Howard Dean : An Elite 'Outsider' ?

[citizinemag]

Profile of Howard Dean
http://www.citizinemag.com/politics/politics-0309_antibush_dean.htm

by R. McFadden

Howard Dean describes himself as an "outsider" in his run to be elected US President in 2004. But months before the New Hampshire and Iowa primaries, this pretended outsider has already gathered more money than any other candidate (with more than $10 million in private donations) and he is the undisputed front runner to challenge George W. Bush to the presidential crown.

Dean served as Governor of Vermont for over ten years, spending the last year not in the state but criss-crossing the country and fruitfully plotting the operations of a campaign that must overcome four powerful East Coast US Senators -- Kerry, Edwards, Graham, Lieberman -- to first gain the Democratic nod, before directing its energy against the incumbent Bush.

These powerful opposing Senators have money and TV time, but none have developed ANY sort of word-of-mouth support on the ground that compares with Dean. In Los Angeles, one sees "Dean for America" flyers at coffee shops, "Dean for America" campaign stands at the local fair, and most importantly, people are talking Dean.

Dean's campaign has used internet communication to great effect. Operatives have employed e-mail lists and message boards to coordinate action and local "Dean for America" chapters now hold monthly meetings. General popular awareness of Dean's grand ambitions increased in 2002 through postings on news and political opinion forums such as Democratic Underground. Dean's method in news forums mimicks closely that of George W. Bush operatives who have used the conservative web site Free Republic to propagate pro-Bush and pro-War on Terrorism message.

To add to his effective field and "cyber" operations, Dean gained strong media presence in summer 2003, with cover stories on USA Today, Newsweek and Time. Growing grassroots support coupled with the potential for complete elite media positivity toward the candidate make Dean's chances to be elected strong. But so far Dean has shown himself to be just a master of new American political imagery and strategery. Who is this Dean?

Read the whole article
http://www.citizinemag.com/politics/politics-0309_antibush_dean.htm

[ozymandius]

1. What the hell do they mean by 'elite'?

Is that derogatory?

If by using the term 'elite' the author means that he is 'different' than that 'folksy' Bush - then I'll take 'elite' any day.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

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[DrFunkenstein]

4. Brought Up In One of The Richest Families In Manhattan

I don't personally see someone's relative wealth as necessarily a good or bad thing. How one got that money, and what one did with one's life mean a little more.

Two troubling things brought up in this article that I've seen before but kept quiet about. Nothing very serious, but irksome nonetheless.

1) "While at Yale, Dean discovered that he had an innate sympathy for the civil rights movement and the plight of the poor. He steered clear of radical protests and student demonstrations, later saying that he “instinctively distrusted ideologues,” but he also came to oppose the escalating Vietnam War."

Was MLK an ideologue? Medgar Evers? Maybe I'm nitpicking, but it seems to me that the civil rights movement and anti-war movement had plenty of people that weren't ideologues. What exactly is an "innate sympathy" anyway? Does that mean you know about injustice, but don't do anything about it?

2) Didn't Dean say he got a medical deferment - despite football before and skiing and pouring cement after - because he couldn't run for long periods of time. But it doesn't matter when hiking 250 miles?

<>

PS - While the website is fawning (as is too typical), it is a fair, but distinctly positive take on Dean. There is a similarly balanced profile of Kucinich linked, as well.

[roughsatori]

5. I have had the same concerns that you raise

But the new way the "elite" is used does not refer to money. It is meant as a slur aimed at liberalism. Bill O'Really who grew up in a upper-middle class family and made over 25 million last year uses it all the time as a pejorative for anyone who favors progressive policy. That is the way the right wing corporate media uses it and it is now seeping into everyday speech.

[Mairead]

13. Right-wing use of 'elite'

They're trying to take it away from us. Our use is apparently starting to hurt them.

[dsc]

6. One of the richest families in Manattan?

Do you have even the beginning of a citation for that. His dad was an executive, but not an owner of, Dean Whitter. I will conceed he wasn't raised poor, but given the fantastic wealth that many in Manhattan have, I want some citation that would put him in "one of the wealthiest families in Manhattan".

[dsc]

7. I have posted this before

and frankly I am pretty damn sure you saw this. But here it goes again. I also have a bad back (I don't think bad enough to be deferred but bad) and there is a HUGE ASS DIFFERENCE between walking with a bad back, even hiking with a bad back, and RUNNING with a bad back. Unless you have been there then with all due respect shut the hell up on this bad back and walking thing.

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

8. spouting garbage again?

You are saying things you KNOW to be half truths at best. Are you really getting that desperate to turn people off from Dean? You know damn well that his med deferment was for not being able to run long distances, which has nothing to do with skiing, walking, or hiking. Gimme a break, Dr. Junk.

