How Dean Can Overcome the Bad Effects of "The Scream"

[stopbush]

He needs to take a page out of the bush playbook - simply do the scream another 10-20 times at varying degrees of outrageousness and it will all fade into media obscurity.

Do what bush did with "trifecta," "wmd" etc. Repetition makes for boring news.

If there's only ONE instance, it's a big deal. If there are 20 incidents, it's just Dean doing his cheap publicity stunt. Maybe he asks the crowds to "give him a Yee-haw!" or says "let's give a big Yee-haw to get bush out of our WH!"

Thoughts?

[Frangible]

1. I was thinking maybe a WWF guest appearance?

Cause he sounded perfect for it :)

[stopbush]

2. Or challenge bush to a cage match! n/t

[JohnLocke]

8. Now that's funny!

[The_Counsel]

5. That Might Not Be a Bad Idea...

...considering we've already had one former WWF-er be elected governor.

Ya never know: Jesse the Body just might be secretly running the Dean campaign. :silly:

[Rowdyboy]

3. Thats a very interesting idea

But I hesitate to suggest strategy to other candidates. Too often, people take it as criticism.

[Melodybe]

4. By going on David Letterman and The Daily Show

He has no options, left now, he owes it to us to fix this mess. I am sick of explaining to people just what the fuck Dean meant when he said this and said that. Americans have to hear it from the man himself and until then he is going to do nothing but sink into obscurity.

[MiniMoog]

17. Melodyebe

I must commend you. Over the past several days I have read your posts recognizing a warrior spirit. On a battlefield - and make no mistake, this election process is exactly that - your persistant drive to realign strategy and target appropriatedly should be accknowledged. In basketball we would call this making the "adjustment." The Dean Campaign should do this expeditiously. Your candidate has the fight in him. What he lacks is stealth and the awareness that once "caricature" leads as indentity, a footnote swiftly follows.

MiniMoog

[spooky3]

23. yes, I think that is absolutely the best idea!

Dave had Gephardt on to do Top Ten--he could get a lot of laughs if Dean were on and Dean would benefit enormously.

Then, Dean needs to take a long weekend, go home to Vermont, and get caught up on sleep and time with his family. That will help him more than anything. I am saddened by the lack of humanity I see among a number of DUers. When someone is clearly suffering from exhaustion, feeling some responsibility for letting down so many hard working volunteers and wanting to fire them up even though he probably wanted to just hide inside, etc., or at least there is every possibility that that is the cause, I wish we could let it be.

[bearfartinthewoods]

34. he's home now

[Dookus]

6. Is this Dean?

[EXE619K]

7. That's funny!

really, as Dean guy...that made me laugh!

[Dookus]

14. then try this one!

[EXE619K]

18. LOL!

Even better Dook!

on edit: not trying to snip back at ya...really.

I can take good humor about my guy.

[Oreegone]

9. In our puritanical society

One must never show passion.

Speaking of that...Hell if that SOTU were in England there would have been some yelling and booing....

[On the Road]

10. The First Day Was Spent in Stunned Silence

There started to be a bit of embarrassment attached to being a Dean supporter.

Now supporters are starting to talk about how to fix things. That's a good sign.

Dean was perceived negatively by a lot of voters, even if they were being prodded on how percieve his speech. To couneract it, he has to go in front of large numbers of voters and defuse the criticism without trying to be someone else. He has to be human and show a sense of humor. Any major late-night or news program will suffice -- the more the better.

[sandnsea]

11. Ignore It!!

Stop posting on it and it will go away!

[stopbush]

12. If Dean were a repug, it would not only go away, it would have

been buried immediately.

But our guys are Dems, and anything that they do that is the least bit off is going to get played and replayed by the media and the RNC and be made to appear wacky. IMO, ignoring it actually creates more of a problem because it makes it look like Dean is embarrassed about the scream. That's a two-way loser, AFAIC.

The opposition will only let go of the scream when and if Dean drops out. He needs to make a gesture to have it become a non-issue. I feel that he really has only one chance to fix it and should do so soon.

[spooky3]

25. no, the Thugs would have spun it as "passionate and compassionate"

and turned a perceived weakness into a strengh!

And the media and many Murkans would have bought it.

[sandnsea]

33. It will go away

See the philly sandwich thread. You just have to suck it up and go forward. Nothing else to do.

[Anwen]

15. It's hard to ignore it

when I keep seeing it as a major issue in the news :(

[sandnsea]

32. Kerry eating a sandwich

I swear I watched that stupidity for a week. Ignore it. Get back to doing whatever you do for the Dean campaign. Many people here already have. The Kerry bashing is back in full swing!

