A note for those of you nervous about Dean

[thinkahead]

I just got a call from my Mom in Iowa City. She is going to be hosting three of the "Texas Rangers" next week who are coming to Iowa and New Hampshire to do grassroots work for the Dean campaign. She is beside herself with excitement. A few weeks ago, she went to the Harken Steak-Fry, and was so excited to see President Clinton and all of the candidates who showed up. She has never been this involved in a campaign before - but has been so riled up about the Bush administration she felt she had to get involved. Not being able to move around very easily herself - she has felt the need to help out in whatever way she can.

She will vote for whoever the nominee is, but it was Dean who made her "wake up", so to speak, by being out in front in criticizing the Bush administration, and offering common sense solutions to our current situation in the world. She got to meet Dean and talk briefly with him for a few moments at an earlier event in Iowa. Her comment to me - "he's so presidential". She went on and on about how he really was listening to her, and responding to her comments on special needs children (my little sister has Smith Magines syndrome). He also apparantly had a good laugh when she said "you need to kick that SOB out of the White House".

I can't tell you how sad it makes me to watch all of the Dean bashing that goes on around here - when he is having this kind of effect all over the country. People are waking up to the fact that they can make a difference. We should embrace that, not fear it.

That's it.

[LittleDannySlowhorse]

1. To the worried...

Don't worry. We love Dean, but we're not stupid enough to let Bush get another 4 years. Not a fucking chance.

[mandyky]

2. Thanks for your post!

This is exactly why Dean will win the nomination and be inaugurated in Jan 2005.

[Sterling]

3. The DLC biz as usual crowd should be worried.

And I hate to say it but regardless of what Dean thinks many people who are drawn to him will not back ABB.

This is the test of where the Dems are going and if they will remain relevant in the future. There is no future for a Dem party that selects a pro war candidate to face Bush.

Many Deanies will "vote" against Bush by voting for ABB but many will not and those that do will not be actively supporting the way they would for an anti war candidate.

Without the Deanies it's just the same old DINO party that most people are already done with.

The party will either move forward and away from corporate influence or it will be split.

Unless Clark can find a way to play to these people it won’t work. There are not enough right wing Dems to make Clark happen without the support of the anti war crowd.

So far it ain’t sellin.

[diplomats]

6. I disagree

I think we have several candidates who can unite the party. Dean is not dumb; he knows he has to move to the center to win the election should he get the nomination. And, no, that does not mean abandoning his earliest supporters. These party divisions have been around for as long as anyone can remember. But thanks to Bush's horrible incompetence, he has managed to unite the Dems against him and give our party a real chance in 2004, whether we run Dean or Clark or someone else.

(BTW, thinkahead, I think your mother is great!)

[thinkahead]

8. me too

:)

[KaraokeKarlton]

9. Move to the center? He IS the center, and always has been.

He's not big businesses "center", but the peoples "center", and there's a difference. He appeals to some liberals because he isn't a political coward like many of the other candidates. He is one of the very rare and special politicians who is able to win the support of virtually all areas of the political map. The only people who he can't win over are radicals from both the left and right. It doesn't matter what party a person belongs to, whether they are liberal, moderate or conservative...Dean can talk to them and unite them.

[XanaDUer]

10. "...he isn't a political coward like many of the other candidates"

Do you EVER post anything that is not your opinion?

I don't want to be united with conservatives...

Your posts have never, that I have read , provided ANY backing research or references for these things...oh, and deanforamerica.com is not what I am talking about.

[Nicholas_J]

11. Dean is the most cowardly candidate

running. Cowardly during the draft, and cowardly, spineless and craven as a politician.

He has opportunistically changed his stance on EVERY major platform item in his campaign over the last year and NOTHING he says can be taken as valid, as he commits to nothing.

Fortunately it looks like Clark is beating the crap out of Dean.

[ima_sinnic]

13. what a bunch of crap!

and coming from a supporter of the unimaginative, conventional, undaring, boring, war-approving, Patriot Act-approving, aloof John Kerry.

"Changed his stance"?? At least he HAS a stance. Kerry has done nothing but REACT to Dean. Fortunately his campaign is going NOWHERE.

