Helping Howard Dean & the Democrats (once HD gets the nod)

[moggie12]

I've been thinking about "an action plan" for when Howard Dean officially gets the DNC Chairmanship.

I think that whether people are Dean fans or not -- or registered Democrats or not -- his success is critical and we should do all we can to help him. Maybe that sounds a little dramatic, but I think it's really true -- the stronger the Democratic Party is, in my opinion, the better our chances at stopping the right wing juggernaut.

Below are some ideas. Please let know what you think, offering any changes/refinements. ALSO, PLEASE CONTRIBUTE ANY OTHER IDEAS YOU HAVE! If enough people like this "action plan" idea -- and if you can help me come up with some more, better ideas -- I'll post the end product on February 12th.

This is what I'm thinking would be "ideal":

1) The day Dean gets voted in (Feb. 12th), everybody who's currently not registered at the Democratic Party's website -- "Democrats.org" -- should sign up. This will be Dean's main communication vehicle so it'll be important that everybody gets -- and acts upon if they can -- what he sends out. (Also, it would send a pretty powerful message if the server crashed under the onslaught of everybody trying to sign up that day.....)

2) I imagine that one of the first things Dean'll do when he starts the job is send out an e-mail that will (among other things) ask for a donation. Needless to say, everybody who is financially-able should send something, even if it's just the minimum-allowed donation ($10, I'm guessing?). As important as the dollar amount he raises through this initial appeal will be the NUMBER of people responding -- it'll send a signal of widespread support which will help him achieve success. (Maybe husbands and wives should send contributions separately to increase the toal number??)

3) The post office sells pre-stamped blank postcards for 25 cents each -- everybody should send him a message of support on one of these cards on Feb 12th. Letters would be good, too, but I was thinking it would be pretty nifty if he could wave a stack of postcards around.

Well, that's all I could think of, which is why I need some input!! Your comments and ideas, please??!!

[Debi]

1. Great ideas!

Way to show that we as a party are united - Money & Mail come flooding in to the DNC now that Dean is Chair!!

Count me in


(wish I'd kept some of my old Dean pledge cards...could use them to mail to the DNC!!)

[blm]

2. EXCELLENT POST.

And fer chrissakes, give the man some room to operate. Some people are going to have to suck it up when he tacks one way or another.

The man is smart and articulate when he isn't being pressured to reflect any one ideology. Let him bring the party together his own way, which will be a far more comfortable fit for him than the Joe Trippi way.

[dave29]

3. Idea

1) GO TO A LOCAL MEETUP and get involved. Find a pet issue that will positively effect your local community and work with your new friends towards making it happen.

2) Get the press to cover your progress.

3) Repeat steps 1 and 2.

[crispini]

5. AMEN.

All politics is local. And it mostly doesn't happen over the internet.

[MaineDem]

17. Go to Town and County Democratic meetings

There's always something to do.

Edited for spelling.

[Trish1168]

4. I'll follow up

Sounds good. I am hoping that Dean can make a real difference.

[AntiCoup2K4]

6. Just imagine the BAT becoming a regular feature on the DNC site.

I seem to remember the Bat's guest appearances on Kerry's site a time or two last summer, bringing about a large amount of donations in one day. Why not use something that's a proven winner.

[janx]

11. The bat guaranteed $$ every time!

So many of us were so motivated to donate when the bat appeared.

[moggie12]

16. I'll bite, what's the bat? n/t

[mandyky]

19. The fundraising bat!

On DFA I believe folks can still set up their own personal bats.. This might be a good time to register and do so. While flooding the DNC with money is good, we still need to keep DFA afloat!!

[janx]

22. During Dean's run for the primaries,

the site posted a bat--it was a bit like a thermometer. People were making recommendations about the campaign, and these were actually read and considered by the campaign staff, and often by Dean himself. So the recommendations and concerns were going simultaneously with the contributions to the bat. It was not fake. The recommendations, in many cases, were actually adopted. And the contributions to the bat went on. We could track the donations by looking at the thermometer bat.

