Dean and his SUV

The Dean Nation blog points to this interview with Howard Dean, in which interviewer Charlie Gibson asks him what his favorite car is:

Favorite car? Oh, my goodness. Well, the politically correct answer is a Toyota Prius, but I would have to say Chevy Blazer.

On the one hand, I can understand the strategy of explicitly not giving a politically correct answer. A big part of Dean's appeal is his aura of authenticity and refusal to base his stance on what he thinks people want to hear. Citing the Blazer makes Dean seem more like a regular guy. On the other hand, he's had to squirm around his automobile choices before, trying to retain his ability to wear the environmentalist mantle while driving an SUV. I'm sure Dean, like most people, has a lot of other things in mind when he thinks about a car than just gas mileage and pollution emissions. But for better or worse, the SUV has become the symbol of environmentally destructive personal behavior, so the widsom of citing one of them as your favorite car seems questionable.