DEAN ON LENO, A BRIEF REVIEW

(or, "oh god, he's gonna gush about Dean again...")

I thought that it was the best one-on-one appearance he's made in the entire campaign. Dig these highlights:

1) Leno took the first couple minutes to ask Dean a number of biographical questions, allowing Dean to talk more about his experience, both as a child of Republicans (attending the 64 Goldwater convention) and as a doctor. So far, he's made it on taking bold stances and keeping the heat on the Bush administration; he hasn't yet begun to tap into his image as a doctor, which could be his ace in the hole. People trust doctors. Particularly a doctor who chooses someone with big-time national security cred as their running mate, which he would certainly do. My point is that Leno's audience is pretty centrist, and Dean's doctordom is going to play a part in his playing towards the center should he become the Democratic nominee.

2) Though he didn't bring up many political issues, he did get in his "I served as governor through both Bush recessions" line. I think that Dean didn't want to come off as combative and angry on the show, and in that regard he succeeded.

3) He pointed out that one of the Tonight Show staff, "Vicky", gave money to his campaign. A quick perusal of Leno's staff page suggests that this referred to executive producer Debbie Vickers.

4) He's "embarassingly cheap". Just like me! ("that's why I'm a fiscal conservative", says Dean)

5) And most importantly for a show like this, he and Leno had some fun together. While talking about fundraising, Leno introduced a clip of Dean's "unusual" fundraising: Dean was shown standing on a sidewalk, sleeves rolled up, clumsily playing a guitar, next to an open guitar case with signs reading "Will strum for presidency" and "Your change for real change". Ha! Leno followed this up with a clip from a Who concert, with Dean's face superimposed over Pete Townshend.

All in all, an admirable effort. One silly question: Was the guitar thing poking fun at John Kerry's guitar stunt with Moby and the Springsteen cover band last month? I doubt it, as Dean doesn't need to think about Kerry ever again, really.