This cracks me up - Dean gets carried away

[ProfessorPlum]

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Politics/US/dean_truck031020-1.html

"Dean is seen shaking hands and talking with his young volunteers. The truck pulls into the frame between Dean and O'Connor's camera, blocking the shot for a moment. The red truck passes, and O'Connor's camera is still aimed at the same position. She expected Dean to still be there. But Dean is gone.

After a few seconds, the camera swings to its right, attracted by a commotion. They've found the former governor, but he looks through the lens like a tiny smidgen of black hanging on to an ever-receding red truck."

[LuminousX]

1. This is very funny, but also very frightening

he could of gotten hurt. Although, I do like to see a person willing to take risks.

[ProfessorPlum]

2. It's all fun and games, until someone loses a candidate

He's lucky the guy didn't pull onto the highway or something.

[demnan]

3. Dean's a little goofy at times

that's part of his charm.

[ProfessorPlum]

4. You know, it's funny

I see the guy on TV - he makes funny faces, he talks too fast, his body language isn't the greatest. And yet for all of his telegenic faults, and his goofiness, I find him very compelling, especially in person.

[displacedtexan]

5. he's lucky

his silver spoon came with a brain.
i just wish he were as polished as his upbringing should have made him. acting silly is great, but our next prez will have to be mature for the world to take him seriously.

[Cha]

14. Dean is Dean and he's made something

out of himself and it doesn't matter if you're born poor or
rich but what you do with your life.

I like it that Dean doesn't act like somebody who went to
finishing school.

[AP]

22. Bush/Dean are redifining what it means to go to "finishing" (prep? ) schl.

Perhaps.

You grow up to have business friendly, conservative fiscal policy, and you like to do wild stupid things.

[LuminousX]

25. Uncalled for flame bait

[AP]

35. This lounge-style post was in PandC -- I'd say original post was flame...

bait.

[ProfessorPlum]

36. yeah, well

edit to make more family friendly.

[Cha]

10. A customer at our Co-op yesterday saw my

Dean pin and said .."you know what I cracked up about the other day that Dean said and what I really liked?"...I said .."what?"

She said .."Dean was saying when he got to be President that he would shine the light on Congress and they would scatter like cockroaches!" I'm paraphasing..I don't know if that's exactly the way Dean said it but I told her I'm glad you liked that because you don't know how many times I saw people on my DU site complaining about that. She said .."I thought it was Great!" :D

[AP]

8. His fiscal conservativism is a little goofy. I wish they'd put that...

...in a truck and drive it off a cliff.

:)

[dsc]

9. Yeah balanced budgets sure sucked in the 90's

I couldn't find a decent paying job. Mortgage rates rose. Crime went up. Unemployment increased. Incomes went down for all people. No wait that didn't happen that was the 1980's when we refused to balance budgets.

[ProfessorPlum]

12. Yeah having a government that actually has money

and can help people surely is an awful thing.

[Cha]

17. Yes, it really is Quite Bizaare!

How eccentric! ;-)

[AP]

21. Clinton's goal: good economy. Consequence: ran SURPLUSES

Hoover's goal: balance budget. Consequence: Great Depression (becuase he was balancing the budget on the backs of the working class).

In The Clinton Wars, Blumenthals says that there was a big debate over what to do with the surplus. The FIRST idea they rejected was to give it back to the public in the form of a tax cut.

This is what Dean said he'd do FIRST. His goal is to run no defecit, and ALSO to run no surplus.

To compare Dean and Clinton is to cloud the facts.

[dsc]

23. That is flat out false according to

Blumenthal and Stephanopolis and Hillary. All three in their recent books said that Clinton was convinced that without a balanced budget there would be no prosperity. In a choice between you and the people who were actually there I will take them.

[SahaleArm]

26. Bubble Tea.

How about this: Giant internet driven market bubble will drive false sense of prosperity:)

[dsc]

29. also flat out false

The Clinton years saw real income gains in both every quintile and every decile including the lowest. They also say unemployment decline foe every demographic subset and in every region of the country. They also say an increase in homeowner ship in every demographic subgroup. That wasn't all internet bubble.

[AP]

28. Blumenthal says the FIRST thing Clinton decided to do was NOT to give sur-

plus back in the form of a tax break. That's what Dean DID do in VT. That's what he says he'd do as president.

[dsc]

30. Dean says so such thing

He has said repeatedly, as in over and over and over and over again that he would pay down debt. That isn't returning a surpluss to anyone.

[lastliberalintexas]

31. I hope you're joking

Do you honestly think that the Great Depression was caused by Hoover balancing the budget?!!!

While it was actually caused by a great many factors, the primary impetus for the Crash of 29 was the fact that banks and other financial institutions were allowed to invest in the stock market. This caused destabilization of various markets and the value of the dollar. The fact that many, many financial institutions were unable to operate following the Crash and the lack of circulating money were then the primary reason for the Crash turning into the Great Depression.

Sorry that you're unable to blame this on someone for simply being fiscally responsible. :eyes:


BTW- I'm just wondering, because I've seen several "anti-balanced budget" posts from you. Do you really think the gov't operates appropriately with a deficit, or are you just against Dean and this is a way for you to target him? Just curious.

Do you understand what deficit spending means for the poor and middle class? Do you understand what effect deficit spending can have on interest rates and the markets? Do you understand what high debt servicing fees mean to the poor and middle class?

Do you honestly think that deficit spending is GOOD for the poor and middle class?! Because that is sure as heck how your posts have sounded lately.

[AP]

32. Two things. There may have been lots of causes to Great Depression. But

(1) Hoover only had one response: balance the budget.

Dean only has two: blance the budget and cut out tax breaks for companies exporting jobs.

