Conason: Will Dean become a sitting duck?

[Karmadillo]

There's plenty of time for buyer's remorse to set in and plenty of time for Dean to become a better known quantity. Suggests the race for the nomination is not quite over. Discusses a number of areas where Dean is vulnerable.

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=16126

Late last year, a little-known Democratic Presidential candidate confided deep misgivings about his party's revamped nomination process. The would-be Bush challenger worried that by accelerating the tempo of primaries and caucuses in 2004, the Democrats would make a decision they would later regret.

"In the past, when we've done this, settled on somebody quick, then you have buyer's remorse," he told The Boston Globe, one of very few media outlets interested in his opinions back then. "We've become a sitting duck for that."

The candid Cassandra who issued that warning -- well before his own surprising rise -- was Howard Dean.

<edit>

Until now, the press has subjected Dr. Dean to little of the withering interrogation that is to come. The only certainty in this race is that any such indulgence will end on the day he clinches the nomination.

end

[CWebster]

1. Kerry?

Who is that?

Need I say more?

[Hep]

2. Race is not quite over?

Well no shit!

Dean won't become a sitting duck.

[eissa]

3. Dean would probably agree

with Conason. He has said repeatedly that he doesn't like being referred to as the "front runner," he reminds people during almost every interview that not a single vote has been cast, he makes it clear during the debates (including last night's) that he does not like being the sole focus; in fact, I remember him clapping and saying "right on!" when Kerry was asked another Dean question and he deflected it saying "enough with these questions." In the "spin room" after the debate, Joe Trippi in an interview with C-Span criticized the questioning, especially the one targeted at Dennis, Al and Carol basically telling them to drop out. Joe said they didn't like it when they were being told that earlier this year, and they don't like it now.

[blm]

4. Well....Conason lies all the time...

just like me. ;)

Seriously, I think Dean was set up awhile ago by the Koch brothers on the Vermont Yankee/Entergy deal. It won't matter if Dean doesn't release the papers, the Koch brothers likely have duplicates. They are BFEE loyalists.

[papau]

5. Meanwhile WSJ/Daily News and ABCNote continue dump on Dean

Meanwhile WSJ/Daily News and ABCNote continue dump on Dean
http://www.nydailynews.com/12-10-2003/news/politics/story/144493p-127803c.html

Bushies keen on Dean
as W's ideal foe



By THOMAS M. DeFRANK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF

WASHINGTON - White House political strategists believe Howard Dean has a hammerlock on the 2004 Democratic nomination - and they're trying hard not to gloat about it.

Senior Bush political managers have been ordered to curb their cockiness but many of them privately say President Bush has drawn the opponent of his dreams in Dean - a left-leaning Democrat they contend can be tarred as a latter-day George McGovern.<snip>

But Team Bush believes that Dean's support for same-sex unions, abortion rights and higher taxes not only energizes the conservative Republican base but turns off independent voters.<snip>


In addition, "Dean will never pass the leadership threshold test," another Bush adviser argued. "He comes across as a morally superior liberal elitist who isn't ready to be President."<snip>

COMMENT- now why would the GOP plant a story that they like Dean because he would be easy, but they can not talk about it?



