I confess. I miss the Howard Dean presidential campaign.

[Cascadian]

2003 and 2004 were less than memorable years for me. I lost my job and debt was taking it's toll on me apart from having to move from my nice studio apartment to a dumpy flop room near the University District here in Seattle. The only real bright spot was Howard Dean's campaign for President. He had energized and excited me like no other candidate for President. I would go to his meetups, visit the website religiously, and I have never forgotten his Sleepless Tour stop in Seattle. I even can remember the theme song. Howard Dean gave me hope. This was the right man for the job. I was shattered at the way the campaign turned out and was angered by how the DLC and the mainstream media portrayed Dean during the primaries. I was equally preplexed on how John Kerry surged and the way the Democratic Party hierarchy "rammed" him through. There were many questions that came from that.

The reason I bring all of this up is because I am worried that the Democrats may not find a person with the same caliber and fighting spirit that Howard Dean has. I am glad he got the top post for the DNC but he and everybody else, including me, has their work cut out to take the Democratic Party back as well as the country.

I also tend to wonder how different things might have been had Dean succeeded instead of Kerry. I am convinced Dean would have won the election. A lot dirty dealing went on behind the scene within the Democratic Party I think. Just my thoughts.

John

[Carolab]

1. A lot of dirty dealing DID go on in the party. It's been documented.

Google "A Political Mugging in America", by Charles Lewis.

[FreedomAngel82]

2. I miss that time all together

All the hope and optomistim. All the positive feelings with the debate's and Kerry kicking Bush's ass and the rallies and all the unity with all of us. Now it seems as though we're all on our own or something.

[drfresh]

4. Only for a little longer, just wait

2006 baby. Be the change you want to see and focus like a laser beam on what you can do in 2006.

Peace

D

[pnorman]

3. Drop the "A" and Google "Political Mugging in America".

This is what will come up:

>
>
On November 7, 2003, a strange new group no one had ever heard of called "Americans for Jobs & Healthcare" was quietly formed and soon thereafter began running a million dollar operation including political ads against then-frontrunner Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean. The commercials ripped Dean over his positions or past record on gun rights, trade and Medicare growth. But the most inflammatory ad used the visual image of Osama bin Laden as a way to raise questions about Dean's foreign policy credibility. While the spots ran, Americans for Jobs—through its then-spokesman, Robert Gibbs, a former Kerry campaign employee—refused to disclose its donors.

The Dean campaign cried foul, but no one, including the news media, could figure out exactly who was behind "Americans for Jobs." The disturbing mystery was partly solved by Jim VandeHei of the Washington Post on February 11, after reviewing public Internal Revenue Service records filed under Section 527 of federal tax law. Unfortunately for voters and the general public, that legal disclosure information was filed January 30, 2004, nine days after the Iowa caucuses in which Massachusetts Senator John Kerry upset former Vermont governor Howard Dean. Those contribution records were updated again with another $337,000 in donations on March 4, 2004, for a total of exactly $1 million that the group raised.

The most stunning single fact to emerge—which should have been covered more heavily nationwide and was first broken by the Web site PoliticsNJ.com—was that disgraced former Senator Robert Torricelli, severely admonished for his unsavory campaign finance practices and forced to leave the Senate, had quietly donated $50,000 from his old Senate campaign account to Americans for Jobs. Torricelli reportedly also is a fundraiser for Senator Kerry's presidential campaign.

Why is one of the sleaziest former public officials helping Senator Kerry collect campaign cash? And now that Torricelli and other Kerry campaign donors have been "outed" for supporting the controversial group, why hasn't Kerry been directly asked about the entire controversy? Indeed, why hasn't the avowed campaign finance reformer publicly criticized either the caper or Torricelli? Kerry and his campaign staff declined to answer these and other related, on-the-record questions from the Center for Public Integrity. A Kerry spokesman, Chad Clanton, was quoted in the Washington Post as saying that "I am told no one knew anything about it."
>
>

http://www.publicintegrity.org/report.aspx?aid=194&sid=200

Thanks for that valuable lead. I, like many othere here am (after the fact) puzzled at how Kerry managed to come from so far behind, to become the unbeatable front-runner. Perhaps that article will help explain that, as well as some other "weirdness" involving the DLC. If we don't "get it right" the next time around, the future will be pretty grim ... and for a LONG time to come.

