund-raising e-mail message to supporters last week saying he would be “out of the race” unless he won Wisconsin, Dr. Dean said supporters urging him in recent days not to quit had persuaded him to stay for the long haul. He said he was unsure what a post-Wisconsin strategy might look like if he lost, promising only that it would not be a “quixotic campaign that’s going to attack the nominee of the Democratic Party.”

Don Quixote, all right. I’m beginning to believe that Arthur Hunt’s definition of postmodernism is more correct than I imagined: a rejection of rationality and an embrace of spectacle. There’s certainly nothing rational about driving the nominee of one’s own party into the ground, leaving the opposition’s party to roam free (not that I would be opposed to the Democrats dividing their base…). Ross Perot was the sacrifical annoyance in 1992 that sealed a Clinton victory, and there even appears to be a possible right-wing disruption for Bush.

I suppose that Dean and the other windmill chasers just want to make their points, which is admirable. There comes a time, however when the line between making a point and becoming a “resounding gong/clanging cymbal” is blurred. If I were on Howard Dean’s team I’d be asking myself if sinking the ship was the best way to go down.