Dean's Manager: Inside Savvy and Outsider Edge

[pruner]

By JODI WILGOREN
Published: December 13, 2003

BURLINGTON, Vt., Dec. 12 — If Joe Trippi, Howard Dean's campaign manager, had a bumper sticker, it would read: "The biggest myth in American politics is that Joe Trippi is running the Dean campaign."

When he says this to supporters, it is a political slogan, implying that those who fill the campaign's coffers, chat on its Web sites and canvass their communities control the candidate's destiny. When he barks it at the campaign's headquarters here, it is a self-deprecating whine, complaining that the young staff fails to heed his command.

Mr. Trippi, of course, is the myth's top promoter as well as its debunker-in-chief. But many Democrats are increasingly intrigued by the man behind Dr. Dean.

After a lifetime of long shots, including five failed presidential campaigns, Mr. Trippi is the political consultant of the season, having helped transform Dr. Dean, the former governor of Vermont, from an asterisk in the polls to the man to beat for the Democratic presidential nomination. Mr. Trippi has revolutionized use of the Internet for political organizing and fund-raising, while becoming a cult hero to some members of the C-Span set.

The Dean phenomenon is, undoubtedly, due to a synergy of man, moment and message, but people inside the campaign, rivals, independent analysts — even the candidate himself — agree it would not be happening without Mr. Trippi.

…

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/13/politics/campaigns/13TRIP.html?ex=1071896400&en=8bf9d55ecfcd9e39&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

[molly]

1. You mean they didn't have a mind meld?

[Cha]

2. Dean and Trippi are a Perfect

Match!:pals:

[Raya]

9. Trippi has sucessfull morphed HOWARD DEAN INTO JERRY BROWN

Just noticed that Trippi ran the 1992 Jerry Brown campaign against Bill Clinton. I supported Jerry and thought Clinton was really a "Slick Willie."

NOW TRIPPI HAS CHOSEN 'SLICK HOWIE' AND IS RUNNING HIM IN THE PRIMARY LIKE JERRY BROWN.


Interestingly horrible.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

12. exactly!

you have hit the nail on the head I think. :hi:

[mikehiggins]

3. Campaign hype

If Dean loses the nomination, or gets the nomination and loses the GE Trippi will be forgotten ten minutes after the votes are counted.

If Dean wins, Trippi will become the next Stephanopolis or Carville and spend the next four years on talk shows.

We all look for heroes and leaders and Trippi is the flavor of the month.

[pruner]

6. flavor of the primary season is more like it

:)

[mitchum]

4. That headline sounds like you could buy him at The Gap

[deminflorida]

5. You said it...he's the man for the job....

"After a lifetime of long shots, including five failed presidential campaigns"

[molly]

7. Which 5 failed pres campaigns?

[Hep]

11. I know of two

Hart in 1984 and Gephardt in 1988.

I THINK! I'm not sure.

But the Dean campaign is modeled after Hart's. Concentric circle model rather than the top-down model. This is why Dean's grassroots efforts are continuing to grow while those of the others fizzle out.

[UTUSN]

8. So Who Were the 5 Failed Campaigns?

*******QUOTE********
.... "He's always in the middle of some tumultuous, sometimes disastrous, thing."

"In the quest for victory," Mr. Giangreco added, "there is a certain recklessness."

In whispers, some of Mr. Trippi's colleagues complain that he is a shameless self-promoter who lets zealous competition blur into overzealous battle, takes politics too personally and employs questionable tactics, ....

********UNQUOTE********

[UTUSN]

10. In Googling for the 5, Found This

******QUOTE*****

http://www.aether.com/archives/000020.html
.... Trippi's experience as a stock speculator and participant in the infamous Raging Bull message boards. Trippi was a vocal investor in Wave Systems and then an employee of the company. Scheiber is fairly charitable about this, only indirectly alluding to the collapse of Wave's share price. (It ran from the teens to the high forties in 1999 and 2000 and bottomed out at about .75 after the crash - it now floats at around $2.50.) When I first found this out, while doing research for my own story on Dean, I wasn't sure what to make of it. For one thing, I haven't yet figured out if, at the time that Trippi was praising the stock on the message boards, he was also taking a check from the company, or if he stopped hyping the stock when he was hired. ....

*****UNQUOTE****

[UTUSN]

13. Ted K., Mondale, Hart, Gephardt, Missing 1

So he's a great organizer for eventually losing campaigns. Check out how he outmaneuvered the bigger numbers of CRANSTON supporters to win for MONDALE.

******QUOTE*****

http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?pt=uPrIwAEG7fHpGFSjMCq7tR%3D%3D
.... Trippi is first and foremost an organizer--a man who has spent much of his career making sure the right number of bodies turn up on Election Day. "That's the way think," says Beckel. "They think about moving votes. In his case, where do you find ? Who are they? Where do they stand? If they're with us, get them; if they're not with us, forget about them. If they're undecided, badger the hell out of them." And for good reason: In the Democratic primaries, where turnout is extremely low, the better-organized campaign almost always wins. ....

*****UNQUOTE****

[SahaleArm]

15. Jerry Brown - Ex-Governor of California:)

And now mayor of Oakland: http://www.jerrybrown.org/

[UTUSN]

16. Thanks for That

The handful of articles I saw didn't mention BROWN. And in one interview, TRIPPI said, "This is my seventh campaign."

[janx]

14. Trippi's a genius.

Very smart guy with a great sense of humor.