# Things we know that but really don't
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-know-that-but-really-dont/594034
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [August 25, 2011, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-know-that-but-really-dont/594034 "2011-08-25T13:44:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@tim-n-va](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim-n-va)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2011, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-know-that-but-really-dont/594034/1 "2011-08-25T13:44:24Z")
In this [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=621000) about next year’s election, the “angry Howard Dean” comment was used.
When I saw the clip initially, without any explanation, I thought it was just a “rally the troops” cheer poorly done. Sort of a “hip, hip hooray” or an Army “Hoo-aH”. It was out of character and came off as awkward but I never saw it as “angry Howard Dean”. Remember, the context was approximately “we are going on to win in New Hampshire… and to win the white house…aaaarrrrrr”.
I assert that this is just bad reporting (perhaps spin influenced from his opponents’ supporters).
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### Author:  [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2011, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-know-that-but-really-dont/594034/2 "2011-08-25T14:04:57Z")
All I know is that a full 7 years later, it’s still hilarious. I was a Dean supporter but man, that will _never_ not be funny.
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### Author:  [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2011, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-know-that-but-really-dont/594034/3 "2011-08-25T14:28:40Z")
I agree with **tim** in that I never quite understood what the big deal was with the Dean screech. Everyone goes a little bit silly once in a while, and Dean was stressed out after months of constant campaigning and probably short on sleep. It wasn’t a wise thing to do but I can’t understand why everyone made such fuss about it.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2011, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-know-that-but-really-dont/594034/4 "2011-08-25T14:35:37Z")
Life is not fair, and this is a perfect example. The “scream”, out of context is very different from the whole speech, but we usually only see the “scream”.
My take, though, is that Dean was done (as a candidate), and the press just picked up a neat (tidy) way of showing it. He road the wave of media darling for awhile, and when the tide turned, they dumped him like yesterday’s garbage.
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### Author:  [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2011, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-know-that-but-really-dont/594034/5 "2011-08-25T15:26:45Z")
**John Mace** has it right. The media love to play their influence, even if not a very coherent fashion, and like to pretend they are the kingmakers.
I am definitely no Dean supporter, but I do respect him, and there are a lot of less liberal Democrat pols I would toss before Dean. The scream is really, really funny. But there was nothing wrong with it whatsoever and the entire “contraversy” was simply another media navel-gazing news fabrication\*.
\*In both the senses of being a manufactured product and a lie.