Surprises in Iowa

Did Howard Dean, in his gasket-blowing concession rant after finishing third in Iowa, more closely resemble 1) Bruce Banner metamorphosing into the Hulk; 2) Classy Freddie Blassie in full lather shouting down Pencil-Necked Geeks; or 3) a frenzied Japanese samurai game-show cheerleader?

"In your heart, you know he's nuts," opponents cracked about Goldwater in 1964, but you couldn't watch Dean's speech on Monday night and not come to the same conclusion, particularly when comparing Dean's overheated yawping with John Edwards' smooth presentation immediately before. Edwards came across as positive and upbeat, Doctor Dean as positively unhinged.

Meantime: On John Kerry as Thurston Howell, from US News & World Report's "Washington Whispers" column by Paul Bedard, 6/10/03 :

Have you ever found yourself wondering if Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry is really Thurston Howell III, the Gilligan's Island millionaire? No? Well, you will soon if Republican strategists follow through with their prankster plans for the 2004 presidential race. "We'll gig 'em whenever and wherever we can," says one source. The idea is simple: Send an "attack mascot" to primary and caucus appearances of leading Democratic White House hopefuls to heckle and unnerve the candidates. Initial plans by GOP strategists focus on Kerry, Rep. Dick Gephardt, Sen. John Edwards, and Sen. Joe Lieberman. Just this weekend, Edwards will be met in his home state with a Welcome Wagon, a dig at how much time he has been away campaigning. The most original is the Kerry gag mascot: somebody dressed as Howell, the lock-jawed dim bulb who inherited his wealth. In his straw hat: a $150 price tag to represent his barber's fee. Suggests Kerry spokesman David Wade, the GOP "should lay off the Gilligan's Island imagery before we cast George W. Bush as Gilligan in the remake."

And from a Vogue profile by Julia Reed posted at the Kerry campaign site:

It’s an aristocrat’s house-comfortable, authentic, reflective of the genuine passions and ample means of its owners. Lined up on the spacious mahogany bar are empty bottles of Petrus and a 1945 Chambertin Close de Beze; the staff’s car is an Audi station wagon. When Kerry takes a call from his wife and greets her, warmly, as “Lovie,” it occurs to me that last time I’d hard the same moniker, it was used by Thurston Howell, the pompous millionaire on Gilligan’s Island. Kerry comes by his Brahmin deportment naturally. His mother was a member of the blue-blooded Forbes family, though the fortune had dwindled by the time Kerry’s generation came along; his father was a foreign-service officer stationed in Paris, Oslo, and Berlin. Kerry was sent to boarding school in Switzerland and later enrolled at St. Paul’s in New Hampshire. Holidays were spent with his cousins on Naushon Island, “my family’s island” off Cape Cod.

Plus, funny Kerry stories from Howie Carr here and here.

And Natalie Schafer remembered.

On to New Hampshire.