Dean brings campaign to Howard University

[CMT]

Howard Dean brought his campaign to Howard University yeterday for a town-hall style meeting with students and faculty--and a chance to prove that he can win over some of his party's most loyal constituents.

Dean spoke on a wide array of subjects including the economy and Iraq and won cheers from the students when he spoke about President Bush using the word "quotas" calling it a race-baiting word and that Bush deserved to be defeated for "playing the race card."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41684-2003Oct3.html

[emcglynn]

1. This man fights

When all is said and done Howard Dean will have energized the Democratic Party more than anyone since FDR.

[AP]

3. How bout JFK?

How about LBJ winning by the biggest margin of victory in the 20th century?

[AP]

2. Here's an interesting quote:

"Another student wondered what Dean might do to lessen the number of African Americans in prison. Dean warned that "we can't get all weepy and liberal about this," but promised to treat substance abuse as a medical issue, rather than a "criminal problem," and to fight racism in sentencing. "

Is substance abuse the only reason black incarceration rates are so high? What about persistent, structural poverty? And if you care about it, does it mean you're a hyper-emotional liberal?

[AP]

4. Another intersting thought:

"Dean told the crowd, as he has often said, that minorities do not need white politicians lecturing them on race -- and for much of his speech, he did not."

Has Dean boxed himself into a corner with this statement? Now he can't talk about race that much to the audience which wants to hear him talk about race the most. Of course he can talk about race obliquely by talking about the bigger themes in a general sense (opportunity, poverty, social justice), but this audience wanted to hear him talk about race.

[RogueTrooper]

7. I think there is a diference

between talking to somebody about race and lecturing somebody about race.

[AP]

8. The article says he didn't talk about race until the very end,

and it looks the questions he was asked were mostly about race, so it's seems like the black audience wanted to talk about race.

[RogueTrooper]

9. Indeed

is that a problem?

[AP]

14. Well, like I said above, if Dean

has boxed himself into a corner by saying black audiences don't need to hear white politicians talking to them about race, yet black audiences are sitting through his speeches wondering when he's going to talk about race, he might have a harder time getting black voters on his side.

He might have set himself up to either not be able to vigorously campaign to black audiences, or to have to start doing what he said other Democrats have been doing wrong, ie, he'll have to start talking to black audiences about race.

Incidentally, I wonder if Dean's statement about to whom the conversation should be addressed was designed to appeal to white voters rather than black voters. It does sort of imply that, for anything to happen, white people have to decide amongst themselves whether it will happen, and it really suggests that's he's not requiring any sacrifice from the whiziteys...he's just asking them to talk. I could be wrong about this.

[RogueTrooper]

20. I think you are wrong about this AP

in an "interesting" way, of course ;-)

I was under the impression that he said "lecture" rather than "talk".

[AP]

23. But he didn't even seem interested in talking about race at Howard until

he was asked about race at the end.

I don't think he'd be avoiding a discussion of race with black audiences if he didnt' feel likie, if he did discuss it, he appear to be hypocritical in light of his criticisms.

And even if he said "lecture", I think it would be stretch to characterize and of the conversations white politicians have had with black audiences, of the kind he was criticizing as "lectures." Certainly, either most of those were talks not lectures or the distinction between "lecture" and "talk" is meaningless.

[RogueTrooper]

24. Read the article properly AP

And stop being such a lawyer in how you frame your arguments. ;-)

"Dean told the crowd, as he has often said, that minorities do not need white politicians lecturing them on race -- and for much of his speech, he did not. Instead, Dean spoke mostly on issues affecting a large swath of the population: the soft economy, the loss of jobs, the situation in Iraq and the Middle East, the need for more and better health care.

Only near the end of his talk did Dean focus on minority issues. He reminded the students, many of whom participated in a vigil earlier this year in support of affirmative action -- when the Supreme Court was considering the University of Michigan cases -- that President Bush has repeatedly used the word "quota" to describe such programs."

It would seem that Dean said "lecturing", not talk. As you will no doubt agree, talking to somebody and lecturing them are two different things.

He spoke about race without being prompted by the audience. I Have heard the current version of his stump speech a fair few times, in the last couple of weeks, and I should point out the the "divided by race" part usually comes towards the end. It would seem that the students got the same speech as everybody else. Which may cast some illumination on the meaning of the snippet's first paragraph.