There were also troll donations...every time a troll visited the blog, people would throw in a $5 or so ( I know I did, and it was very funny).

We would post something like: CHA-CHING!

It was fun. It was democracy. And it was bottom-up. It was SO MUCH FUN!

[moggie12]

25. Oooohhhhh, now I get it.

That's what's needed with the Democrats -- spirit and a sense of common purpose and comraderie. "Democrats.org" seems very dry and sterile to me -- it's all press releases and the usual "repubs did this and we did that" kind of stuff (and it's not very up-to-date -- they didn't even have blurbs about some very important matters). I took a look at the GOP's website the other day -- they have a "team leader" section where people get t-shirts for sending out "x" number of e-mails and letters to the editor. I imagine Dean's team will be doing some work on our website....

[mandyky]

7. Call CSpan and make sure they cover

the handover!

[moggie12]

10. Great idea -- will add it to the list (Thanks!) n/t

[mandyky]

13. We also need to contact Russert, Matthews and other pundit shows

about having him on once he is in. Give him the platform to speak from.

[moggie12]

18. Hmmm, media strategy -- hadn't thought of that

Will add it to the list

[calimary]

23. Yes, ABSOLUTELY media strategy. AND contact OTHER Dems.

If you can, PLEASE either email, write, fax, or call your rep (if Democrat) and DEMAND that he/she get behind the new chairman. Make sure he/she knows that you are a) watching closely, keeping careful tabs; and b) ready to put your money where your mouth is - as long as Dean gets steady and solid support. INSIST they start showing some BACKBONE, because that's the only way they'll keep your support. If they don't know how to do that, tell 'em to go talk to Barbara Boxer. She's already demonstrated how it can be done.

BELIEVE ME, what Boxer did got NOTICED. BIGTIME. When I attended that "DNC Listening Event" a few weekends ago, it was crammed to the rafters with very loud, very well-informed, very dedicated Dean supporters. And they ALL knew, full well, what Barbara Boxer has been up to, and MAN-oh-MAN do they approve. Speaker after speaker after speaker made that crystal clear. I mean, you'd have to be blind, deaf, and mute not to have noticed.

Other Democrats MUST be brought fully onboard. We can't have ANY malcontents. They NEED to hear, and to be forced to understand, that the current is flowing THIS way, now. We are UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT, and they WILL be expected to conform, and to play ball. They should be put on notice that they MUST be part of the solution - NOT the problem. Otherwise, there's the door, over there. They need to know we're keeping score, and taking names. And if they're in Congress, they're gonna need us on their side in less than two years.

And yes, the media needs to be told this, in no uncertain terms, too. PLUS, they need to be reminded that fixating on the old "scream" shit is YESTERDAY'S NEWS, and WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. In fact, we should have massive letter-writing/emailing/blast-faxing campaigns ready to go. And this MUST include contacts to OTHER (read: competitive) media. If you write a letter to the editor about some idiot pirate parrot on TV or radio who turns into a Johnny One-Note about "Hollerin' Howard," make sure you CC: that letter to the offender you're ratting out.

The reason for this is as follows: I read a story, back during the run-up to the war, when a woman who'd protested against the war was MOST chagrinned to see the coverage (actually, lack thereof) in the New York Times. She particularly disagreed with the lowball crowd estimates, since she, herself, had been there and had personally witnessed how large the crowds were. She wrote a letter of complaint. She wrote it to the Times, its president, its LTTE department, and the reporters involved in the actual story. But she didn't leave it at that. She CC'ed that same letter to the Times' biggest competitor - the Washington Post, plus - I think - Editor and Publisher (it's online) - which is an industry trade that ALL the papers see. Or some such industry news arbiter. SOOOOOOOooooo... what that meant was, the Times was being outed on its shabby coverage to its face, and in front of others OUTSIDE itself, especially those against which it competes for readership. So all those OTHER guys knew the Times was being called out, and why. Sure enough, the paper ran a correction, and rapidly, too.

