Nation article," Dean-a-palooza", details Joe Trippi history, influence...

[flpoljunkie]

http://thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20031006&s=taibbi

Long Article for October 6, 2003 issue by Matt Taibbi, who traveled with Dean on the "Sleepless Summer Tour"

But it was hard not to notice that all the people surrounding Dean were veterans of the same-old, same-old Democratic Party. Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi is a longtime Democratic political consultant who has worked on the campaigns of Edward Kennedy, Walter Mondale and Gary Hart, and in 1988 he even worked for current Dean opponent Dick Gephardt. (In the latter campaign, Trippi was one of a group of "killer" consultants, along with people like David Doak, Bill Carrick and Robert Shrum, whose attack-dog political strategizing was immortalized in Richard Ben Cramer's book on the 1988 campaign, What It Takes.) Trip coordinator Matt Vogel worked for Gore, as did Kelly McMahon, Dana Singiser, Aram Kailian, Patricia Enright (who was Gore's deputy director of communications) and numerous other Dean operatives appearing at one time or another on the Sleepless Summer Tour.

The footprints of some schlock Democratic Party Svengali--probably Trippi--were visible at every turn in the Dean voyage. There was the Grassroots Express itself, of course. This was one of the details that I found hardest to reconcile with the widespread belief that Dean is "different" and "not a typical politician." When you name your campaign vehicle the Grassroots Express, while one of your opponents (John Edwards) has a bus named the Real Solutions Express and a candidate from a rival party (John McCain) four years ago had one called the Straight Talk Express...well, you haven't worked very hard to be different.

Then there was the Imageering 101 political staging, a subject of much snickering in the press pool. At most every stop Dean had a statistically accurate multicultural microcosm await his arrival on stage, usually against a background of a giant American flag. Milwaukee, the second stop on the tour, was the most painful: seventeen supporters of various races (in proper proportions: three blacks, two Hispanics, etc.), frozen and seemingly afraid to move or make a face against the backdrop of a mammoth Old Glory. Watching them wait for Dean gave me shivers; they looked like sausages nailed to a giant red, white and blue crucifix.

There were other details: the plastic grass, the strange fact (compelling to several reporters) that Dean rolled up his sleeves in public but rolled them down and buttoned them when relaxing on the plane, the odd fuzziness and vacuity of certain parts of Dean's stump speech... It was not lost on some of us, for instance, that his wooden campaign slogan, "Take America Back," was also used by two other former Trippi candidates: Gephardt in 1988 and Jerry Brown in 1992. Much of Dean's public presentation, in fact, is a rehash of other Democratic campaigns. He makes a joke about Bush being "all hat and no cattle," which was a laugh line in Gephardt's campaign speech earlier this year. And his closer line, "You have the power! You have the power! You have the power!" (delivered in the style of Jesse Jackson's "Keep Hope Alive!" bit) was a Gore line in 2000.

[KaraokeKarlton]

1. Now he's getting criticized because his campaign is working?

It's pretty sad when those who oppose Dean have to complain that what he's doing is working well for him when there's no skeletons in his closet to harp on. Lame.

[clar]

2. What a silly article

All campaigns rip off other campaigns. All of them fish from the same pool of political operatives. There's nothing wrong with it. Should Kerry not have the hammer? Should he not have Jim Jordan on board?
(Well, maybe he shouldn't, but that's a different story). Criticism of this kind, no matter which campaign is being criticised, is pointless. Campaigns have some common ground with reality shows. Is this a shocker to anyone?

[deutsey]

3. This is the best critique the reporter could come up with?

I'm open to hearing criticism of Dean (I have some criticisms of Dean myself), but this is awfully superficial stuff from what I've read of it. I'll read it in more depth later (my son is waiting to play Jumpstart on the computer), but this isn't very impressive political journalism to me.

[bushisanidiot]

4. AWOL must have his buddies out early against Dean. I smell fear in AWOL's

camp.

"seventeen supporters of various races (in proper proportions: three blacks, two Hispanics, etc.), frozen and seemingly afraid to move or make a face against the backdrop of a mammoth Old Glory"

hate to break it to the anti-deanies, but Dean doesn't NEED to handpick his audiences or supporters (that's what the repukes have to stoop to.. remember the RNC 2000 "big tent"? hahaha!!!!). They're all real Dean supporters. Dean is electric and is attracting people from all walks of life. That's a fact.

GO DEAN!!

