Polar opposite reactions in two press accounts of Dean's rally before 10-16,000 in NY Tuesday night.

Nasty piece from Jimmy Brelin in Newsday. All he could see was a man speaking unenthusiastically, "in language made of wood."

Dean supporters have been taking some flak lately about whiny about any negative press. I don't think that's true, actually. I think most of us are angry about a certain type of negative press. This is exactly the type I have no problem with.

So what if Jimmy Breslin and I disagree. He had an honest, intelligent reaction, none of that old-school crap the press keeps bringing in about how campaigns are supposed to get to the nomination, no harebrained comparisons to 1972. None of the nonsense that marred Wednesday's New York Times big page-one story.

In fact, Breslin mirrors my own initial reaction to the speech--watching on TV--but gradually Dean won me over in exactly the way Nicholas Thompson describes in Salon (my Dean Story of the Day). (If you don't subscribe to Salon, you'll have to watch a short ad. Well worth it.)

After making fun of the crowd for resembling a Hootie and the Blowfish concert, Thompson says:

But even bearing that in mind, it was hard to leave the speech last night without thinking: Wow, this guy can actually win.

Later Thompson says some may have initially been attracted to Dean because of Iraq, but that's not what's holding them now:

The reason 10,000 people gathered in Bryant Park -- and it's hard to imagine a tenth of that many gathering for any of the four candidates now serving in the Senate -- is because Dean looks and acts like a normal human being who just happens to be smart, well-informed and passionate about changing the political system.

Thank You! Nice to see someone in the press who can read a movement. How hard was that?

On closer inspection, Salon got someone outside the press to write that. Thompson is a fellow with the New America Foundation. Hmmmm. Maybe Salon read my screed from last night--I believe I suggested that very thing.

From today (Thursday's) New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27 — Wesley K. Clark, the retired four-star general who has been contemplating a run for president, has told close friends that he wants to join the Democratic race and is delaying a final decision only until he feels he has a legitimate chance of winning the nomination. . .

Whether he does, his friends said, will be determined by his instincts and a firm assessment of Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, whose early success has come in part through criticism of White House strategies in Iraq that are every bit as strong as General Clark's.

While General Clark has consistently maintained that he has not yet made up his mind, his friends said a major obstacle has been cleared — family approval. They said his wife, Gert, who had initially expressed reservations, now favors his running.

"He is going to do it," said another of General Clark's friends. "He's just going back and forth as to when" to announce.

Of course every story related to Dean has to have at least one howler line, and it comes midway into this: "The addition of General Clark into the presidential campaign could shake up a race that has remained fairly static for months . . ." What? I guess the Dean surge the past few months escaped his notice.

The piece also said draftwesleyclark raised $100,000 tonight, to bring its total to $1 million, and a small group has group has secured $1.7 million in pledges, should he run.

And Clark announced earlier in the day that he would announce by a major speech in Iowa Sept 19, though this was not quite in the Times piece. (Clark does keep pushing it back, but this is the first time he's put a solid date on it. And September is also the month his new book is due. And while we're at it, Howard Dean's memoir is due in November.)

I've been working on a long piece on what Clark might mean to the race, and will try to post it this afternoon.