You have to make 'em look bad, and make 'em look bad IN FRONT OF A LOT OF OTHER PEOPLE INCLUDING THEIR PEERS AND OTHERS IN THEIR INDUSTRY WHOM THEY PRESUMABLY RESPECT AND IN FRONT OF WHOM THEY WISH TO STAND TALL. One little complaint to one place will tumble straight into the rabbit hole and disappear.

And make sure folks like Jon Stewart and Keith Olbermann are updated. They should be CC'ed EVERYTHING. They actually put stuff like this on the air.

And it should be done frequently, and in numbers. If these schmucks see that they are NOT fooling larger and larger masses of people, they'll be forced to come around. Maybe not at the speed we wish, but you can't stop an avalanche, either.

[moggie12]

28. I think the next year is going to be amazing

Dean will be working on rebuilding the Party's infrastructure at the same time that the Senate/House Democrats will be aggressively fighting Bush. I think it's one of those potentially transformative periods: Dean -- the symbol of grassroots input and returning to the principles of the Party -- paired with Dems such as Reid and Boxer, who are instilling new backbone and fighting spirit. The stars are aligned, it seems to me, and we have to do everything we can to help all of them, no matter how small the things we can do.

The thing is, though, it's going to be a process, not an overnight transformation, and I think we're going to have to expect some speed bumps along the road. We can "demand" all we want, but strategy and tactics are going to have to considered as the Dems proceed and, what's more, I think we're going to have to cut both Reid and Dean some slack since they both have ENORMOUSLY difficult jobs. It would be easier if we were truly "under new management", as you said, but neither of them is actually a boss!! They can't "fire" Democratic House and Senate members who fail to toe the line -- they are pretty much reliant on persuasion. In fact, to tell you the honest truth, I think sending Democratic politicians pre-emptive letters demanding they get on board would serve little purpose at this point, and would actually be counter-productive. The best way to help Dean, in my opinion, is to show visible support for him. This will send a strong message to those in the Party who still don't understand that we need to stand up strong and proud for our principles. They'll see that Dean is backed by millions of people who believe in what he stands for -- and so will the media (and the Republicans!).

Lastly, I very much like your idea of blasting the media with messages of support for Dean and being ready for the inevitable attempts to tear him down. This, more than anything, can really help Dean -- I'm going to add to the list the suggestion that everybody have their e-mail messages loaded into their computers and ready to send on Feb 12th!! In fact, when I summarize everybody's ideas and re-post this, maybe I'll ask for volunteers to write a few sample e-mails: Since the media has been trotting out the same tired crap for a year now, it's not like we don't know what they're going to say. It would be ideal if when they say it this time, they get a couple of hundred e-mails from Democrats telling them that they don't know what the hell they're talking about.......

[Califooyah Operative]

38. Agreed. Heres the cspan events coverage recomendation email

[e-mail]

[moggie12]

39. Thanks for posting the C-Span link -- didn't know there was such a thing

I'll include it in the next iteration of the "Action Plan" -- I think I'm going to do a summary of what we've got so far after I get some more input/ideas/practical suggestions.

[stray cat]

8. Great idea. keep it kicked.

Any chance you can repost it Feb 12 as a reminder?

[Cha]

9. Thank you, moggie! This is just

brilliant! I'm so glad you did this..I would definitely like to do all three of your ideas. Heck, I sent Dean a birthday card last year and thanked him for all he's done for us.

[Debi]

12. How funny...

so did my husband...I wonder how many other DU'ers sent him birthday greetings....huh?

[calimary]

24. I just sent him some money.

Had to tighten the belt to do it, but I did it. And I'll do it again.

Guys, PLEASE understand this. We are a tsunami. Howard Dean is an undersea earthquake. We are the chain reaction he sets off.

