SORE LOSER

The headlines have moved on, but people still haven't gotten over Howard Dean's concession speech on Monday night. That's the water-cooler chat, not Tuesday night's State of the Union address. Jodi Wilgoren's front-page report, written on deadline, caught Dean's embarrassing performance with an exactness worth a thousand pictures. Every perfectly chosen word was right:

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa, Jan. 19 -- He burst into the ballroom, fists thrust in the air, and slapped a string of high-fives with the dozens of labor union members standing onstage. He grabbed hold of Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa and yanked his hand up, too. He whipped off his suit coat and rolled his sleeves up as far as they would go.

This is how Howard Dean marked the first loss of his charmed political life. "We will not give up," he bellowed to the fiery crowd, grabbing one of the American flags being waved and thrashing it around.

Shouting himself hoarse, Dr. Dean readopted some of the growling, angry outsider tone that had propelled his earlier insurgency as he spun through the list of states where he planned to fight the next rounds: from New Hampshire
to South Carolina to Massachusetts and North Carolina, the latter two the homes of the men who beat him here.

With a fierce grin and a red face, he vowed, "We will not quit now or ever!"

The performance masked what must have been disappointment for Dr. Dean, who until a couple of weeks ago seemed almost invincible and on his way to a clear-cut victory here, but ended up with 18 percent of the vote, only enough
for the bronze.

Dean's behavior struck his critics as a meltdown. The politerati object to his angry, volatile display as proof that he lacks presidential temperament. Maybe so. He certainly lacked grace under pressure. As Dave Letterman put it, he came off like a "Hockey Dad." (Click on the Jan. 20 monologue.) But many presidents from Thomas Jefferson to Richard Nixon have had a nasty side. It wouldn't be much of an exaggeration to say you don't get to be president without being angry or volatile. Some have just been able to hide that aspect of their temperament better than others. What dismayed me about Dean's performance was that his "concession" lacked a sense of reality. His judgment was awful. He plain lost, and he couldn't stand to admit it. That's what stank.