I haven’t decided whom I’m voting for yet, but I feel bad for Howard Dean.

I’ve watched “journalists” all over TV gleefully proclaim this week that Dean’s campaign is over because of his little speech in Iowa, and I can’t figure out where they get their logic (or the balls to tell viewers how to vote). They say it shows he doesn’t have the temperament to handle White House duties. Bullshit. Dead didn’t act pissed off or nuts — he just came across like an uptight white guy trying to let loose and get inspired. Surely you’ve seen that happen before; it’s never a pretty sight. I mean, you’re glad the uptight white guy is finally letting his hair down and having fun/getting into the moment, but you know it’s going to be a little scary for everyone watching.

But guess what? All but one of the major-party contenders for the presidency are uptight white guys! I don’t know if their voices would hit quite the same pitches as Dean’s when they yell, but they all look a little goofy when they try to pull off some kind of impassioned plea. Al Gore came across as angry every time he tried to do an awe-inspiring, raised-voice speech, but nobody said he was nuts (for that, anyway). And when you see or hear a clip where the audience noise is not filtered out, you realize that the crowd did get inspired.

Although I think the Dean remixes are amazingly hilarious, in no way is that scream some sort of “sign” that he’s not fit to be president. Maybe if he went AWOL when he was supposed to be serving the military, I could understand. But not for sounding more like Jesse “The Body” Ventura just before a cage match than Thomas Jefferson at the Constitutional Convention.

Luckily, someone a little more eloquent and widely published than I agrees. The main lesson I learned from this incident is that there is no such thing as cable TV journalism.