[ProfessorPlum]

5. this is the worst

piece of garbage I've read yet.

This guy needs to watch "Journeys with George" or whatever Alexandra Pelosi's documentary on the 2000 Bush campaign was called and then get back to us with his apologies.

[virtualobserver]

6. total nonsense

and as for the "statistically accurate multicultural microcosm"
awaiting his arrival on stage, they were on fire in San Antonio.

This writer considers it to be a sign of impurity to be running an actual campaign with experienced people.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

7. Good God!

He rolls his sleeves DOWN on the plane? How disturbing...

This is when you can tell they are really desperate...

[RevolutionStartsNow]

8. Read the whole article, if you haven't

It's very interesting. The gist is about how difficult it is to retain "substance" when you are the front runner and reporters just want to ask about the rumor that you actually paint your own house.

I like this article, it gives a lot of insight into Dean on the campaign trail. The excerpt above was a bit silly, but it only seems silly if you don't read the entire article.

And I did learn that Dean likes Buffalo Springfield, which of course I suspected all along... :)

[Rose Siding]

9. It's sort of an indictment of the press

But the writer should count himself in that number!

He seems to be displeased that he wasn't aggressive enough to get a follow-up on his small business question and blamed the other reporters. But I didn't read that he got thrown out of the plane or off the tour so why didn't he revisit it?

He alludes that minorities onstage at the rallies are staged but has no evidence other than they look uncomfortable onstage? I'd be a little reserved in front of a rally crowd but it wouldn't indicate my level of support.

And the sleeve thing is on par with the "Dem candidate eats sandwich funny" articles. How normal is it to get really comfortable to rally a crowd? I put on a sweater when I fly. Good thing he's blasting the media, but he should shine a bit of that light on himself.

[DemDogs]

32. Nothing to be ashamed of but

It does suggest that it is nonsense to think the Dean campaign is powered by the grass roots and is not a production of the regular Washington politicos that Dean spits on in his speech and Madison Avenue. He isn't "Taking America Back" because that what he believes; he is taking it back because that worked for Trippi when Trippi did Gephardt.
There is nothing to be ashamed of here, except a little hypocrisy maybe.

[polpilot]

10. Experienced intelligent Dean staff kicks ass and is head for Pa. Ave.

Dean '04...Brilliance in Action!!

[disgruntella]

11. I'm still reading the article - but this sounds familiar

Vast numbers of people, horrified by George Bush and desperate for a positive change, have geared up this election season to throw their weight behind anything resembling a human being. Along comes Howard Dean, a well-spoken, obviously intelligent man who opposes the war in Iraq before it is politically expedient to do so, bluntly calls George Bush by all the names he deserves and quickly builds an impressive insurgent candidacy largely on his own, through the strength of a remarkable Internet version of a word-of-mouth campaign. To many, the choice seems obvious.

But thirsty people can have faulty vision, and when your eyes have burned you enough times, you begin to fear the mirage more than the thirst. And therein, for Howard Dean, lies the problem.

In the past six months the very success of Dean's campaign has become, for some, an indictment against him. Anything this popular has to be phony.

Frankly, that describes my cynicism in a nutshell.

<back to reading>

[deutsey]

13. Here's a quote from another thread that sums up my feelings

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/09/17/clark/index_np.html

"There are non-trivial number of people in the party who say,Holy shit, how do you stop Dean? He's raised over $10 million in this quarter, and he'll probably hit the $15 million mark. How do you do you slow it?'" says a former White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity and who is not associated with any of the campaigns. "I think the traditional party operatives are afraid of the Dean campaign and don't understand it."

That last quote, in particular, sums up for me the problem with the Democratic party. It may well be referring to the GOP (there's no attribution either way), but it certainly can be speaking about the "traditional party operatives" among the Dems.

[PAMod]

12. So, take the textbook stuff (outlined here),

and add the innovative use of the internet as a fundraising and organizational tool coupled with the appeal of the candidate and I believe you have the winning combination that you see today!

I've never travelled on a stump tour for any candidate, but I'm guessing that they are all pretty much the same as what was reported here.

I have to admit, the thing about the sleeves is pretty funny.

[Demobrat]

28. I must be the only one who doesn't think it's weird

to roll your sleeves up when you're flailing your arms around and yelling and pointing and jabbing, and down when you're quietly sitting in an airline seat for hours. Seems like that's what I'd do.

[goodhue]

14. another excerpt

http://thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20031006&s=taibbi

As much as the reporters snickered about the campaign fakery, and occasionally cracked about it in print, there is no question that they were attracted to the big-campaign symbolism like moths to a lamp. To be full of shit in American politics is a signal to our political press that you are serious, and it was quite obvious that the most transparently meaningless or calculating aspects of Dean's behavior were what most impressed the Sleepless Summer press corps.

To wit: Most of the reports filed during the trip focused on the size of the crowds, the amount of money Dean has raised, the "feel of a general election campaign" surrounding his appearances and the sudden departure of his legendary "brusque, angry tone," which incidentally I never saw in the first place. A great many of the conversations among reporters on the plane centered around whether or not Dean had a chance to beat Bush, and these speculations--called horse-racing in the business--dominated the narratives of most of the articles, many of which wondered aloud whether Dean was "too far left" or would "moderate" his rhetoric in time for the real race.

When I asked the reporters on the plane what the value of this kind of reporting was, I got an interesting answer. No fewer than four journalists replied to the effect that unless the electability issue was addressed, "someone like Kucinich" might get the nomination.

"Hell, if it came down to a battle of position papers, Dennis Kucinich might win," laughed Jackson Baker of the Memphis Flyer, incidentally not a horse-racer and one of the true good guys on the plane.

"I think its value is that it helps to explain to the reader why I'm spending so much time with one candidate," said Mark Silva of the Orlando Sentinel. "He needs to know why I'm reporting so much on Howard Dean, as opposed to, say, Dennis Kucinich."

The next day, Silva ran a piece containing a quote from former Washington Governor Booth Gardner, comparing Howard Dean to Seabiscuit.

[no name no slogan]

15. "Someone Like Kucinich"

That's a laugh!

I think it just goes to show that although Dean plays the populist angle very well, the SCLM and BushCo are not as worried about him as they make it out to be.

If they were TRULY worried about the Dean threat, I don't think they'd be talking about him AT ALL. The SCLM (and BushCo) have a tendency to "undertalk" the things that really frighten them. "If we don't talk about it, it doesn't exist, right?"

[DJcairo]

16. The Nation is right, Dean's stump speech is the same old applause lines

over and over and over

Even Dean supporters complain on Dean's own blog after each of Dean's TV appearances that they wished he wouldn't go into the same worn out lines from his stump speech all the time.

Just wait until Teddy shows up in Des Moines for Kerry. It's all over!!!

[killbotfactory]

17. All of Kerry's speeches are different.

And he makes them up as he goes along. Also, I heard he can kill people with his mind.

[acerbic]

25. Kerry never says anything that somebody else has ever said before!

He makes up his own words too! Woo-hoo! :-)

[clar]

18. I appreciate

your dedication to your candidate, but Good God, you've been saying for weeks that it's all over for Dean. Clearly, it's Kerry who has the uphill battle. It's so strange to watch someone stick their head deeper and deeper in the sand.

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

19. I am infinitely amused

that you read the Dean blog.

[Rose Siding]

20. I can't stop laughing!

Things you just know but you don't know you know.

[Logansquare]

21. I really cannot hate this guy...

He wrote a great article for Counterpunch on the media's shameful undercounting of the Washington protests. His description of the anti-anti war protesters is hilarious:
http://www.counterpunch.org/taibbi02012003.html

That being said, let's hope Dean's people wise up and take this as a lesson from the school of hard knocks. There are a lot of people in the press who have pro-Bush agendas and will be crueler than Taibbi.

[Pez]

38. i wouldn't worry about tibbi...

... check this out heheheh. i think it's safe to assume he's not a bushmole.

[dsc]

22. Gephardt told sleezy lies about Simon in 88

and is telling sleezy lies about Dean now. Yet it is Trippi's fault. Maybe it is Gephardt's. Just a thought.

[Octafish]

23. Same old. Same old.

Gee. Deanie-weenies really do know a LOT about politics and politcal history. From the article:

EXCERPT...

Dean's supporters almost universally declare that they were attracted to the campaign because the governor is "different," "not the same old thing," "not a typical politician." Literally dozens of people I talked to along the way had the same feeling about him, ranging from teen students (Maggie Desmond, 17, of Waukesha, Wisconsin; she was with the Waukesha High School Liberals Club) to lawyers (Judie Rettelle, a volunteer manning the press entrance at the Falls Church, Virginia, event) to smart young filmmakers (Faith Radle, 31, of San Antonio, who produced a cool indie film called Speeder Kills). Even Cecil Andrus, the amiable and charming former governor of Idaho, insisted that Dean was a different kind of political creature.

