Not a month ago the "Dean Machine” couldn’t be stopped. But one "rebel yell” later this New England liberal’s political machine is no more. In fact, the politically aware are starting to bet on when he will throw in the towel. There are questions surrounding this implosion worthy of asking and the answers may spotlight the seldom spoken of tender under-belly of media manipulation and spin. In essence, Howard Dean’s failure allows us a peak through the window to the world of liberal vulnerability.

It is said the squeaky wheel gets the grease. That old adage isn’t wasted where the mainstream media is concerned. The media is always out to cover the sensational and most often the bizarre. That’s what sells papers and harvests ratings and as anyone who has been aware since the "investigative reporter boon” that started directly after the Watergate scandal it is all about selling papers and getting ratings.

It can be argued that sensationalism and the practice of "shock journalism” have taken the place of accurately reporting real news and the ethic of following leads to the end in an effort to verify the accuracy of a story. ‘All the news that’s fit to print’ has transformed from educating the public accurately about the important issues of the day to the entertainment of the public with stories based on anonymous sources and sources who ask not to be identified. Somehow when we weren’t looking between the 1970’s and today the National Enquirer started to break "real news” stories.

Of course there is motivation behind this transformation. In a rare display of compassion for the mainstream media I will do the honorable thing and say that a lot of the fault for the demise of their honor has to lay with we, the people. It is we who keep buying the sensationalism they sell. It is we who have allowed Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite to be replaced with talking heads like Katie Couric and Matt Lauer. It is we who have allowed them to transform from credible, unbiased news providers to the Hardcopy styled, editorialized journalism they practice today. All one needs to validate this idea is to look at the transformation local TV news weather people have made in less than 30 years. Where we once had meteorologists explaining why there was a chance of showers tomorrow afternoon we now have, as Don Henley so eloquently put it in his song Dirty Laundry, "bubble-headed bleached-blonds coming on at five.” Were we suckered in by marketing? Sure we were but for this one there is enough blame to go around.

Which brings me back to Howard Dean. Here we have the angry ultra-liberal railing against the machine. He started his candidacy agitated and touting a purist liberal agenda. He was so pure of his liberalism he hijacked the Green Party’s voters, that twenty-something crowd so true to their convictions, so idealistic, while being so absolutely blind to the inequities of the real world. It could be argued Dean should have actually been the Green Party candidate but then he wouldn’t have stood a snowballs chance on the Equator, much like his chances now. This leads to the question, how did Howard Dean get from there, there being the party "pretty-boy”, to here, the distant second place candidate who now needs "must wins” to keep his candidacy alive? Liberals and Dean supporters may see the answer as complex but it is quite clear to those who utilize the gift of common sense.

Just as Bill Clinton did in 1992 and just as John Kerry is doing now, Dean’s campaign is based on rhetoric instead of substance. In 1992 Bill Clinton exploded onto the national scene, courtesy of the mainstream media’s gullibility, with one hollow message - "change.” He talked about the need for "change.” He talked about how he could bring about the "change.” He talked about how failure to bring "change” to our country would result in our country’s demise. It was "change, change, change.” But Clinton never really explained what it was that needed changing or how he was going to bring about the "change.” He never defined his idea of "change.” In the end all we got was a big bundle of scandal, eight years of a president who did his best not to fall off the tightrope of "flip-flop”, an exhaustive effort to create a positively viewed legacy, a false economy based on the paper-tiger dot.com boon, an inability to forge a socialistic national healthcare plan, an un-confronted terror threat that would prove to bite us in the behind and a nationally shaken belief in the definition of the word "is.” It was all rhetoric and no substance.

Now, all you have to do in order to see where Howard Dean went awry is to substitute the idea of being "angry” for the idea of "change.” Couple this with the fact the American public saw through Bill Clinton’s tactics of rhetoric just after his re-election and you have the reason why the midterm elections of 1998 went so overwhelmingly to the Republican side not to mention the reason for Howard Dean’s demise in the primaries; the American public didn’t fall for the media’s portrayal of Howard Dean’s hollow rhetoric. While Dean’s anger without substance and his careless flip-flopping resonated with the twenty-something ideologues they didn’t register a whimper with those afflicted with common sense. It really is that simple.

In November it will be the candidate that offers substance who will undoubtedly win. In that respect George W. Bush has it all over every one of the Democratic candidates, bar none. If Joe Lieberman would have survived it could have been a different story but the mainstream media and the liberal elite simply didn’t champion his cause. It would seem the "axis of liberalism” have found another man of non-substance who is capable of flip-flopping with the best of them in John Kerry. Do you know what the Democratic Party needs? Change.

Frank Salvato is a political media consultant and the managing editor for The New Media Journal.us. He is a contributing writer for The Washington Dispatch, GOPUSA, OpinionEditorials, Men’s News Daily, Canada Free Press & AmericanDaily. His pieces are regularly featured in Townhall.com. He has appeared as a guest on The O’Reilly Factor, The Kevin Matthews Radio Show (Chicago) and The Brad Messer Radio Show (San Antonio). His pieces have been recognized by the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention and are occasionally featured in The Washington Times and The London Morning Paper as well as other national and international publications.