pnorman
On edit: Further Googling brought me here: http://annatopia.com/archives/000546.html
On further edit: Here's another good URL from the above website: http://politicsnj.com/kornacki020504_Torricelli.htm

[kayleybeth]

9. Here's a good article about

John Kerry's come-from-behind Iowa victory.

Really, really long, but worth the read.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/040719/19point.1.htm

[pnorman]

11. I'm about a third of the way through it.

Very interesting so far, and I'll finish it later today. but I still believe the above mentioned machinations of the DLC, are of equal or even greater significance in this.

pnorman

[Bluebear]

5. One of my biggest regrets is not seeing a Bush/Dean debate

Can you IMAGINE?

[Cascadian]

14. Dean would have cleaned his clock.

eom



John

[mixedview]

6. Dean was the best thing to happen to politics in a long time

He shook up the system and forced people to question their assumptions.

He stood for what he believed.

He ran a bottom up, populist campaign.

He has an independent, libertarian streak.

I prefer people like this even if I don't agree with them on every issue.

However, I don't think the Dems sabotaged Dean the way the GOP sabotaged McCain (another person I admire).

I think Dean tripped in Iowa, then the Democratic machinery moved in to make sure he stayed down. They were afraid he would get killed like McGovern. I don't think he would've been killed, but I also don't think he had much of a chance to win. But it still would've been good for this country - at least he would've forced a real debate, which Kerry/Edwards did not.

[Larkspur]

7. The Dem machinery starting going after Dean after Al Gore endorsed him

I'm not blaming Al Gore but the Clintonistas knew that a Gore endorsement gave Dean a legitamacy as a real Prez candidate and a Dean Presidency backed by Gore's former aides would hurt the job prospects of most of those Clintonistas.

[mixedview]

8. You're probably right about that

I like Clinton - he was good for this country. The Boy from Hope is an inspiration for every kid in a trailer park or ghetto - that they too can make it. He inspired me as a teenager.

But Clinton was and still is a very poll driven, triangulating politician.

Dean is the opposite, and the party establishment (controlled mostly by Clinton's people) may have been afraid of losing their power.

[BlakeB]

10. It's an honor to have him as the...

leader of my party!

[nookiemonster]

12. Here! Here!

I love the doc!!

:toast:

[Cascadian]

13. just one kick

eom



John

[LSK]

15. Dean would have been repeating the same charges that Cindy says today

And he would have had the whole countries ear on a daily basis as the Dem nominee.

There would have been no swift boat crap and no flip flop crap. He would have been the CLEAR anti-Bush candidate leaving nobody to doubt where he stands. Nobody could have accused him of being Republican-lite. There was nothing concrete about him being a wild loose cannon because everything he was saying back then is even more supported by evidence today.

I wish badly too that he was our candidate. I think we would have had a much better chance in 2004.

[liberalmike27]

16. I am

So with you on this, I could have written these words. It was like an awakening, just for a short span of time. I've never worked on a campaign before, but I hope another candidate comes along that inspires me like he did.

Like I've said before, we need to remove our minds from the clutches of the media, they chose the nominees, then they choose the president. As long as we allow this, they will. Only a few of us, I suspect those of us who bother to read a bit, and get our information from other sources than the corporate media, are the only ones who stayed until the end.

I think at the beginning, since Dean started so early, he was the only one they covered. Some of us liked him, I think I 'felt' something more than anything, an honesty and directness so missing in politicians these days. At the beginning the Dean group I hosted (here in Mobile, AL, less red than the rest of AL)the people who came were the people who stayed after the scream. Those who came later were under the media spell, and when the media started their assassination, they were the first to leave. The level of mind-control is masterful after sixty years of television, and much concentration of the media.