[DrFunkenstein]

9. Jeez Louise! Two Dang Nasty Responses!

I think my reputation precedes me. After all, I prefaced my thoughts with this:

"Two troubling things brought up in this article that I've seen before but kept quiet about. Nothing very serious, but irksome nonetheless."

I also said that I was afraid I was "nitpicking," and apparently I was! I get "shut the hell up" and "desperate."

BTW Pavlovs, I was actually very, very clear about the conditions of Dean's deferment. I was raising these points explicitly as nagging feelings, and not denouncements of Dean. According to roughsatori, I am not the only person these thoughts have occurred to.

As for Dean's father being a relatively poor rich man, NYC is a big place with several buroughs. The people that live on Park Avenue may be richer than one another, but they are ALL richer than 98% of New Yorkers.

[dsc]

10. I stand behind shut the hell up

You took it upon yourself to tell people like me what we can and can not do. Unless, and until, you have been there you have less than do business doing so. And you have changed the bar big time on your richest families in Manhattan quote. New York and Manhattan are not the same. So again I want a citation, not speculation, not guessing, not lame ass excuses, but a citation, that Dean's family is one of the wealthiest in MANATTAN. Not NYC, not NY state, not the US but Manhattan. You chose to use Manhattan. You need to actually back up what you have said. I realize that is not the standard many Dean bashers prefer to be held to but that is too bad.

On edit Do you have the beginning of an idea of how insulting it is when someone like you says that if I dare walk long distances I am somehow not behaving like a person who has a bad back should? That is exactly what your post says.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

12. He linked me to LaRouche.

Don't bother.

[DrFunkenstein]

22. It Was A Joe Klein Interview I Found On Google

I don't care who posted it. I've gotten lots of Kerry info from GOP research. So what? If it's true, it's true. It's not like it was an interview with O'Reilly.

[DrFunkenstein]

24. You Win

Forgive me for me inexactitude. I was a fool.

"Howard Brush Dean III is the proud patrician product of Park Avenue and 85th Street, the son, grandson, and great-grandson of investment bankers...Dean didn't just summer in the Hamptons; his parents belonged to the Maidstone Club, and his family's Sag Harbor roots trace back to an eighteenth-century whaling captain."

http://www.dvmx.com/deanbio.html

You are right that I don't see the insult in saying that although nothing is really serious, I still have nagging questions about the nature of Dean's disability. I do, however, see the insult in you telling me to shut the hell up.

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

16. If you hadn't made a few posts

asking people to stop bashing, stop posting extremely lengthy posts (which you have done again), and in general to be more civil, you'd be taking less heat from me (and probably dsc). Just because you hide behind words like "he's my second pick" and all, doesn't make you any less of an instigator who is trying to subtly sell lies about Dean. You remind me of my 7th graders, who when I accuse them of something, the first thing they always say is "I didn't do it!" before I even say what I'm accusing them of. Childish, passive aggressiveness hidden behind a smile.

[Mairead]

14. "similarly balanced profile of Kucinich" my arse, Dr F.

Did you read that 'balanced profile'?!

Both articles are hatchet jobs.

[DrFunkenstein]

21. Hatchet Job?

Because it mentioned Kucinich's abortion reversal? Which part are you talking about? Progressive magazines like The Nation have had very similar profiles.

Like I said, I don't think either was written by a supporter, but they didn't strike me as hatchet jobs.

[citizinemag]

20. The Word 'Elite'

I posted this article, and although some are claiming it is meant to cause 'trouble', it is more likely to cause 'debate', which in some's opinion, equals trouble. No one has questioned the facts reported in this piece.

The word 'elite' is used just as a dictionary I found defines it:

A group or class of persons or a member of such a group or class, enjoying superior intellectual, social, or economic status

This definition holds true if you are speaking English, regardless whether you are of the left or right.

Whether or not Dean is 'one of the richest in Manhattan', from the info gathered, he is from the American elite and it is misleading to call him an outsider, especially today where he is the leading candidate.

Bush of course is from an 'elite' New England family as well, he just speaks with a slight Texas drawl. Dean and Bush have much in common.

[Rose Siding]

2. I wonder why the author

didn't find it relevant to mention that the average contrib to Dean is 86 bucks. I guess that doesn't fit with the spin of the article.

Also curious- of ALL the available photos, one of his family going to court is chosen. Very curious.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[Nicholas_J]

17. He is reputes to have acted

Like a spoiled elitist as governor as well.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

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[newsguyatl]

19. good one nicholas!

:eyes:

[acerbic]

23. Everybody check out the wingnut weirdo "citizinemag" wants to draft

...as pretzeldent:
http://www.paul2004.com/SupportingOrganizations/

Really interesting company they keep: rabid theocrats, militia kooks... :eyes: