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[Via Scripting News] A few very interesting stories about payback, and a suggestion for how to pay back the national media for killing Howard Dean. I'm not sure about the last point, but the stories are absoluately worth reading, especially if you're intrigued like I am by psychos and the mafia.

Jim Moore, Dean's internet guru and Berkman regular, has some interesting observations about yesterday's near-record fundraising. In my opinion, what was appealing about Dean's promise—an email to supporters asking for an all-out effort to win Wisconsin but vowing to bow out of the race if he lost—was that it resonated with a concept of Dean For America as a movement, not just a political campaign.

Let's face it: if this election is about one man, it is about George Bush. Bush's potential opponents have their varying strengths, to be sure, but the differences among them utterly pale in comparison to the differences between any of them and Bush. We almost owe Bush our thanks for galvanizing all of us against him. It is now possible to feel camaraderie with virtually anyone in the Western world under 30 by sharing disgust at the US President.

The implications of these bonds are stunning. My generation has had things pretty easy here in America. Growing up, the economy was kind to our parents, we were wonderfully educated, and we always felt safe and trusting of our nation and government. But in the past three years, the economy has tanked as we entered the job market, the resulting government budget crunch has drained public schools and universities everywhere, and our illusions of safety have been brutally compromised. While it's true we shouldn't expect boom times to last forever, we see a president that has not only ignored but worked against our concerns in favor of entrenched interests that we oppose. And, for the first time, there are major political organizations that really appeal to us. One may be a candidate, but like many others, what appeals to us is the opportunity to participate meaningfully in politics within a constituency that has only recently, but with great force, acheived self-awareness. It tells us you don't have to be old, unionized, or religious to rally together— a tremendous relief for us, who have been battered and fried in diversity rhetoric.

That's why I almost gave money to Dean yesterday— his message showed the biggest hint of understanding our pressing needs I've seen yet. What would get me to give? A promise that, rather than letting his campaign fizzle to death in primary after primary, he'd turn the money and momentum it has raised into a new kind of union and advocacy organization that would continue to represent us for years and years. For that, I would not only open my pocket, but also my schedule.

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The elusive piece of this phenomenon is cultural: the Internet. Rather than compare Dr. Dean to McGovern or Goldwater, it may make more sense to recall Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy. It was not until F.D.R.'s fireside chats on radio in 1933 that a medium in mass use for years became a political force. J.F.K. did the same for television, not only by vanquishing the camera-challenged Richard Nixon during the 1960 debates but by replacing the Eisenhower White House's prerecorded TV news conferences (which could be cleaned up with editing) with live broadcasts. Until Kennedy proved otherwise, most of Washington's wise men thought, as The New York Times columnist James Reston wrote in 1961, that a spontaneous televised press conference was "the goofiest idea since the Hula Hoop."

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Perhaps we'll see a Dean-Moseley Braun ticket! I think Moseley Braun is brilliant, so this would be good, but on the other hand I'd like to see someone less likely to spend tons of money we don't have.

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Slightly gushy but interesting article about the Dean campaign, and how it's a teeming mass of 20-something techno-rejects.

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Everybody talks about how the Internet has been key to his fund-raising and organization. Nobody talks about how it has shaped his persona. On the Internet, the long term doesn't matter, as long as you are blunt and forceful at that moment. On the Internet, a new persona is just a click away. On the Internet, everyone is loosely tethered, careless and free. Dean is the Internet man, a string of exhilarating moments and daring accusations.