As noted by Eye on the Left and others, Howard Dean blundered into a rhetorical bramblebush this week, declaring himself a "metrosexual" and then immediately disavowing it.
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean tried to be all things, except George W. Bush, to all voters on fundraising stops in Boulder and Denver on Tuesday.The pack-leading Democrat hit all the marks, courting fiscal conservatives and social liberals. He bashed the war and pumped up his plans for universal heath care, renewable energy and investments in schools, highways and broadband Internet for everyone.
Dean declared himself a "metrosexual," the buzz phrase for straight men in touch with their feminine sides, as he touted his accomplishments in "equal justice" for gay and lesbian couples.
But then he waffled.
"I'm a square," Dean declared, after professing his metrosexuality to a Boulder breakfast audience with an anecdote about being called handsome by a gay man. "I like (rapper) Wyclef Jean and everybody thinks I'm very hip, but I am really a square, as my kids will tell you. I don't even get to watch television. I've heard the term (metrosexual), but I don't know what it means."
At a luncheon in Denver, Dean surged past the issues and got down to more immediate business, spelling out the main reason for his fourth Colorado visit in the past year.
"This is all about raising money to beat George W. Bush," he told a full ballroom at the Oxford Hotel.
via the Denver Post
Men, if you're not sure about whether or not you're a metrosexual yourself, check out the ESPN metrosexual test or read the, uh, seminal article at Salon.com.
Maybe there is an overlarge synaptic gap between Dean's speech control center and the strategic-thinking lobe of his brain. He was backing up like a big dog that had just hit a spot of freshly-polished linoleum and felt himself sliding towards the far wall. In this case, he was suddenly foreseeing how the label "metrosexual" will play in the S.C. primary.
Posted by Alan at November 1, 2003 11:41 AM