The real reason Gore endorsed Dean

[SheilaT]

I don't think it's been posted here, but back in the October Dean Meetups, some 2500 letters were written to Al and Tipper asking them to endorse Dean.

Do you suppose that had any effect at all?

What everyone not involved in the Dean campaign does not seem to understand is how thoroughly grass roots it all is. As Joe Trippi said this evening on C-Span, they have no control over the many thousands of Dean supporters who choose where and when to leaflet, campaign, inform people. Collectively we've written over 95,000 letters to voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, asking them to caucus or vote for Dean. What other campaign is doing anything at all like that?

And it's not with arrogance these things are being done. It's with a genuine enthusiasm for the candidate. Yes, I know that all you Clark, Kerry, Kucinich, Gephardt, et al supporters are equally enthusiastic.

I also think that what will happen soon is that Dean will be reaching out to all the other candidates and somehow bring them in to his campaign. He'll try to make use of their ideas, their energy, their passion.

We all need to be in it together to defeat the very real evil that is George W Bush and the people around him who are running this country.

[deminflorida]

1. If Gore hands over any of that eight million dollar war chest....

he's sitting on for 2008. I'll be a believer.

[WiseMen]

24. Gore is smart. Undercut Hillary and WIN/WIN all the way!

Al Gore has a great record of service to the nation in the Senate and as Vice President. It is a disgrace that Hillary Clinton is taking all the spotlight when she is a newbie to party leadership. I think we need to show due respect to Gore and recognize that John Kerry or Wes Clark would want his strong support during the general election.

The Kerry campaign, most of all, must acknowledge blame. The campaign held off from exposing Dean weak record until is was too late. Al Gore had said that he would endorse a candidate. If Kerry had responded strongly to Dean’s attacks against him and others as cowards and "cockroaches" he could have crippled Dean early and gotten Gore’s support.

Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi is a very smart guy. He had to get someone like Gore on board to buttress his new campaign strategy of positioning Dean as the future of the Party and denouncing any attack on Dean as an attack on all Democrats. And he did what it took to do this.

Dean dominance among the activist community, the media and the polls that led to Gore’s support. And Joe Trippi is going to do whatever it takes to keep it that way. The train was leaving the station.

Gore is also a very smart guy. He would made a far better president than Dr. Dean, but he is not running. He had to get on the train.

Look, Al Gore wants to play a major role in the Democratic Party and there is no better strategy than to support Dean and help him build-up from the grass-roots a new and invigorated Party. This is a win-win proposition for Gore:

ON THE ONE HAND, if Dean WINS against Bush, he will be so indebted to Gore that Gore (not Clinton) effectively becomes the party leader and will be able to use the grass-roots movement to help propel the new Liberal Media Empire that he is trying to build to oppose the right-wing Fox/Clear Channel dominance of talk news today.

ON THE OTHER HAND, if Dean LOOSES against Bush, he will have been discredited because all his flaws will have been exposed during the campaign. Gore would then inherit the grass-roots movement and the Internet money machine to fuel his 2008 campaign.

Gore did what he had to do for Gore.

Kerry is by far the most awesome candidate but he has to get into the dirt if he is going to rescue his campaign.
Kerry has to do NOW what has to be done for Kerry and the future of the nation.

[poskonig]

2. Gore seems to place a high importance on Iraq.

That may be a significant factor too.

Given Gore's fondness for technology, I wonder if the Dean's campaign's use of the internet impressed him.

[dajabr]

3. "Do you suppose that had any effect at all?"

Yes I do!

And, so does Dean (from his email today):

"Our supporters wrote more than 2,500 letters to Tipper and Al Gore at the October Meetup -- a display of grassroots energy that had a direct impact on his decision. Today, I ask you to send Vice President Gore a note of thanks for his support:"

http://www.deanforamerica.com/thankyoupetition

[SheilaT]

4. And I sent my note of thanks

to Al.

I've been writing letters to Iowa voters, about 6 so far, and I need to work on them more. My husband has written 20.

The letters seem to be completely flying under the radar of the news media, and people are apparently thrilled to receive them.

Heck, I may eventually receive one myself, since Kansas is a caucus state and I think it's on the list for letter writing a little bit down the road.

[Kool Kitty]

5. Aren't all the campaigns writing letters?

I know the Clark campaign is, because I have been. And I agree with you, I don't think it's with arrogance that these things are being done. That's what people that believe in their candidate do. It is enthusiasm, at least on my part, that makes me do it. I just don't think it is time yet for any of us to give up on the candidates that we support. I don't think it's time yet for Mr. Dean to go to all the other candidates to somehow bring them in to his campaign. I want to wait and see how the people in the first primaries vote. I think it is up to the people to decide. If Dean gets the nomination, then he gets my vote. I like Clark, but I dislike Bush more, and I certainly would not abstain from voting just because my first choice did not make it. Gore's endorsement is very good for Dean, but it doesn't nullify the process.

