# Is this Obama's "Howard Dean Death Scream"? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 12, 2008, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-obamas-howard-dean-death-scream/437244 "2008-02-12T02:27:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-obamas-howard-dean-death-scream/437244/1 "2008-02-12T02:27:51Z")
I’m not sure exactly where this should go. I sure feel like pitting someone. Apparently, a helpful Barack Obama campaign staffer (volunteer?) has done a very stupid thing: she hung a Cuban flag with Che Guevara superimposed on it in the front office of Obama’s campaign headquarters in Houston, Texas. Video is [here](http://www.myfoxhouston.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=5700252&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1). At the moment, it’s just a few seconds on film, but it’s a few seconds on film _on Fox News_, and predictably, the right-wing blogosphere is making hay like hell out of it. [The Lone Star Times](http://lonestartimes.com/2008/02/11/obama-office-adores-psychotic-marxist-thug/) [Backyard Conservative](http://backyardconservative.blogspot.com/2008/02/obama-che.html) [Hot Air](http://hotair.com/archives/2008/02/11/video-campaign-office-decor-of-the-day/) There are probably hundreds more. Just Google. I haven’t been able to get the absolute straight of the story, but based on my (admittedly hazy) understanding right now, good God. If this is an official campaign HQ, this could be bad. Like “end of presidential campaign” bad. I mean, sure, Che’s image has become a standard lefty fixture. A cultural icon pretty well divorced from what Che Guevara actually stood for. But there are those who still recognize that the Cuban flag, and Che Guevara’s image, are incredibly inappropriate and potentially highly damaging to a left-leaning presidential candidate who already has enough going against him as it is. And you can bet that among those who recognize this fact are people on both sides of the aisle. So basically, WHAT THE FUCK was this staffer thinking?! If this gets picked up (say, by Fox News) and taken national, this fairly minor incident could end up being Obama’s Willie Horton. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-obamas-howard-dean-death-scream/437244/2 "2008-02-12T02:37:03Z")
If that’s all it takes, fuck us for a bunch of chumps. ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-obamas-howard-dean-death-scream/437244/3 "2008-02-12T02:37:54Z")
Meh, we’re Dems, we don’t care so much… Besides it was a volunteer staffer not the O man. Shouldn’t be too hard to distance himself from her if he feels he needs to. Personally I hope he just dismisses it as inappropriate for his offices but reminds folks that the Democratic party unlike others is open to all kinds of people with all kinds of ideas. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-obamas-howard-dean-death-scream/437244/4 "2008-02-12T02:38:33Z")
[QUOTE=elucidator] If that’s all it takes, fuck us for a bunch of chumps. [/QUOTE] That, of course, is the problem. It’s quite possible that it really could be that simple. I mean, a moderately impassioned exclamation torpedoed Howard Dean. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-obamas-howard-dean-death-scream/437244/5 "2008-02-12T02:42:12Z")
> [@](#): > > Shouldn’t be too hard to distance himself from her if he feels he needs to. I certainly hope you’re right. I would hope that he reacts strongly at the first hint of national stink. Hell, I hope I’m wrong, and this never makes it out of obscurity. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-obamas-howard-dean-death-scream/437244/6 "2008-02-12T02:42:14Z")
To the extent that this fits some narrative (which is what really matters with trivial stories like this) it is a narrative that is only believed by the extreme right (i.e. Obama hates America that’s why he won’t wear a flag lapel pin). I don’t think it’s a narrative that is popular in the media or among Democrats. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-obamas-howard-dean-death-scream/437244/7 "2008-02-12T02:43:17Z")
Yes. And Hillary’s tears were the end of her campaign, and Huckabee’s “Dukakis in the tank moment” was… well, I forget what someone here said it was, but he went on to win a bunch of states since then. So… when your first impulse is “the campaign is over,” take a deep breath. Obama is almost a cinch to win three more states tomorrow, so no, this is not the wreck of his campaign. And from the video, it looks to me like _it’s in the woman’s own office_. The people who freak over this are likely to be the same people who say Barack Obama is a puppet of George Soros. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-obamas-howard-dean-death-scream/437244/8 "2008-02-12T02:44:43Z")
> [@](#): > > Meh, we’re Dems, we don’t care so much… Oh, and I wanted to address this. Sure, the Dems may not care so much, but say Obama gets the nod, and the Pubbie spin machine resurrects this. Talk about alienating moderates and moderate conservatives who might be thinking of voting Democrat… ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-obamas-howard-dean-death-scream/437244/9 "2008-02-12T02:45:24Z")
If the Republican party can recover from gay preachers who do meth with their rent-boys, Pagefuckergate, and Larry Craig, and still rally the base by claiming to be against the whole gay thing, then I think Obama can survive having a hippie on his staff who expressed his or her First Amendment rights perhaps a little… strangely. Here, let me try: > [@](#): > > Those volunteers, man, they’re college kids working all hours with no sense of their own limits. Late nights, not much sleep, nothing but caffeine – and they’ve got a lot of passion, so I love them all, I really do. I have a few colleagues in the Senate who flew banners when they were in college, and I don’t think it’s reflected negatively on anyone. For anyone who doesn’t understand what happened, relax: please rest assured that we are not campaigning for a guerilla war, or a revolution, or anything to do with the late Ernesto Guevara. > > What we **are** campaigning for is… ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-obamas-howard-dean-death-scream/437244/10 "2008-02-12T02:46:21Z")