[KaraokeKarlton]

22. Well Nicholas...

I'd much rather vote for a candidate who avoids a war we shouldn't have gotten into than a candidate who foolishly and carelessly votes for a war we shouldn't have gotten into. But gee, I guess my ethics are just different than yours.

[sham]

24. "Clark is beating the crap out of Dean."

link?
source?
proof?

I didn't think so. Your bubblegum has already lost its flavor.

[stickdog]

26. Here's a little something for the obsessive Dean hater in all of us!

[KaraokeKarlton]

20. Most of the discussion here is opinions

Just because you don't happen to like mine doesn't mean it's not a valid opinion. You see, there are plenlty of people who would agree with me that many of the Democratic candidates are political cowards because they often support Bush over the desires of their own constituency. Sorry, but I consider that political cowardice and not only am I allowed to have that opinion, I'm also allowed to post it. If you have a problem with that, it's your problem, not mine.

[Cha]

17. Thanks for your opinion! And I'll take your opinion since you

are a Vermonter and have lived under Govenor Dean for how many years?

[KaraokeKarlton]

23. Just about a decade of his governorship

I moved here in early April of '94.

[Mechatanketra]

18. Here's the thing ...

I think we have several candidates who can unite the party.

The issue with Dean isn't really about uniting the party, but expanding it. Dean isn't just attracting disenchanted Democrats or desperate border Republicans, but disgusted ex-voters who had previously abandoned all politics.

Like it or not, there are chips in the Dean pot that didn't initially come from the Democratic party and are not automatically transferable to any Democratic candidate. Merely uniting the Democrats may not be enough.

[Eloriel]

19. He's as center and as liberal as he's ever going to be

Dean is not dumb; he knows he has to move to the center to win the election should he get the nomination.

People who say things like that don't know much about Dean or his campaign.

Put another way: if he DOES "move" anywhere, he'll lose me and a LOT of other people. And as you say, he's NOT dumb, and he knows that for sure.

Eloriel

[NashVegas]

4. Please Define "Texas Rangers"

State police?

Baseball players?

Bush über-pioneers?

[FubarFly]

5. Dean's Texas Rangers

Ross Sneyd reports for the AP on Dean's Texas Rangers-- hundreds of Texans travelling to Iowa and New Hampshire this weekend to go door-to-door for Howard Dean:

Hundreds of voters from President Bush's home state will be spending their weekend knocking on doors in Iowa and New Hampshire talking up the presidential campaign of one of his leading Democratic rivals: Howard Dean....

As many as 475 Texans are boarding planes from Austin, Dallas and Houston. They'll be flying to Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Manchester, N.H., respectively to talk about Bush's tenure as their governor and why they back Dean for president, campaign aides say.

They'll be staying in the homes of supporters in the two states that start the Democratic presidential nominating season next winter.

"The reason that we're going to Cedar Rapids is we love our country and we want it back," said Debbie Terwilliger of Flower Mound, Texas, a Dallas suburb. "We don't like living in a country which is being ruled through fear and paranoia. Doctor Dean offers us hope...."

At least some of the Texans also want to contrast Dean's stands with the other nine Democrats in the race.

"He was the first candidate to come out against the war and it's interesting how other candidates are trying to out-Dean Dean in that regard," said Joe Roth of Livingston in east Texas. "I'm with him till November 2004 and beyond."


http://www.blogforamerica.com/

[sugarcookie]

7. Check this out if you have time

This man is from my county. He is going to be one of the "Texas Rangers". It is really inspiring.

http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1090&px=1213029&s_tafId=1100&s_oo=p044Fnq-raOPLhYs3lnipg

[dalsept]

12. All I want for Christmas

Dean is the candidate that has the most personal resonance for me however, I am not convinced that he can win. As always this election will come down to the democrats winning in southern states. Unfortunately, in the minds of southern voters Dean can be charecterized as a Yankee, tree hugging, gay lovin liberal. He will never defeat the cowboy in these rural states. Fortunately, Clark can be called none of theses things and has a good chance of winning in the south and of preventing Bush from getting another term.

[Closer]

15. Clark can be called a Republican though

because that's what he is.

[WillyBrandt]

25. Dean can be called a space alien

But calling him doesn't make it true.

