It was the new, more subdued Dean who was on display this morning. His cold may have been a factor, but he also seems to have consciously adopted a soft-spoken-ness to make up for his Monday night screaming. It makes for a very weird impression. Dean says all the same harsh, over-the-top anti-Bush lines he has spouted for a year, he just says them very softly. So instead of “GEORGE W. BUSH IS WRECKING THE COUNTRY AND WE MUST GIVE HIM A ONE-WAY TICKET TO CRAWFORD, TEXAS!!!” it is now “George W. Bush is wrecking the country and we must give him a one-way ticket to Crawford, Texas.” It’s as if Huey Long’s political spirit had been transplanted into Mr. Rogers’ persona. In his newly-gentle tones, Dean delivered such stunners as: “I don’t think this president respects veterans, I don’t think he respects the troops”; “This president smiles while he’s got a knife in your back cutting off your benefits”; “Bush is one of the weakest presidents we’ve had on defense in a long time”; “The President of the United States has a substance abuse problem, it’s called O-I-L”; “Because of George Bush, the terrorists have already won”; “What the President is doing is undermining our democracy”; “Bush believes corporations are his constituents, not ordinary people”; and, finally, “This President has forgotten that we are human beings” (you know, I knew there was always something that bothered me about George W. Bush). Dean could whisper this stuff and it would still be outrageous.