I got a call from a DNC rep the other day, urging that my husband and I renew. I burned her ear off with complaints that I'd given til it hurt all through the campaign, and got literally NOTHING for my money except Barbara Boxer's newly-acquired backbone (which is great, but not nearly enough!). She pressed me and pressed me and pressed me, and I argued around her and over her and straight through her every time (THANK YOU, DU, for all the resource material that's sharpened me up!). I said NOT ANOTHER NICKEL unless Howard Dean becomes chair. And get RID of the DLC and the Al Fromms of the world and the other capitulators to the wrong wing. She tried to insist that what the DNC needed to see is numbers of people signing up, and I disagreed strenuously. I told her "you show them THIS: that two life-long Democrats just in THIS household will LEAVE and will NOT COME BACK if you guys don't start showing some SPINE, and putting Howard Dean in as leader." She tried hard to refute me and finally gave up because I would NOT let her win. She even tried to interrupt and talk over me and I would NOT allow that, either. Sorry. That went out with politics played by gentlemen and gentlewomen (certainly BEFORE newt gangrene came on the scene). I got the last word, and I'm keeping my money, unless HOWARD DEAN gets the chairmanship.

In fact, I think in the future, as we (presumably) continue to show MORE spine and MORE gut and MORE teeth (hopefully long, sharp, pointy ones), perhaps we ought to storm our local TV stations, stage protests, do the same in front of and around the network outlets. When they're having some talking head show, we should crowd around them en masse and DEMAND that they bring one of OUR people onboard. Because this crap about having a panel discussion with a republi-CON, a conservative, somebody from the American Enterprise Institute, and somebody from the Wall Street Journal or Pat Buchanan or some certified reactionary knuckledragger - and literally NO REPRESENTATION FROM THE LEFT - has GOT TO STOP.

Remember the Boston Tea Party? Remember what they said? "No Taxation Without Representation." We are NOT being represented. AT ALL. And that HAS GOT TO STOP.

And by the way, moggie - THANK YOU for bringing this up! It'll get people thinking. We should be doing EXACTLY that, NOW, so we're ready to strike when Howard Dean gets the nod. Rapid Response!! I mean, THINK OF IT, guys. Don't you have a few megatons of anger and resentment and outrage building up to near-explosive levels inside you? Harness all of it and put it to work for you!

[Andromeda]

14. Gosh, I love this kind of talk!

These are great ideas. :)

[janx]

15. DFA allows individuals to set the amount.

You can donate $5 and we're thankful! I imagine the same will be true for the DNC should Dean be elected.

[shance]

20. Terrific!

Great ways to show support and build influence within the party!

[FrenchieCat]

21. Moggie12

does it again!

all action!

Thank you for the plan!

[John_H]

26. No thanks! It would be much more effective

to withhold any money and support to the DNC until it becomes clear that they are taking direction from the new chairman.

By withholding our donations we can help howard dean end the consultant culture, clean house of the losers currently running the show, and fight the DLC. At the same time we hold his feet to the fire to not forget what he promised.

We should all write to the DNC letters that say, I support Dean 100%. I support what he has promised to do. I'm ready to donate and I'm ready to work. I will work tirelessly and give generously when and only when it becomes clear that he is not being undercut by the establishment that remains in place.

I'm not going to fund the status quo.

[moggie12]

30. Yeeeeshhh - are you trying to help him fail??

Dean will be more able to get things done if the Dems know he's got BROAD, ENTHUSIASTIC support among the masses of us poor shmucks out here in Americaland. He will draw strength from numbers!!

It's not like we have forever here -- the DNC needs to get up to speed QUICK. They've got to groom candidates for '06, so we can take back the House and Senate (this takes a lot of lead time). By the time we wait to see whether Dean's being "undercut by the establishment", the game'll be over.

Heck, I'm only talking 10 bucks here -- it's a symbolic gesture to show support for Dean. If you're worried, write in the memo line, "UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES GIVE EVEN A PENNY OF THIS TO LIEBERMAN"

[yebrent]

33. They need to get up and running VERY quick.

Not only to find 2006 candidates. There should be ads in certain key Senators states NOW on Social Security. Ads should be following shrub around on his little SS march around the Country. (can't help but picture goose-stepping)

[moggie12]

35. good point -- we're behind the eight-ball already

We spent critical time on the DNC race while events are rushing by. Gotta get a revitalized DNC into the game quick.

