Proof of Chomskyfication. From TNR's excellent anti-Dean blog:

But there's another source for Dean's ignore-the-center strategy: George Lakoff. According to The Boston Globe, Lakoff is Dean's favorite academic, and the two met in June. The January 19 edition of U.S. News reports:

Though Dean did not enter the race with the expectations of winning, he did see a way to win. "Karl Rove [President Bush's political guru] discovered it, too, but I discovered it independently," Dean says and adds that the theory is embodied in the writings of George Lakoff, a professor of cognitive science and linguistics at the University of California-Berkeley. "What you do is crank the heck out of your base, get them really excited and crank up the base turnout and you'll win the middle-of-the-roaders," Dean says. The reason, according to the theory, is that swing voters share the characteristics of both parties and eventually go with whatever party excites them the most. "Democrats appeal to them on their softer side--the safety net--but the Republicans appeal to them on the harder side--the discipline, the responsibility, and so forth," Dean says. "So the question is which side appears to be energetic, deeply believing in its message, deeply committed to bringing a vision of hope to America. That side is the side that gets the swing voters and wins."

And the January 12 issue of Time has this:

Lately Dean has been intrigued by the writings of University of California, Berkeley, cognitive linguist George Lakoff, the author of Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think. Lakoff argues that liberals, with their "nurturing parent" view of the world, have lost ground in the values debate to "strict father" conservatives. In the middle, Lakoff writes, are "bi-conceptuals," who have internalized both parents. The question for Dean in reaching that small slice of swing voters is, Can he win over their inner mom without seeming like a too permissive dad?

So, Dean's guru is an obscure professor of linguistics from one of the most Left-wing universities in America? But wait, there's more:

For instance, in an October 29, 2001 essay for In These Times, a socialist newspaper, Lakoff praised his representative, Barbara Lee, for casting the sole vote against going to war in Afghanistan. Lakoff wrote:

Justice is called for, not vengeance. Understanding and restraint are what is needed. The model for our actions should be the rescue workers and doctors--the healers--not the bombers. We should not be like them, we should not take innocent lives in bringing the perpetrators to justice. Massive bombing of Afghanistan--with the killing of innocents--will show that we are no better than they.

Wait, Dean's guru is an obscure ultra leftist anti-American professor of linguistics from one of the most Left-wing universities in America?

My friends, I have long said that Dean is the Chomskyian candidate in this race. Its good to be right. By the way, that bit about Liberals and Conservatives reacting to the "severe father figure" is just priceless Leftist gobbledygook. It couldn't be that people actually have different ideas and beliefs then they do...no, were all traumatized by our oppressive father/ogre. No wonder they can't win any elections. Morons.