This is why Dean will be our next president

[Egnever]

Request for Help Turning Manual into PDF
Hey, we're looking to soft-beta-quiet-launch a fairly amazing piece of software tomorrow, and, in anticipation of the er, alpha launch, we're looking for some help. Is there anyone who could take this manual and translate it into a downloadable PDF? Email to [e-mail] if you can, with the headline "PDF for America!" Thanks.


They let people be involved. Hell they dont just let them they encourage it!

And as soon as they ask for anything people jump at the chance to help. This campaign is truely amazing.

I cant wait to take my country back !

[markbark]

1. Acrobat is quite simple to use.....

head on over here and grab a copy.


--MAB

[Egnever]

2. Thanks but its not for me

I think you missed what i was trying to say or I worded it poorly.

Let me try to explain better.

The reason I think dean will be our next president is because he allows people to become involved in the process.

Today on the dean blog At http://blogforamerica.com The campaign team put out this request

Request for Help Turning Manual into PDF
Hey, we're looking to soft-beta-quiet-launch a fairly amazing piece of software tomorrow, and, in anticipation of the er, alpha launch, we're looking for some help. Is there anyone who could take this manual and translate it into a downloadable PDF? Email to [e-mail] if you can, with the headline "PDF for America!" Thanks.

Posted by Zephyr Teachout at 10:00 PM

They are releasing new software tommorrow that will I think enable people to set up thier own dean support webpages easilly. They have a manual for the software hosted on the web but need/want to convert it to pdf format I think with working links. Something i gather isnt as easy as just scanning into adobe. Anyway they threw it out there on the blog for people with the knowledge of how to do it to get it done. almost immediately people replied saying they can and would do it. There is even a reply from some guy in Europe that owns a sofyware company that said he could assign someone to do it no problem even though he couldnt contribute cash to the campaign he was willing to do anything he could to help because bush was such a danger to the world!

This is Empowering people. Getting them involved in the political process and making them feel like they can make a difference! Deans campaign has done this time and again.

They put the call out and allow people to get the job done and people line up in droves to do it.

Its amazing and long needed in our politics!

[MrPeepers]

6. This is why Dean will not be.

There is a fundamental distinction between actually allowing people to become involved in the political process and "make a difference" as you say, and having them help you fix your computer. You're inventing openness on the part of the Dean campaign where it dosn't exist. It's good business practice. Why pay someone to come over and do it for you, when you can get someone else to do it for free? That's all it amounts to. Allowing people to become involved in the process is a staple of our political system. Every candidate has popular involvement in his/her campaign. It is not as if Dean thought it would be great to allow people a piece of the action, and he alone. That's all I have to say.

Peepers

[RogueTrooper]

7. And bitter Kerrybots

with nothing better to do that carp on about Dean's grassroots support are all to common on this message board.

[MrPeepers]

10. Mkay

And Deanyboppers with nothing better to do than invent grassroots support where it dosn't exist are all too common on this message board. No offense.

Peepers

[dorktv]

14. As one of the grassroot supporters...I see nothing wrong with

asking for assistance and having a person who does it for free, lets Dean use that money to fight Bush.

[MrPeepers]

19. Yes,

I have no problem with it either. I'm just saying it sure as hell isn't going to win him the election.

[RogueTrooper]

15. We are legion

are forces are many.

And we are Deanbots, thank you very much.

[MrPeepers]

20. You may be many,

but not nearly as many as you'll need to bring down the President.

Peepers

[RogueTrooper]

21. We are getting there

When I joined the campaign there were less than 10,000 people signed up to the Dean Meetups. There are now over 113,000 people signed up. The Mailing list is now comfortably over 400,000 people. I joined the Dean campaign in February.

These are good figures. Many of these people have never voted in an election before, nevermind voting for a Democrat in this next one. They spend hours tabling for Howard Dean, days spent handing out flyers for Howard Dean, and they raise money by the bat load for a campaign who's main them is Take Back America.

As activists in the Dean campaign we have long been treated with disdain by our Kerry peers. From the snotty disdain of the second quarter to the paranoid ramblings of second quarter; we on the Dean campaign have pretty comprehensivly taken it on the chin for TeamKerry.

Whatever :eyes: We are kicking your ass, and you know it. :evilgrin:

Critisize Howard Dean, and his policies, to your hearts content. Discussing and debating for Democratic and progressive politics is what DU is all about. But, please do not demean these new activists. They may not support your candidate but they do support someting. An they the support Howard Dean because he is doing something. Like you, they support the defeat of George W. Bush and the disgusting people who stole an election and installed him in power. They spend more hours they can afford working for Howard Dean and as much money as they can spare. They make me proud to be an activist for Howard Dean. And Howard Dean makes them proud to be Democrats.

[Egnever]

30. Wow!

That rocked!

[Egnever]

8. Obviously the point is lost

in your aparent bitterness.

Your right though it is sooo much more than "fixing thier computer"

[MrPeepers]

11. No, the point is not lost,

there never was one. Offering to have people assist you in converting something to PDF format on your computer hardly qualifies as building grassroots support. There's no reason whatsoever to make such a big deal out of it. Supporting a grassroots movement takes a lot more involvement than help with your PDF files. It really is just "fixing their computer."