By the way, welcome to DU!! And a strategic thinker, no less! :hi:

[John_H]

44. Cosmetic changes aren't enoughTime for a little tough love over on Ivy st.

There is no reason why Dean cannot, at the very least, end the consultant culture and get rid of the dead weight within a week. That's a stroke of the pen deal. This is, far and away, the most important task before him.

Just as rank and file Dems exherted unprecedented power putting Dean in place, we can exert unprecedented power by demanding immediate change.

Sending the DNC an all-s-well-now-that-howard's-here message is counterproductive--it lets the DNC know that cosmetic changes are all we need to fall right back in line.

What we need to do is finish the job.

[moggie12]

46. I'm saying when HOWARD DEAN HIMSELF asks for money, give some

I am definitely NOT suggesting giving money in response to some some generic DNC appeal for bucks. I've deleted every single request for $ the DNC has sent out since the election (practically broke my finger once, I did it so hard!!!). Like you, I'm disgusted by what I've learned about the clubby, insider driven DC Dem culture, especially the clique of loser consultants (i.e., Shrum and that idiot pollster they've been using for years -- can't remember his name .... was detailed in that Amy Sullivan article in the New Republic).

I'm saying, we CAN HELP DEAN fight the culture by supporting him. It's the chicken or the egg. What comes first?: Dean getting the visible support of millions of Dems, or Dean ramming changes through. I think he needs our support right away IN ORDER to ram the changes through. The more the insiders see that fighting him is a lost cause, the easier it will be for him to achieve reform.

Do you see what I'm saying? It seems like we're on the same page in regards to what's wrong with the DC Dem culture. I hope I've explained my reasoning better in this reply -- does this affect your thinking as to the strategy I'm proposing??

[PassingFair]

27. February 12th is also Darwin Day...

and Lincoln's birthday. What a day to celebrate if Howard gets the nod!

[lojasmo]

29. Fantastic ideas all. I'm in. EOM

[dvaravati]

31. you say "his success is critical"

I hope you mean the position of chairman and not the person Howard.

[moggie12]

34. Yes, as Chairman of the DNC, he must succeed

If he doesn't, the Democratic Party is in deep doo-doo (excuse the technical language).

I also think it's critical that he succeed because I think he's right about bringing the Party back to the grassroots and emphasizing it's populist economic soul. I'm more of a centrist Democrat and don't want to veer too far to the left, but there's certain core issues we seem to somehow gotten away from (like not yelping more about the rich people always trying to grab all the money).

I was an Edwards supporter during the primaries -- I know there's tons of Kerry, Clark and Kucinich supporters around here. My point was, we all need to pull together and help Dean now for the good of the Party (so that we can beat back Bush and the GOP). Also, those who aren't Democrats around here should take a leap of faith and help Dean, too. They can talk about a third-party all they want, but no third-party will be able to get anything in place by the '06 elections -- and that's when we need to take the House and Senate from the nutty right-wingers.

[Clarkie1]

32. I will do all three! n/t

[Califooyah Operative]

36. awesome,

i was thinking to my self before seeing this, we should donate and show support to the dnc under howard, to help him be and appear to be successful and donate to dfa also, who i'm sure spent some good money to get him in, and will continue to support good progressive candidates to get our country back.

[Califooyah Operative]

37. moggie12

can i copy and paste your plan, to show others away from DU? and u should post it in the dfa group, if you haven't already.

[moggie12]

41. Heck yes, copy it anywhere you want.......

That's a question I should have raised in my original post: How do we spread this and get more people to see and do this stuff? If you post this on other blogs, could you let me know on which ones and what kind of reaction you get?? Also, maybe asking people to forward this to friends/family should be part of the "Action Plan": Word of mouth is the best advertisement (or, in this case, "word of e-mail").

I'll take a look at the DFA site and try to figure out where I could post this (I'm not a DFA member).