And as always, the ABCNote carries GOP water by saying "There are at least seven people affiliated with the Bush-Cheney campaign who are more familiar with Dean's record as Vermont governor than he is — and can talk about it on terms that will be very compelling to the American people." With the Daily News joining the Wall Street Journal in dumping on Dean in contradiction to "WhiteHouse orders to help Dean win nomination.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/144540p-127806c.html Ten things you should know about Howard Dean : Dean was a New York baby, born in the old Doctors Hospital in Manhattan. His father, Howard, worked on Wall Street for 25 years and the family lived on Park Ave. while Dean was young. His mother, Andree, stayed home with the four Dean boys. He says, “I feel I really grew up in East Hampton ,” where he played hockey on a pond behind his house in the winter and “baseball and Ballantine” in the summer - once he was 18. Dean attended some of the most exclusive schools in the country. At age 13, he was sent to St. George’s School in Newport, R.I. After graduating from high school, he was enrolled in an English boarding school and traveled through much of Europe and North Africa. He later graduated from Yale. The anti-war candidate flunked his draft physical at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn because of an unfused vertebra. He concedes he then took a construction job in Colorado, where “all I did was work and ski.” His brother Charlie was killed in Laos during the Vietnam War. Dean’s parents say Charlie was a CIA agent; his bones were recently repatriated. After trying Wall Street and not liking it, Dean opted for a career in medicine and attended Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, where he met his wife, Judy Steinberg. They shared a medical practice for years, but she has never campaigned with him. Dean says his patients preferred being treated by his wife.Like President Bush, Dean abruptly quit drinking. Dean’s epiphany came when he woke up hung-over at age 33, the day after his bachelor party. He migrated to Burlington, Vt., in 1978 to begin his residency - after not getting into any of his first three choices. He began his political career there. Dean was Vermont’s lieutenant governor in 1991, when Gov. Dick Snelling died. Dean remained governor until 2002, when he decided to run for President.He has two teenage children, Anne and Paul. Paul was recently arrested for being the getaway driver for other teens who broke into a country club bar. Dean was born a Catholic, but now lists his faith as Congregationalist, although he does not attend church regularly.


The ABCNote continues the dump on Dean tone -claiming the Globe takes Dean to task over the what is Bush hiding on 911 - when that is not what the Globe did - it just noted that BUSH KNEW is an incendiary rumor - and questions if Dean should give it air time if he does not think the rumor credible - forgetting that stalling the 911 commission MAKES THE RUMOUR CREDIBLE.And as always, the ABCNote tries to insert in the media mind set that did will not "win"states - so on Feb 3 they should only do stories about delegate accumulation.

[brainshrub]

6. Let them gloat about Dean.

The Carter Administration used to gloat about Reagan.

[Snellius]

25. Is Dean related to the Dean in Dean Witter?

Someone on C-SPAN claimed this this morning.

[Snellius]

26. Answering my own question: No

Ever since Howard Dean began running for President, his lineage has created some mystery. In August bloggers at sites like rightnation.us and freerepublic.com misinterpreted a Jimmy Breslin column in Newsday saying that Dean's "father was the head of Dean Witter stocks." They figured Dean was a Dean Witter scion. Nope. Dean Witter was one guy; he founded his firm in 1924 with his brother Guy Witter.

So who were Dean's ancestors? The family, which settled in Sag Harbor in the 1600s, had become wealthy by the early 1900s: Press clips say Dean's great-grandfather had a box at the Metropolitan Opera and toured New England by auto. His grandfather Herbert followed the family path from Yale to Park Avenue to Wall Street (he was a governor of the NYSE and a member of exclusive clubs like East Hampton's Maidstone), then went on to be a vp at Pan Am. Dean's father, also a Yalie and Park Avenue denizen, ran dozens of branch offices for Reynolds Securities before it was bought by Dean Witter in 1978, then stayed with the firm till 1986. Young Howard was also a stockbroker before becoming a doctor. Lest confusion remain, we confirmed that he is no relation to James Dean, either.

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/subs/article/0,15114,517678,00.html

[mmonk]

7. Everybody has an opinion

but that's it. Everything is unknown; how voters respond, what events may transpire, etc.

[killbotfactory]

8. I disagree with this part

"Until now, the press has subjected Dr. Dean to little of the withering interrogation that is to come."

[Terwilliger]

10. they really haven't gone after him yet

it's going to be interesting to see how Dean does after being assualted by a panel of angry right-wing media

[killbotfactory]

11. Here's what Dean has been through

1. He's unelectable, the next McGovern, because he opposed our Iraq adventure.
2. He can't raise money
3. He had a weak showing on Russert's show and doomed his candidacy
4. He wants to abandon Israel
5. The confederate flag crap
6. The forbidden sealed papers of mystery
7. He's an abortionist
8. He said he "supposes" Iraq is better off without Saddam
9. Want's to give UN a veto on national security
10. His supporters will abandon him when they realize he's not the next McGovern, or something...

I'm sure there's more crap I forgot about.

Edit:

Oh yeah, 11. He's too "angry"

[Terwilliger]

15. yes, and that's nothing compared to what he will be subjected to

he's done well enough so far given his current position, don't you think?

[killbotfactory]

23. Yep.

look at how he faced the "take back vermont" movement.

That was a nasty campaign, and Dean rised to the challenge.

I have confidence Dean will do so again.

[TexasPatriot]

22. lets look at the press coverage from the last day

generally, most of the cable news lead with Gore endorsing, but followed up with a longer discussion of how Gore hosed Lieberman - some going so far as to interview people from Lieberman's family/friends/neighbors/dry cleaners/etc to talk about what a travesty it was. I swear we've spent more time talking about Lieberman due to Gore's endorsement than about Dean.

A lot of the 'analyst' press hasnt been 'how great is this for Dean' so much as 'how bad is this for other candidates' - there wasnt a lot of time spent on the pro-dean positive angle.

Then there was the 'insider Gore supports outsider Dean' angle - 'does this change Dean, will it make him a party insider' etc... again, not a truly 'positive' spin. And over time i'm hearing more and more of this from the news.

If the press will take what is so obviously a major positive event in the Dean campaign and spin it down to neutral or bad... imagine what they'll do with a minor political misstep (everone makes them). There will be a controversy - they'll make one up if there isn't anything real to report (gotta sell adspace afterall)

[MIMStigator]

9. maybe he's not a real liberal like Molly Ivins

:eyes:

[hey2370]

16. Molly Ivins his an American hero

She deserves the greatest honors for her work. I guess anybody who can attack her for her beliefs would find it also easy to demonize Gore for his beliefs.
Those attacking both of these Americans just because they support other candidates should be ashamed of themselves.

[MIMStigator]

17. she voted for nader

she has a way of pickin em

[hey2370]

21. Have you done more for this country?

Supporting Clark doesn't make you better than her.

[ibegurpard]

12. Anyone who is working on a campaign

who isn't expecting just what Conason is talking about it is a fool.

[MIMStigator]

18. it's not about expecting it but expecting it to stick

it will probably stick to Dean

[ibegurpard]

20. the only way to measure that would be by what has happened so far

and I would opine that by that measure we have less to worry about than you would like everyone to believe.

[Kolesar]

13. "buyer's remorse " -- that was the term I had in my head

Dean cannot claim a broad range of experience in foreign policy--this is even outside of the question of whether he can sell his antiwar position to the electorate. Further, Dean is rather an "unknown" on energy policy.

[MoonRiver]

14. I liked Dean best because of his Iraq position, until Clark entered

the race. I switched to Clark because I believe he is a much more viable candidate against *.

[hey2370]

19. Clark is more liberal than Dean

Clark has stated that bin Laden should be tried in the Hague when Dean has demurred on that hypothetical issue, as all Dem candidates should know to do.

Is that supposed to fly with the American public?

That Clark is a better candidate against Bush than Dean because he was a general is a fatal fallacy.

[Justice]

24. Clark Is Right

Why don't you post WHY Clark has stated that bin Laden should be tried in the Hague. It highlights Clark's forward thinking and ability to see how the U.S. can gain stature in the world. The truth is that Dean demurred on this question because he didn't really didn't have a clue.

Clark's point about the Hague is that trying Bin Laden in the Hague will be viewed by the rest of the world as a more credible event - that Bin Laden's punishment will be viewed as more credible. If we bring Bin Laden here and try him here, people in Muslim countries will not see his trial as impartial. The appearance of credibility is key to restoring the US to its rightful place as a world leader. Clark realizes that while short term we would love to see Bin Laden tried here, in the long term, it is better for the US to have him tried in the Hague.

What makes Clark the better candidate is not his experience as a general per se, but rather his experience with world leaders, with diplomacy and foreign policy.

[hey2370]

27. Hold up a sec

With one breath you say Clark is more electable, the next breath you say that he is right, and that's what really matters.

Right or wrong, this is a loaded issue, especially for what Clark supporters consider the main block of possible Clark supporting strong-on-national-defense Americans. I happen to believe that we should use the international courts for bin Laden (anyone think he could get a fair trial in America?), assuming he is still alive and is captured alive.

See what I mean? This is a hypothetical, useful only for Repub propaganda point scoring. No Dem candidate should answer this.