Peepers

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

23. You obviously don't understand

the Dean campaign. This alone, asking for help on a PDF file, does not make a grassroots campaign. It is one small thing in a LONG list of thousands of ways the Dean campaign has given people the hope and courage to take their country back, and not just talk about all the problems we have. For example, there is a Dean Corps, which are volunteers who, without being asked by the Dean campaign, are doing community service in their neighborhoods. They are picking up trash from streets and encouraging people to donate school supplies to needy children, among other things. They already are taking their country back, and the Dean Machine has facilitated that.

Your dismissive attitude is fine with me though! While you (and Kerry) aren't looking, because you don't think Dean's grassroots is really a political phenomenon, we are defining the election, registering people to vote, donating more money than that has been collected by any democrat in history in one quarter, and winning the campaign.

[sandnsea]

9. I disagree

It may be smart business, but it's also smart campaigning. People want to help and Dean let's them. He understands there are plenty of smart people out there, some who are unemployed because of the Bush economy, who still have talent to contribute. And because he puts it out there, everybody feels like they're all in it together. He has run a smart, innovative campaign, it's why he's the frontrunner.

[MrPeepers]

12. I disagree with your disagreement.

Letting people convert a file to PDF format is not running an innovative campaign. I'm not going to feel great about Dean because he lets me play with his computer files, and I certainly hope that's not a deciding factor for anyone else. I certainly don't feel like we're "in it together" because he offers me the privelidge of making a PDF file for him. It's wonderful that he understand the situation of those unemployed by Bush's economic mismanagement, and it's wonderful that he recognizes that people have the talen to contribute. If that is the case, perhaps he can come up with a more critical role for them than this. I think everyone's reading far too much into this than reality permits.

Peepers the Argumentative

[indigo32]

16. Ummmm the file is just an example

for crying out loud. People are very much encouraged to offer input and assistance in any way they can. It IS grassroots... too bad you fail to recognize it.

[RogueTrooper]

17. They just don't "get it" indigo

:evilgrin:

[MrPeepers]

18. Oh, I recognize it,

I just fail to see how this is going to help Dean win a Presidential bid. Every candidate does this, gets people involved that is. Dean isn't an anomaly on this matter... too bad you fail to recognize that. The fact is that this is going to give him no advantage whatsoever.

Peepers

[RogueTrooper]

22. The numbers

and what the numbers are doing. That is the important thing.

[UnapologeticLiberal]

26. In order to make a PDF, you need the version you have to pay for

The free version only enables you to read PDF's, not create them. To create them you need the full version of Acrobat, which costs money.

I did it this morning and sent them the PDF, but nobody has responded yet...I think the e-mail only went out a little while ago because my e-mail was giving me problems.

Mousepads, Shoe Leather, and Hope - The Great Grassroots Campaign

[Egnever]

29. You are very busy

You even pposted on my little blog :)

Thanks for that! Lord knows how you found it.

[meegbear]

3. Jeez ...

this is like Powell telling us in February that there are 12 countries who support invading Iraq - I can't tell you.

dean will be our next president based on software that you can't read the manual so you can figure out how to use it?

[tsipple]

4. More Than Just PDF Conversion

Generating that manual requires some actual work. The input isn't quite ready for instant conversion.

Even so, you're missing the point. Dean is delegating to volunteers and making sure they're involved and connected, even for "simple" tasks. That, it and of itself, is smart strategy.

Other requests I've seen just recently:

- Need a system administrator to work in Burlington;
- Need a database administrator to work in Burlington;
- Artwork;
- Photo requests of various kinds;
- Visibility Day ideas.

It's pretty amazing.

[Larkspur]

5. Yes, Dean's campaign is a partnership between him and his supporters

He doesn't treat his supporters like sheep to be fleeced. He continually gives us reasons to support him more, like the Cheney Challenge accompanied by a picture of Dean eating a $3.00 Turkey sandwich lunch. And then after that challenge was a big success, he used some of the funds raised to buy Bush-bashing ads in Texas to rally us supporters again. The Dean Campaign has got imagination, guts, and customer service concepts all working together feeding the Dean buzz and further strengthening our loyalty to his campaign.

None of the other candidates figured that out.

[w4rma]

13. That is a good example a key aspect of running a decentralized campaign

And I agree, this campaign model is part of the reason why we'll see a President Dean in 2005. :)

No other campaign is using this model, yet. IMHO, all Democratic campaigns will need to switch over to the decentralized model from the top-down model currently being used in order to compete.

[no name no slogan]

24. Um, not quite

Jesse Jackson used this very same model in 1984 and 1988. Paul Wellstone used this "new" model in 1990. Many other candidates before and after have used this "model".

"Grassroots" campaigning was not invented by the HowDee campaign. In fact, it's been in use for many many years. Ask any party activist of any length of time, and s/he will also tell you the same.

Unfortunately, a number of Dean supporters seem to think that all the world begins and ends with that Rockefeller Republican from Vermont. Just because you haven't seen it before does not mean that it does not exist.

   S IS NOT
  I         T 
 H   NOT     H 
T    HOWARD   E       
     DEAN
W            D 
 H          L
  O        R
   LE   WO
                  

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

25. The Internet has made his campaign totally unique

It's not the 80's anymore.

[DrFunkenstein]

27. Closing The Digital Divide

Internet driven campaigns will necessarily appeal predominantly to whites. The internet can serve as one part of a campaign, but this is hardly The Last Hurrah (great book, ok movie).

[polpilot]

28. Dean is a brilliant statesman not a 'bought' old time politico and that is

why 'Dean rules'!!

Dean '04...