Glenn Greenwald turns on the wayback machine and shows how Howard Dean was right about Iraq at every turn, and notes how he was (and still is) belittled by people who have been just as consistantly wrong as some kind of extremist or unserious person. After a lengthy quote from a 2003 speech that literally hurts it's so right-on, Greenwald summarizes the current mindset within the traditional media and power-elite:

If you want to know what the U.S. should do about the new Middle East war and any other complex, grave national security matter, you have to talk to Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes and Stephen Hadley and Peter Beinart and Joe Lieberman and John McCain and Tom Friedman and Rich Lowry and Newt Gingrich and all the other "serious" tough guys who might have been wrong about every single thing they said about Iraq but, for some reason that is impossible to discern, are supposed to be the only ones with any credibility on these questions -- still. But whatever you do, just don't listen to Howard Dean or anyone of his ilk, no matter how right he might have been about Iraq.

This is our national debate, and its complete and utter lack of substance is a liability. It's because of shit like this -- and the inability of anyone (journalists and Democrats and activists alike) to do anything about it -- that we are where we are; stuck being hustled into Armageddon by an ignorant born-again ex-playboy who likes to play dress up as "Leader of the Free World."