(2) It's not that I'm not against balancing budgets. I'm way for it...as a CONSEQUENCE of good fiscal policy. Clinton's goal wasn't balancing the budget. It was having a great economy. And when it ran a surplus, he didn't just cut taxes so that they could balance the budget.

People, balancing the budge has two implications. If outflow is greater than inflow, you have to decreas outflow, and increase inflow. Asl, if inflow excees out flow, balancing the budget meas you cut inflow, or raise outflow to balance the budget.

Dean wants to do things on BOTH side of the equation. He doesn't want to run a surplus, even if it meant that the surplus could be used to make America a better place.

[w4rma]

33. Got a source for that? Balancing budgets don't cause job loss.

Especially the type of job loss that Americans had under Hoover's presidency. My understanding is that Hoover did exactly what Bush did and allowed resources to move from the bottom to the top. Then as everyone lost their jobs and couldn't buy the items being made the big corporations who had these big factories that had overproduced products suddenly found themselves with too much supply and too little demand. They went bankrupt and/or their stocks dropped, and the whole economy had a sort of domino effect. Boom: Great Depression.

Also, following the logic you use on Dean, Clinton didn't run a surplus. He balanced the budget with money left over to pay down the debt.

Dean's plan is to do exactly what Clinton did (Remember that Dean wants to go repeal Bush's tax cuts to go back to the tax system that Clinton put in place). Dean is even going to try to get a universal health care program installed which Clinton was unable to do.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

34. Do you know much money it takes to service the debt?

$2B a day!


Also worrisome to some economists is the ever-enormous budget and current account deficits, which measures the flow of goods, services and money between the United States and other economies. By running this deficit, America is basically borrowing money from the rest of the world, in the form of about $2 billion of foreign investment every day.

http://money.cnn.com/2003/09/01/news/economy/five_things/


I, for one, don't love international bankers that much.

[AP]

37. Do you know how much you'd have to increase the tax burden to close hole?

You'd have to double it for everyone. So taking back middle class tax cuts along with every other tax cut is only going to get you half way there. You better have a plan for getting the rest of the way there.

[ProfessorPlum]

38. You seem to be arguing that it would be better to just ignore

the problem and hope it magically goes away.

What exactly is wrong with trying to make the government more solvent and pay down some of our debt? Not much, I would think. So, you need money to do that.

The poor don't have it. Ideally, you'd like to get as much as you possibly can from the rich, but the rich own most of the people making the laws. So, you have to get some of it from the middle class, same as it's always been. Until the middle class chickens stop voting for Colonel Sanders, they are going to have to pay for our flawed distribution of tax burden.

That doesn't mean that because the middle class has to carry some of the burden that we shouldn't try to prevent the government from going into fiscal crisis.

[AP]

40. The middle class have been asked to take up the slack left by the rich

a little more every year for the past 30 years. Things are falling apart now because their backs are breaking from pulling so much of the weight.

Now, you're argument is, "somebody's got to do it because the rich aren't."

Well, that's the attitude that has put us in this predicaement. If the best Dean can offer is the same BS that's brought us to this point, I say, let's give someone else a chance.

[ProfessorPlum]

41. Good luck with trying to change that situation

overnight. I'll be happy with some responsibility taken by everyone who has a vested interest in getting this country back on its feet again.

Don't forget, that a large portion of the middle class will vote again and again and again in the interests of the rich. That's part of what got us into this mess. Until they stop doing that so much, the middle class, even those not guilty of voting for the Shrubster, are going to have to help with the burden. It's just political reality, man.

Personally, I'd love to just leave the rich with the bill myself. I can think of no more suicidal position for the Democratic nominee to take, however.

[dsc]

6. Once he gets Secret Service protection

they will calm him down. He needs to realize he isn't in Vermont anymore. He needs to take better care of himself.

[Cha]

7. I read that on the blog the other day!

And I'm thinking ...Whoa, that could be a little scary! Something Dean won't be doing again, any time soon :)
Don't want to get slowed down on the campaign trail!

[pruner]

11. let's go to the video tape…

[ProfessorPlum]

13. LMAO!

That's classic!

[Cha]

15. Dean looks so funny like Charlie Chaplin!

That's so Cool that you did that, pruner! :)

[pruner]

19. nope… I didn't make it

it was made by another Dean supporter and a link was posted on the blog (the day of the incident).

it was put on the main blog page by the campaign later that day.

http://www.blogforamerica.com (scroll towards the bottom)

[killbotfactory]

24. that cracks me up everytime i see it.

[Le Taz Hot]

27. OMG!

That is hysterical! It's SO nice to see a candidate whose every public move isn't planned months in advance. Goddess, that IS funny!

[wryter2000]

16. OMG

That's funny! The guy is only two days younger than I am, and he's jumping onto trucks??!! Maybe I can give him a hard time about it next Wednesday. :bounce:

[Cha]

18. Please do, you Lucky Dawg!

[tridim]

20. Does this remind anyone of that 'CHiPs' episode

with the kid clinging to a car on his skateboard? It's the only CHiPs episode I remember, because it was so cool.

I think this story is funny and very "regular guy"-ish. I wish it was on all the national news. Are they showing it on cable?

[Ripley]

39. I wonder how long it will take Kerry to copy that.

Lemme guess, Kerry or Lieberman will try to imitate this spontaneous act by diving into a mosh pit at their next campus event. Sadly they will break their leg doing it.

Hey, I know, call Doctor Dean, he can fix it!

[jmw25]

42. Are you serious!

That's funny, because I don't remember Dean ever stealing any ideas from Edwards. Oh wait, take a look at the Planburglar on the Edwards Blog and read about Dean's unoriginality.

http://blog.johnedwards2004.com/

Stop being such loud hypocrites.