"I just don't go for those stereotypical politicians, the kind in the Senate," he told me, on the tarmac in Boise. "You know, with the..."

He made a gesture. "With the hairdos?" I asked.

CONTINUED...

http://thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20031006&s=taibbi

BTW: All I'm saying is DO MORE THAN LISTEN TO A SPEECH. READ ABOUT WHAT IS GOING ON AND WHO'S WHO IN THE RACE. YOUR FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT.

[CWebster]

24. The sleeves

Hot outside.
Airconditioned plane.
Easy.

[acerbic]

26. A simple practical explanation? That was nasty of you!

Don't you dare mock the Dean haters' nefarious conspiracy theories. :-)

[jburton]

27. who cares?

"In the past six months the very success of Dean's campaign has become, for some, an indictment against him. Anything this popular has to be phony. Iconoclasts of all stripes have lined up to attack him, including voices of the left like Alexander Cockburn and Norman Solomon."

This kind of sums up where the author is coming from.

Betcha more voters know who Howard Dean is than who Alexander Cockburn and Norman Solomon are.

[no name no slogan]

29. More people know who Nixon was than who Eugene Debs was

what does that prove? :eyes:

Maybe folk will finally begin to see the only "novel" thing about Dean is his fundraising techniques.

[JohnKleeb]

30. Hey nice point

I admire and like Eugene Debs.

[quinnox]

31. Uhoh, "Take America Back," was also used by

two other former Trippi candidates: Gephardt in 1988 and Jerry Brown in 1992."

Both ended up losing, not so good a track record for Trippi.
A sign of things to come for the Dean campaign?

[stickdog]

36. John Kerry's slogan: "Pick me, it's my turn. Wahhhh, my turn."

It hasn't been very successful in the past although Poppy Bush did get it to work once.

[Pez]

37. here's a hanky-- you seem to be foaming at the mouth

...

[w4rma]

33. I liked reading that article a lot.

Yes, it was negative (but, with a positive undercurrent). But, it was honest (although I disagree with the author on many points) and it was in "The Nation" which is a magazine for us liberal wonks. He disagrees with Dean on some policy, although he got interrupted by reporters and couldn't follow up very well, so I'm not sure what Dean would have said if he was allowed to explain further.

But, I'm not expecting to agree with any candidate on everything, either. I expect improvements, not the whole she-bang.

This is how the article ends, btw:

…
I was never much impressed by the "Howard Dean problem." To me personally, the whole issue seems ridiculous: I would vote for Count Dracula over George Bush. But it is a deflating thing to vote for a horse instead of a man. And "momentum" makes horses of them all.

[stickdog]

35. The author is a transparently elitist Kerry supporter.

He doesn't want any candidate to succeed unless it's because of the oh-so-considered backing of the elite pundocracy.

[stickdog]

34. It's not hard to notice that every word in this article has been used by

countless other writers.

And the magazine he writes for has published countless, boring snotty campaign critiques.

And every condescending oh-so-above-it-all description is just a giant cliche.

Even the title "Dean-a-Palooza" is a perfectly trite and wholly unimaginative dismissal.

All of us newspaper article critics are laughing at this guy's hackneyed style and recycled quips.

[Romberry]

39. 'nauseatingly dubbed'

The author gives away their bias in the second sentence of the very first paragraph. The harping on a candidate posing for photos and how silly it looks (ever seen a photo session where someone was actively "modeling" that didn't look a little silly?)in paragraph three -- irrelevant to anything as far as I can tell -- begind in paragraph three. Outside of conveying personal disdain, I can't think of any purpose for that graf at all.

Keep going to see more flattering descriptions. Dean looked "deranged". Success is portrayed as a negative thing. The realization that campaigns and candidates up close don't look the same as they do when viewed from the outside seems to be found surprising. (Has this person ever covered a campaign before?) The name "Grass Roots Express" is shows the campaign isn't really "original".

Dunno what I was supposed to take away from this other than the idea the author is in over his head. Second rate schlock.

[polpilot]

40. Reads like a C- 6th grader's essay. Better caption: 'Dean rules....

'also rans' drool. Dean & Co. run a brilliant campaign evident of the abilities and maturity necessary to run the U.S.

Dean '04...The New Democratic Leader of The NEW Democratic Party.