[Dems Will Win]

40. I met with Dean's staff and we're talking about creating a

NATIONAL NEWSPAPER! (I'm the consultant who suggested and printed The Dean Times in IA and NH). This is serious. Please go to this thread to give me article ideas for upcoming issues.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1568959

"BECOME THE MEDIA"

[moggie12]

42. Great -- sign me up -- what do you think of this "Action Plan" idea?

Do you have any sense from talking with Dean's staff how we can help him initially? Would thousands of people signing up on the DNC website help? Would trying to convince hundreds of thousands of people to make at least a small donation in response to his first fund-raising appeal help? Can you give me any ideas that come "straight from the horse's mouth??"

[GetTheRightVote]

43. These are great ideals, thanks for the posting, waiting for Feb 12th

Dean will be our man.

:kick:

[Sparkly]

45. How about letters to the editor of local papers

Nip in the bud any attempt to "portray" Dean as the other side wants to by expressing optimism and support in LTE's.

For example, we need to counter this kind of thing (suggestions follow):

Still, some Democrats worry about the image Dean projects: anti-war Northeastern liberal from Vermont, the state that led the way on civil unions for gays. Amid all the talk of values, Democrats wonder if Dean would be an albatross as they try to make inroads with conservative-leaning voters in the South and Midwest.

And they wonder how many times television will replay Dean's "I have a scream"speech after his disheartening third-place finish in Iowa behind the two candidates who eventually comprised the Democratic presidential ticket — John Kerry and John Edwards.

"Some people worry that Republicans will portray him as a crazy liberal," said Thomas Mann, a political analyst at the Brookings Institution. "The question is whether he can effectively counter that."

Dean backers argue that the liberal image is undeserved for a former governor who repeatedly balanced the budget and backs gun rights.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=548&ncid=703&e=4&u=/ap/20050205/ap_on_el_ge/dean

Suggested points to mention in letters countering these:
-VALUES of equal opportunity, equal protection under the law, civil rights.
-PASSION, commitment, enthusiam, energy, charisma; the "scream" as a rallying cry, not a negative.
- RECORD of sensible, responsible policies, as included in the article.

No matter what we may think of individual leaders or potential leaders in our party, I hope we can agree that we really need to stop basing our decisions on what the Republicans will "portray." That really enables them to box us in.

[moggie12]

47. Yes! Will add that to the "TO DO" list

(God, the spin is sickening, isn't it??)

I'm going to re-post the "Action Plan", amended with everybody's great suggesstions, and will include this (with a link to a site that provides a feature that lets people spit out LTTE -- "Democrats.org" has one I know, I think other sites do, too).

Thanks for the suggestion (keep them coming....)

[napi21]

48. I'm not worried about the "I've got a Scream" speech.

I think Howard has handled that very well. I've seen him many times making a statement, and then faking a scream and laughing the whole time! The media constant reruns were effective at the time, but I really think most people now understand what really happened that night, and those who still care will always hate him anyway.

I also think the liberal from Vermont thing can be overcome with his honest talk, and the way he gets people to say "Hey he's right about that".

The only big problem I see is the Gay Marriage issue. If I knew how to handle that, I'd run for office myself.

[moggie12]

52. me neither, Dean making jokes about it is the best way to get rid of it

As for his "honest talk", the best defense against the stuff they'll hurl at him is for him to say, "Yeah, I said that, so what?". People will admire him for sticking to his guns. It's how that moron Bush got re-elected, for godsakes!! Dean should do some kind of twist of Bush's line from the closing weeks of the campaign, "You may not agree with me, but you know where I stand". The more Dean sticks up for himself and the Dems, the better. It shows backbone and guts and people respect that.

[cascadiance]

49. Don't just talk about registering at democrats.org web site

if you're talking about just registering on the web site itself.

Also note that those that are registered voters as independents or other parties (like I am), or not registered to vote at all, register as a democrat that day. I think in most states it is just reregistering to vote.

It would be helpful to know how one can register in such a way that it can be (and will be) immediately monitored to let the beancounters know that magnitude of how much Dean getting the nomination means to the voting populace in terms of their willingness to get on board with the Democratic Party.