[QUOTE=Ogre] Hell, I hope I’m wrong, and this never makes it out of obscurity. [/QUOTE] And you’re doing your part be posting hyperbolic anguished rants on a message board? You might want to re-think that tactic… ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-obamas-howard-dean-death-scream/437244/11 "2008-02-12T02:46:32Z")
No. The exaggeration of that moment “topedoed” Dean, an act that had the tacit acceptance of the Clintonista/corporatist wing of the Dems. And the Vatican, but that goes without saying… ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-obamas-howard-dean-death-scream/437244/12 "2008-02-12T02:46:56Z")
The mantra of the average campaign staffer should be “I shouldn’t do anything to fuck this up”. That just is a whole lotta stupid, but it’s not a Dukakis tank moment. Voters can forgive a candidate for having a stupid campaign staffer. It’s not the candidate, just a worker. And all of us have had a stupid coworker at least once in our lives. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-obamas-howard-dean-death-scream/437244/13 "2008-02-12T02:48:09Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] Yes. And Hillary’s tears were the end of her campaign, and Huckabee’s “Dukakis in the tank moment” was… well, I forget what someone here said it was, but he went on to win a bunch of states since then. So… when your first impulse is “the campaign is over,” take a deep breath. Obama is almost a cinch to win three more states tomorrow, so no, this is not the wreck of his campaign. And from the video, it looks to me like _it’s in the woman’s own office_. The people who freak over this are likely to be the same people who say Barack Obama is a puppet of George Soros. [/QUOTE] I agree with you, and would dismiss it out of hand…if I had any faith that political media coverage, and political spin in this country was a) honest, and b) sane. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-obamas-howard-dean-death-scream/437244/14 "2008-02-12T02:49:14Z")
Take a deep breath, Dude. The Dean scream and Dukakis in the tank were things that the candidate actually did. This is something that some minor staffer of Obama’s did. He had nothing to do with it and he won’t support it. This won’t even be a blip. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-obamas-howard-dean-death-scream/437244/15 "2008-02-12T02:50:13Z")
[QUOTE=askeptic] And you’re doing your part be posting hyperbolic anguished rants on a message board? You might want to re-think that tactic… [/QUOTE] Don’t be a douche. I’m discussing a political story on one of the best fora I know. We discuss everything here, and no, I feel no particular urge to refrain from comment on a political matter just because I happen to currently favor Obama. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-obamas-howard-dean-death-scream/437244/16 "2008-02-12T02:51:47Z")
[QUOTE=hajario] Take a deep breath, Dude. The Dean scream and Dukakis in the tank were things that the candidate actually did. This is something that some minor staffer of Obama’s did. He had nothing to do with it and he won’t support it. This won’t even be a blip. [/QUOTE] I’m not breathing shallowly, Dude. And I hope you’re correct. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-obamas-howard-dean-death-scream/437244/17 "2008-02-12T02:53:45Z")
On a side note, I’ve noticed that the crazy right-wing blogs (and NOW) refer to him as “Barak Obama” or “Barak Hussein Obama.” Does dropping the “c” somehow make him more ethnic and sinister or what? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-obamas-howard-dean-death-scream/437244/18 "2008-02-12T02:55:14Z")
[QUOTE=Ogre] I agree with you, and would dismiss it out of hand…if I had any faith that political media coverage, and political spin in this country was a) honest, and b) sane. [/QUOTE] The coverage of Hillary’s “crying” (getting mildly choked up for a moment) was not sane at all and little of it was honest, and plenty of people said “that’s it, she’s finished.” I didn’t hear anyone say “she’s sure to win New Hampshire now!” But she did and she’s still in it. And like **hajario** said, that was something she actually did. Well, sorta. ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-obamas-howard-dean-death-scream/437244/19 "2008-02-12T02:55:19Z")
[QUOTE=Ogre] Don’t be a douche. I’m discussing a political story on one of the best fora I know. We discuss everything here, and no, I feel no particular urge to refrain from comment on a political matter just because I happen to currently favor Obama. [/QUOTE] I am not being a douche. On the one hand you want the story to disappear on the other you give it more publicity. Which is it? It would be one thing if you responded to some douche who posted “OMFG Obama isa comunist clik hear” it is another to get out in front of the story giving “OMFG” guy ideas. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-obamas-howard-dean-death-scream/437244/20 "2008-02-12T02:58:03Z")
[QUOTE=askeptic] I am not being a douche. On the one hand you want the story to disappear on the other you give it more publicity. Which is it? It would be one thing if you responded to some douche who posted “OMFG Obama isa comunist clik hear” it is another to get out in front of the story giving “OMFG” guy ideas. [/QUOTE] I’m seeking opinions on the subject from a source I respect. One more set of posts on a message board are not going to make this story turn the corner any faster than all the heavy breathing going on in right-wing circles already. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-obamas-howard-dean-death-scream/437244.md?page=2)