Is Howard Dean the Cha-Cha Slide?

Did Howard Dean discover the internet, or did the internet discover Howard Dean? Arnold Kling, writing in "The Internet and Mobocracy" (Tech Central Station), thinks a pre-existing core of angry liberals, needing an anti-Bush candidate, chose Howard Dean as their current standard-bearer:

Howard Dean emerged as a candidate of the left-wing militants the way that the Cha-Cha Slide emerged as a staple on the Bar Mitzvah circuit. It's not that the Cha-Cha Slide means something to Jewish culture. It's just that there is a Bar Mitzvah circuit that needs a silly dance. When the Macarena craze finally died out -- thank goodness -- something else came along to take its place -- unfortunately.

The political movement of affluent, college-educated, angry liberals needed a candidate for the same reason that Bar Mitzvah DJ's need a way to pull people onto the dance floor. Howard Dean is the left's Cha-Cha Slide. He did not create the parties that dance to his tune. He just replaced the Macarena.

Kling makes this point in the context of a much more serious issue -- whether the internet magnifies the influence of the extreme left and extreme right, potentially leading to the Weimarization of our political culture.