[SheilaT]

27. I have no idea if they're all writing letters.

Perhaps they are. But the Dean campaign has written over 97,000 letters to voters in Iowa and New Hampshire so far. NINETY-SEVEN THOUSAND. Can all the rest of the campaigns combined come near matching that? I doubt it.

[DemBones DemBones]

28. It's that sort of my-campaign's-better-than-yours attitude that has

earned Dean and Deanies so much ill will.

[WiseMen]

6. Sad that grass roots is writing letters not READING LETTERS

Start by reading John Kerry's letters from the Vietnam battlefield where exposed the horror and meaninglessnes of it all while earning the Silver Star, Bronze Star and 3 purple hearts as he repeatedly saved the lives of his command.

Read his books, including "The New War" which tried to warn of the new terror crisis that was emerging globally.

Then try to read Governor Deans Vermont record: then hire a lawyer and spend the next year trying to get a few documents.

An unthinking movement has foisted Dean on the rest of us.
It is a disgrace.

[dfong63]

7. cut to the chase - in all those letters, does Kerry explain why

... why it's honorable to kill people, as he did, who were only defending their country against an illegal and immoral invasion?

why is this great moralist so proud of having "served" when service meant fighting in a war he supposedly didn't believe in?

in all those letters, does Kerry explain how it could possibly be right to vote for the IWR, giving a power-mad president the green light to invade a pathetically weak nation that posed NO threat to the US?

did he explain why he failed to stand up and be counted against the so-called patriot act?

[WiseMen]

9. Let's Compare Records

John Kerry as a young man answered his nation’s call and enlisted to fight and lead men in a dubious war in Vietnam rather than let someone else die in his place. The nation gave him the Silver Star, Bronze Star and 3 Purple Hearts for his bravery, service and sacrifice. Each of his medals was won by some act of bravery saving the lives of his comrades.

John Kerry followed his tour of military duty with a life of service, leading the protest marches to end the War in which he fought. He led the fight in the Senate to expose and end U.S proxy wars in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala. He led the opposition to the first Gulf War, arguing that all other options had not been exhausted.

Howard Dean as a young man heard the call to Vietnam service and produced X-rays and a letter from his Doctor. The nation gave him a bad-back deferment and 1 year vacation on the ski-slopes of Aspen.

Dean, never led an anti-war protest and passively supported almost every foreign engagement until he was advised by his campaign manager to co-opt the anti-IracWar protests.

Like George W. Bush’s Vietnam Draft-Dodge into the Texas Air National Guard when he was “young and irresponsible,” Dr. Dean’s youthful maneuver memorializes the most shameful aspect of class and privilege in America – that the moneyed class can avoid their responsibilities and gain special advantages, yet end-up being celebrated for their success in life.

That is the record, and it is a shame the my fellow war-protestors are not thinking more deeply.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

10. So Kerry is a better candidate because he killed people in a

"dubious war?"

Is that your point?

[WiseMen]

16. Kerry would not let some poor kid die in his place.

That is the dirty story about our country: -- frat boys like George Bush, Dick Cheney and Howard Dean use whatever devices to skip responsibility and line their pockets -- then smirk and act as if they have moral high-ground because their class position allows them to do this. All the while there is war and death all around the world perpetrated for their benefit.

If America has to go to war, as a last resort for the securtiy of the nation, then the moral thing to do is to put the kids of the power class into the battlefield first. That is the principle understood from the time of Plato.

Kerry understood it. Dean did not. Dean has never been known to march for peace or oppose the unjust use of American military power -- until now.

Kerry's vote gave Bush the same authorization he had previously given Clinton. Why, because Sadaam's danger to the region were well known to have been fostered by the previous American (Reagan and Bush 1) initiates. Irac was a continuing American curse. Irakis were being bombed every week for the past 12 years. Half million children had died from the sanctions. It was nothing new. The potential dangers were great and it was rightly U.S. responsibility to work with the United Nations to solve the festering problem of Sadaam. That was Kerry's vote -- to try to resolve a tragedy that was causing tens of thousand of deaths of innocent of Irac every year the status quo continued.

America worked to hire Sadaam -- and is partly responsible for the over 1 million dead in the war with Iran and following atrocities inflicted on the Kurd and the marsh Shia -- it is reasonable that America participated in firing him. The blood is on American hands even if we want to close our eyes and pretend.

Kerry worked in the Senate to expose and end the Reagan/Bush schemes to covertly manage and prolong the abominable Iran-Irac war while folk like Howard Dean remained oblivious to the realities of American Foreign policy. Now Dean has the arrogance and gall to act as if he knows what he is talking about.