[bicentennial_baby]

5. Interesting paragraph

"His speech came just hours after eight of his Democratic rivals penned a letter, criticizing Dean for supporting a plan to hold Michigan's presidential primary online. That, they said, would effectively disenfranchise many minorities there. The letter was signed by every candidate except retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark"

Interesting that Clark did'nt join in the piling on...good for him!

[AP]

6. Clark gets lots of internet support too. Motivation might have been...

...self-interest. I doubt it's because he likes Dean, especially considering the fact that Dean has been piling it on Clark lately.

[DrFunkenstein]

10. Did Kucinich Join The Pile On?

n/t

[JohnKleeb]

12. I dont know

I know Al Sharpton did, he was the one who intially criticized Dean for this.

[bicentennial_baby]

15. I think so

It says it was signed by all of the other candidates except Clark, so that would include Kucinich

[JohnKleeb]

16. *does math* yeah it would

[DrFunkenstein]

11. Not Politics As Usual

Now, the man on the stand
He wants my vote
He's a-running for office on the ballot note
He's out there preaching
In front of the steeple
Telling me he loves all kinds of people
He's eating bagels
He's eating pizza
He's eating chitlins


Next thing you know, this guy'll be going on TV talkin' Spanish!

[JohnKleeb]

13. I want Kucinich speaking Croatian lol

I bet he knows some, :hi: fellow South Slav of DK and one of his supporters and I am trying to learn Slovenian.

[DrFunkenstein]

17. My Hometown Is Very Polish

Huge Polish population, with Polish meat-markets and stuff all over the place. You can get some bad-ass pierogies!

And we love bowling and polka, too!

<>

[JohnKleeb]

18. interesting

Nice picture of Dennis btw when was that taken? The Polish have always been a big democratic constiuency. Edmund Muskie who IIRC was Humphrey's VP choice in 1968 was Polish. BTW Dennis's Croatia like my Slovenia is in the Balkans and Slovakia is just east of Czech Republic. You forgot about Kielbasa that stuff is yummy.

[DrFunkenstein]

21. Aw, man! Good Kielbasa Rocks!

If you set this link as one of your favorites, it will give all the latest newswire photos of Dennis. Just keep in mind that the photo links will disappear after awhile, so save any pictures you really like.

http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?c=news_photos&p=kucinich

[JohnKleeb]

22. ok thanks

I really like that picture of him in college, you know the black and white one.

[w4rma]

19. Darn straight, Dean will be on TV talkin' Spanish.

Guest Writer: Jerome Wiley Segovia, Latinos for Dean

My friend Pat Johnson with DC for Dean recently told me he was going to be volunteering in Burlington, Vermont. I jumped at the chance to join him and see what campaign headquarters was like. Well, its an amazing place, equal parts political memorabilia, excitement and incredibly likeable people. The best part is that I get a chance to give a quick report on a project which has taken all my free time for the past several months, Latinos For Dean.

Latinos for Dean is comprised of Latinos, friends of Latinos, people who speak Spanish and other Dean supporters who have self-organized and are striving to build an organization of 10,000 volunteers nationwide by the end of the primary season.

We have celebrated Dean's early endorsement of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, only to be followed by his announcement that he's become the first presidential candidate this primary season to air ads in Spanish in New Mexico.

One of our main goals is to continually devise creative ways to reach our Latino audience, who in some cases do not speak perfect English, in other cases have felt ignored by politicians, and so they are tuned out. These include such events as co-hosting a Paraguayan "asado" in the DC area and an upcoming "see you at the ball game" outreach event at RFK stadium (soccer, this time!), supporting the IWFR in Minnesota, Texas, and other cities, and speaking about Governor Dean in Spanish on AM radio in Maryland. We're beginning to make inroads and effectively reach our communities in their own language, en nuestro idioma.

We also have recently become aware of DeanSpace, which is an excellent set of programming/design web tools for self-organizing groups such as ours that rely on limited volunteer help. Should you visit our site in the near future, you will begin seeing the improvements as we begin implementing this technology.

Recuperemos nuestro país apoyando a Howard Dean!

Jerome Wiley Segovia
NE Regional Coordinator
Latinos For Dean

Posted by Guest Writer at 06:05 PM
http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/001738.html