BEST ARTICLE TITLE YOU WILL SEE ALL DAY

At National Review Online: David Frum writes about the rejection of Howard Dean in the Iowa Caucuses. The article is titled:

Have the Democrats gone sane?

Now, no one asked me, but my take on this Iowa result is fairly simple.

A segment of the Iowa populous jumped on the Dean bandwagon early on because it felt good. It feels good to be angry. It is righteous. We get to wallow in our desire to just shake our finger at someone who has in some way offended us.

It is the way children respond when they perceive they have been wronged.

But most of us understand...if we need the occasional reminder, that civilization didn't get to be civilization because we allowed ourselves to run around willy nilly spewing our angry venom all over the place. It got to be civilization exactly because folks learned to refrain from that sort of hypo-evolved behavior and we subjected ourselves to the rule of manners. Civility.

It is why the Senate has a tradition (seemingly in peril) of referring to colleagues as the "distinguished gentleman from South Carolina" instead of "That pinheaded jerk from Charleston".

And so, as we humans do...we scratch the itch a little bit...it feels so good! We let our anger roil just a bit...but as the time approaches to go on record....especially in the caucus format...to stand before our neighbors and declare...well, cooler heads prevail.

Anger works on TV drama series.

It doesn't work as a leadership style.

No one needs help being angry. We all manage to do that pretty well. Where most of us can use a little help is in rising above the fray. Being bigger than the issues. Being bigger than our basest impulses.

And in my mind that is what most folks seek in their leaders.

I know I do. And I believe that in the end that is why only 18% of Iowans went on record for Dean.

And then...true to form...he proceded to explode.

I'm thinking its over for Dean.

And I've got company.

Dan Goldberg, a marketing executive with an independent film company in New York, said he had been planning to volunteer for Dean in New Hampshire. After watching the Monday night speech, Goldberg said, he changed his mind.

"Any chances I would vote for Dean were completely erased by that speech last night -- scary," he said. "I thought mirrors in my apartment would shatter. Especially in contrast with Edwards, who was fantastic."

Happily, civility is not yet dead.