[polpilot]

22. Killing people makes you smart. Soldiers dropping bombs on Iraqi kids

will one day make them GREAT PRESIDENTS OF THE U.S. Not to kill foreigners makes one bad. Popping a cap in a young Iraqi makes one 'patriot' and fit for national office. If one figures out a way not to kill or be killed than you are a coward.

Come on Rummy...you know the gig. Oh yeah and if one doesn't participate in the killing then someone else has to go and that makes you a bad person. To be a good person you must fight U.S. wars of aggression/wear uniforms/...kill people and put shiny medal things on your shirt!!

Dean...Skiing to the inaug!!

[PVnRT]

23. And what about you?

Did you "heed the call to service" during Vietnam? Or, if younger, are you "heeding the call" now and shipping out to Iraq? Please, let us know.

[JaneQPublic]

11. Kerry went to Vietnam to learn it was meaningless. Dean knew it already

Kerry ended up an anti-war activist against VietNam after going there.

Although Dean did nothing illegal to get out of the war -- only showed up at his draft board with full documentation -- he had already arrived at the same conclusion about the Vietnam War that Kerry eventualy reached.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

12. Sounds like history is repeating itself.

[DemBones DemBones]

29. Kerry worked to end the Viet Nam War. Dean didn't. eom

[polpilot]

32. ...and Kerry worked to start the Iraq Bombing. Dean didn't.

Dean '04...

[virtualobserver]

13. so he voted for the IWR, so the young men and women of America

could experience the horror and meaninglessnes of it all firsthand.

Unthinking at its finest.

[individual]

8. We do need to defeat dubya,

but Dean certainly isn't the person to do it. Rush Limbaugh and a host of others have made hay with the label, "liberal." They are going to have field day with Dean. We have self-destructed--again.

[adadem]

15. Sadly

I believe you are correct. The Deanies are far too sure of themselves especially when it comes to addressing swing voters and liberal Republicans. IF Howie gets the nod we'll need to count on the swing voters and angry Republicans to sit it out.

[LuminousX]

19. The only way we are defeated is if you don't vote Democratic

[VermontDem2004]

17. Rush limbaugh will have a field day with ANY candidate

In fact he does have field days with every candidates every weekday. I wouldn't worry too much about the rhetoric that comes out of Limpballs mouth.

[9119495]

18. More low posters agreeing with Limbaugh? Hmmm.

Welcome to DU. How are things at the Free Republic?

[mitchum]

26. More relatively low posters insulting other posters?

Numbers don't mean a thing, Jack

[9119495]

38. Correction: Numbers mean "A" thing

Look at the post I responded to. "Limbaugh has had a field day with the word 'liberal'"--Do you really think Limbaugh isn't going to do that with any candidate? So what is left in that post? A baseless attack on a good democrat and a mention of how "we" have self-destructed. We don't even have a nominee yet so how could we have self-destructed?

It is my understanding that mods boot off those whose posts seem to be anti-Dems of pro-republicans. Thus, numbers DO mean something because nasty attacks will slide through from low posters that are anti-DU, but someone who has been around a while would have more credibility--or at least patience. Am I wrong?

[a_lil_wall_fly]

14. Gore is scared that the "real progressive" part of the Democratic party...

truly help the country out with out the "PAC/corporate" $$$$$.

[Padraig18]

25. 'Truly progressive'?

Isn't that just a touch arrogant and condescending on your part? :eyes:

[grannylib]

20. Dean was actively courting Gore's support by being in contact, asking

advice, etc. I think Gore is trying to set himself up for a possible run in 2008 and trying to distance himself from the Clintons who (official endorsement or no) are most likely Clark supporters.

[Tharesa]

21. Tharesa think moveon.org primary was a factor.

as was Gore's well-expressed reasons for why he thinks Dean is the best candidate to defeat shrub.

Lieberman may feel betrayed, but this is nothing compared to how Lieberman bit Gore's ass in his responses during the Vice Presidential debates.

[DemBones DemBones]

30. Some people theorize that Gore and other Dem leaders figure

Bush is likely to win no matter who runs, so let Howard run his little heart out and be slaughtered, then the regular party will run a real candidate, perhaps Gore himself, in 2008, who can benefit from all the grassroots built for Dean without having to face Bush. Dean's loss can be blamed on his being too much of an outsider or too liberal -- or whatever they want to move away from.

I'm not sure that I believe this but politics is a rough game.

[molly]

33. Hmmmm - could be

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ProfessorPlum]

34. Why wouldn't Gore then pick someone

whose campaign is doing a bad job of generating enthusiasm and money?

[RevolutionStartsNow]

35. Hey don't be so logical

This isn't about logic, this is about discounting Gore's endorsement!

[ProfessorPlum]

36. DOH!

(slaps forehead again)

[ProfessorPlum]

37. The real reason Gore endorsed Dean . . .

was the war in Iraq. Gore said so himself.