Sorry. You're neurons have already congealed the wrong way, and they're determined to stay that way.

Clark is a progressive. Clark is more progressive than Dean. Dean only recently ACTING like a liberal. Dean's a good guy, but I'd prefer a real Democrat like Clark to a DLCer like Dean.

[ryharrin]

16. Don't worry, southerners like Dean just fine.

He has just as many supporters down there as anywhere else in the country. I just hope Dean will be able to raise as much money as Dean can, or else that'll be a huge disadvantage in the general election. And don't say that because Clark has clinton behind him-Dean has already beaten Clinton's quarterly fundraising record, without tons of $2,000 donations.

[stickdog]

27. Dean is the most electable candidate.

Dean does very well with white males. Look at the NH polls.

Dean does very well with independents. Look at the NH polls.

The smarter you are, the more informed you are and the more you vote, the more you're for Dr. Dean. And the closer you get to the general election, the more people get informed.

Dean is a doctor. So he has immediate credibility on healthcare.

Dean was a fine centrist governor. This gives him immediate credibility on economic policy.

Bush's numbers have plummeted since Dean lept into the lead by telling it like it is about the boy king. Do you really think that's just a coinicidence?

Dean already has almost 420,000 supporters and 100,000 volunteers.

Dean's campaign is REVOLUTIONARY. It's not politics as usual. People respond to new, exciting campaigns -- especially campaigns with so much potential to change American democracy for the better.

Dean doesn't need to sell out completely to raise the money he'll need to fight Bush. This will allow Dean to put people before big corporations in practice, not just in rhetoric. Many people are smart enough to understand this, and have been disgusted with big money politics for a long time now.

Dean can legitimately and potently attack Bush on ALL THE ISSUES. Bush has done EVERYTHING WRONG and Dean has been complicit in NONE OF BUSH'S HORRIBLE FAILURES.

Dean can legitimately and potently attack Bush from the right on the deficit.

Dean can legitimately and potently attack Bush from the near left on the war, abortion, corporatism, tax cuts for the rich and civil rights.

Dean can legitimately and potently attack Bush from the center on the environment, healthcare, imperialism, secrecy, corruption, accountability and competence.

Putting the spotlight on Dean will show only that he's more of a regular guy and more of a centrist than the media initially portrayed him.

Because Dean is a fighter who relishes a fight and a tough guy who relishes making tough decisions, Americans will feel perfectly secure with him once they get to know him.

[Closer]

14. Nice Post!

Thanks!


Dean is for the People!!

[WilliamPitt]

21. Define 'bashing'

1. Starting a thread asking a legitimate question about a statement by Dean that I just saw for the very first time today is a) bashing, or b) asking a legitimate question.

2. Saying, in same thread, that the issue has been settled and that the answer received was more than satisfactory a) puts the issue to bed, or b) is cause for 240 more posts questioning my reasons for putting it up in the first place.

3. Paranoid rants from Dean people about 'bashing' a) is legitimate, b) a sign of victimhood and paranoia, or c) the reason a few Dean people give the whole lot of you a bad name.

Answers:

b
a
a,b,c

Sorry if that was harsh, but man, have I had a bad day around here. That thread I started was the first time I'd seen that quote, and it scared the crap out of me. I asked, answer was excellently given, case closed. Asking was not 'bashing.' Some of the responses in that thread, however, smack of a mindset that reeks of paranoia and self-pity. Speaking of ways to lose an election...

[dave29]

28. Like it or not Will

you carry a lot of weight around here. Which, when you think about it, makes whatever you say resonate that much more loudly. If you take a position that could easily be interpreted as undermining a particular candidate - which you have done on more than one occassion recently - you have to expect the guns are going to come out. People are passionate about their candidates - and, as you can see from the original post on this thread - often with good reason. I'm not saying there isn't a healthy smattering of paranoia and self pity out there, but it would be disingenuous to suggest that it's only one candidate's supporters who are behaving that way.

The concept of relativity applies here. To you it was a legitimate question. To many others, weighted with your other threads of late, I could see why they might assume it was an underhanded attempt to bash Howard Dean. Regardless, your question was answered, and that's good news.