A whole
20 minutes of Harkin and Dean in Iowa in the speeches that happen to also contain Dean's Yeeaaahhh! It is at C-SPAN.
I just happened to watch it tonight because I wanted to link it elsewhere on dKos, because I agree with what many have noticed, which is that it seems less bad with time. Exposure will do this to some things, but not others. I predicted that it was the context of coming in third that made it seem so unreasonable, and as time passed it's not something that would look bad because you had to have the context of the News Night of the "shocking loss", and here is this crazy man!!! Did anybody tell him he's a big loser?
This was compared, say, to Ted Kennedy's excellent WWF introduction of John Kerry (props for telegraphing your emotions during the SOTU too, Teddy!). In fact, Dean "won" delegates, his first presidential delegates ever.
But there is a bigger thing I notice after watching this. The scream is just a couple minutes... there is a whole context to the rally around that. When I watched the whole thing I was more likely, not less, to vote for Dean.
(1) Harkin pumped up the crowd
He spoke well and energetically; he said it wouldn't be easy, he said the special interests were circling up the wagons, and that they all were on their way to New Hampshire (yeah!!! <--- Harkin). That is what Dean was referring to when he mentions Harkin as he starts listing states. Harkin left the crowd in that spirit.
(2) Dean's Silly Period
It is just a few moments. They were the only moments I saw on TV, live, and Harkin had given him the crowd this way was something I just found out, and that makes a difference. This is a very short few moments.
(3) Dean's real speech
Was very appropriate. He was calm and measured.
He talked some policies.
He said he called Kerry and Edwards to congratulate them and he was going to meet them again.
He said he would have liked to come in first, "and so would you", but that he had a good 2 years in Iowa and he was thankful for the legitimacy Iowa had nonetheless given him. He has delegates now.
He thanked the people of Iowa.
Basically
Iowa was a starting bell, Dean was thankful for what he got, and thankful for the hard work that made him a serious candidate. Watch the whole thing and see what you think, that's why we have the internet political culture (and espc. C-SPAN) so we can do these things.
PS: I'm uncommitted, but I would like to say I support multiple candidates and to a degree them all. When I watched the scream out of context live, it seemed a very goofy to me, and my wife thought he sounded insane. Watching it twenty times has made it a non-critical chuckle. Again, in the context of the 20-minute rally, it's a total natural punctuation.
If this destroys a man's chances at being President, and I don't for a moment think it does, then it's worth looking at in context.