I would also think that getting registration booths at local malls the day after the DNC vote would be a *cool* way to let this happen immediately. I'd volunteer to take a day off and help if that could happen here (and have one of the registrations be mine). Could even be a flyer to note what Dean's initial plans are, etc. to help people get motivated to sign up then.

[moggie12]

50. Wow, now THAT WOULD BE SOMETHING!!! thousands becoming Dems!

In response to Dean and his vision of grassroots action and a return to Dem core principles.

jeez, it makes me weak in the knees (even though I'm sitting down at my desk typing...)

i will definitely add this to the "Action Plan" when I re-post it.

The subject could be "Getting People to Register as Democrats".

Under that would be:
* explore idea of registration booths and/or handing out flyers in public places to encourage non-registered people to register and Independents/other Party people to switch registration
* find out how to "monitor' registration process and publicize Dem upsurge if at all possible (done through local Boards of Elections? Motor Vehicles? I live in upstate NY and will find out what the deal is here where I live. Can you do the same where you live?)

Thanks -- great suggestion!!!!

[Zhade]

51. Kick

Kick

[stray cat]

53. keep it kicked for Friday

[bigwillq]

54. I really like the post card idea! Great post!

I am really ready for Dean Day-Feb. 12!!:bounce:

[Califooyah Operative]

55. kick. nt

[Eloriel]

56. Terrific ideas

:kick:

[moggie12]

57. ANY MORE IDEAS BEFORE I SUMMARIZE AND RE-POST??

I'm planning on summarizing everybody's ideas and re-posting this tonight or tommorrow -- there are things we should be doing now to help Dean -- last call for ideas!!!!

[ElsewheresDaughter]

58. count on it!

[mandyky]

59. We need to concentrate on this, not the Dean bashing and

doubting...

[moggie12]

61. yes, I really think we need to unite behind him

I didn't support Dean during the primaries, but I think he'll do great as the DNC Chair. I think if people are REAL DEMOCRATS they'd stop re-fighting old wars and buckle-down and get to work doing anything they can to help Howard Dean (and Harry Reid, too, -- I see Dean and Reid as the two people most important right now in the battle to stop Bush and the GOP from further wrecking our country).

Check out this recent DU post. A Clark supporter asked DUers to do a poll saying whether they's support Dean as DNC: Most said "Hell, yeah", even if they'd supported other candidates during the primaries. To me this says that there are just a few people out there who can't "grow up" and put old wounds behind them and work together for the good of our Party.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[mandyky]

63. Human Fire Hydrants United - HFHU

LOL I couldn't resist!!

[moggie12]

67. Where is this HFH line from??

I remember reading it in some article somewhere -- some Dem said the DNC job is like being a human fire hydrant, right? Obviously, you read it, too -- do you remember where you saw it or who said it??? I think it would be a funny thing to put it my next post on supporting Dean ..... (I'm planning on re-posting this thing, incorporating several good ideas DUers had...)

[mandyky]

69. Terry Mcaulliffe I think said it in

that Dean reinvents himself article posted here yesterday, I think by madfloridian.

[AP]

60. Donate $, attend Meet-ups ...

...and at meet-ups, always have an elected Dem (or member of staff) show up and tell people what to do to make a difference...

[ultraist]

62. Donate to the DNC the DAY Dean is nominated, end it in .06

$10.06, $20.06, $30.06 or whatever you can manage.

We are branding our bucks with .06 to represent the next major elections (2006).

[calimary]

64. KICK!

People need to continue seeing this. And putting it into practice.

What would you do with your kid if you were a parent? Reward bad behavior or good behavior? Choosing Howard Dean as DNC Chair is GOOD BEHAVIOR. It needs to be encouraged and rewarded. Contrarians should be discouraged and punished, or at least reprimanded and read the riot act.

[Tinoire]

65. Great ideas! n/t

[ElsewheresDaughter]

66. kick

[JNelson6563]

68. Agreed on all points

Good post.

[mandyky]

70. Moggie12 Have you compiled the list yet?

Just wondering...