Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean isn’t my first choice for the nomination. But one of the things I appreciate about him is how he doesn’t shy away from tough questions. He, as much as any other politician out there, seems willing to candidly answer questions rather than drifting into focus-group-tested talking points.
Take, for example, this exchange during last night’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews”:
MATTHEWS: When you went in to the draft board that day, were you hoping to get deferred?
DEAN: I was not looking forward to going to Vietnam.
MATTHEWS: Were you hoping to be deferred?
DEAN: Yes.
MATTHEWS: Thank you very much.
Of course all the Dean critics are seizing on the fact that Dean said he wanted to be deferred. But the truth is that many politicians, including our current president, tried to avoid serving in Vietnam. The difference with Dean is that he’s honest about it.