2004: What if Dean didn't scream?

[Real Texan Politics]

So we all know about Howard Dean's infamous voice-cracking scream and how it practically ended his campaign (or so we're told), but what if he didn't do the scream? Would the results of the primary and/or the general election been the same, or would they have been drastically different?

[Left Wing]

Still would've lost the primary, he had just come in third in a contest he was widely expected to win, you need an earlier PoD to save his campaign.

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

I think it's a common Post Hoc assumption that the scream caused him to lose when in reality the scream wouldn't have occurred if he wasn't already losing. He was trying to cheer up his disappointed supporters after coming in third in Iowa and while it certainly didn't help I think that given how much he underperformed relative to expectation he was going to lose no matter what at that point.

[McGarnagle]

Would have lost the primary but wouldn't have become a meme (at least in that way)

[President Biden Democrat]

He still would have lost the primary, but if he won he still would have lost against President Bush by a similar margin.

[KYRockefeller]

I'm still impressed Dean didn't double up on any of the states he listed during that tirade.  It was something to behold live.

But that said, Dean needed to win Iowa to get some wind at his sails like Obama did in 2008.  Instead, he and Dick Gephardt beat each other to a bloody pulp and John Kerry swooped in late and won it and rode that victory to another in New Hampshire and locked things up.  Wesley Clark deciding not to contest Iowa was a big error as well.

[Chips]

Still would've lost the primary, he had just come in third in a contest he was widely expected to win, you need an earlier PoD to save his campaign.