[drfemoe]

13. My thoughts

are the same.. keep doing it .. :lol: The media are going to bury themselves with the story, not Dean. That's what I've been hearing from non-biased folks anyway (people who aren't necessarily "Dean supporters"). They think the media is a bigger jackass than Dean. Why would we want to do anything to change that perception?

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

21. Exactly

A few folks I've heard, who don't normally follow politics too closely, saw the clip and have said to me "That Dean guy you like kicks ass!"

They don't share the media's perception.

[xray s]

16. Absolutely!

Hey, Clinton came back from a sex scadal in '92. Dean can overcome this.

Humor is the key. I really think he was just try to cheer up the troops by going a little over the top at the rally. I smiled when I saw it, but I also was worried he would be screwed by the media for it.

He needs to make some fun about it on Leno and Dave and Jon's show and then get on with the campaign. But he needs to do it NOW!

[oldcoot]

22. Good idea!

I agree with the posters who suggest that Dean should try to get on the "Daily Show" and "Letterman." Humor is a powerful tool. The main problem with the speech is the fact that the "experts" and pundits keep on describing Dean as an "angry" man. If he is willing to make fun of himself and the speech, he could counter this image.

[rbrussell]

19. He...

Just needs to make it sound a little better. The way he let it out sounds, well, sorta crazy.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

20. late night shows

That's the key. Humanize himself to the voters. If he gets them to laugh with him and not at him, this thing could really turn around. I think a few talk shows would do the trick.

We all need to email the campaign and keep this option in their minds.
(Go to the contact page at Deanforamerica.com)

Hell, he could also run with. He could sell "Yeargh! I'm for Dean!" bumper stickers. I dunno.

[calimary]

24. If he starts having fun with it, and poking fun at himself, he could

rebound QUITE nicely. Put the kibosh on those who say he's too angry and serious and humor-less.

Frankly, I think he could get a lot of mileage if HE appropriated the term "I have a scream" for that moment. Self-deprecating humor can be endearing to people. And it would defang some of his critics.

[fshrink]

26. I don't see any "bad" effect.

By daring to show that he was not a dead suit I think he actually scored points. The spontaneity of it makes the whole difference. Do you see much spontaneity in this campaign?

[Buffler]

28. No bad effect?

His poll numbers are dropping faster than a lead ballon.

[fshrink]

30. We'll see the real numbers in a few days.

There's a vast difference between an intention and an act.

[K8-EEE]

38. It's Cost Him Big Time

It's like a job applicant being 15 minutes late for the appt., or a fiancee getting sloshed at the dinner meeting her in-laws.

The wrong time to screw up. The screw up is magnified because of it.

Sure, the Deaniacs were won over body and soul; but a lot of people were just forming their opinion and that impression is going to stay with a lot of people. I'm not even saying it's fair; but politics is a tough game and he just doesn't seem to GET it sometimes!

[R3dD0g]

27. It's a good idea.

Daily Show for sure.

Letterman and Leno would be trickier. If he did one and ignored the other it would set him up for even stronger ridicule on the jilted show.

[killbotfactory]

29. Punch the next person who brings it up in their stupid face.

And scream "How do ya like me now, bitch!?"

Or challenge them to a duel. The way they used to do it in the olden days.

[Piperay]

31. Really, after hearing so

much about it when I finally heard the speech I didn't think it was so bad. The media is making much ado about nothing, 'the scream' was a whole lot better than the continuous lies that the chimp is constantly spewing out (repugs get away with everything, Democrats are called on everything). :argh:

[TopesJunkie]

35. Actually, the media did that for him --

Nobody gives a rip anymore, and it's not even 48 hours later. It's no big deal. That's what saturation does. It takes the power out of things. Now, if Dean got one of those big, blow up dolls of Edvard Munch's "The Scream," and stood it next to him on the podium, he would gain ten points in New Hampshire tomorrow. I guarantee it!

[texasmom]

36. NPR did a whole segment on it..

this afternoon. I am really disappointed with "All Things Considered," but at least their story took a different direction. The story was focused on the media frenzy and how it's so out of control--the "whys" and the "what do you do now" if you're Howard Dean. The media critic, I think from the National Journal, made a good point. Someone mentioned it earlier. He said that one way to diffuse it would be to go on one of the late night shows and be affable, sort of making fun of himself--even doing the "scream" again. He said that the key was getting the public to see it from Dean's side and identify with him.

As an aside...this whole thing has really upset me. It's been a piling on of something I still think is much ado about nothing. It's been a terrible reminder to me of what the press--all of the press-- is willing and eager to do to our candidates. I have been disappointed in supporters of other candidates, too, though I haven't read the threads today. My candidate is Clark, but Dean is one of US. He is on OUR SIDE. He, even if he isn't our candidate of choice, has been fighting for us. When they attack and ridicule him, they are attacking and ridiculing us! When we don't stand up to the press and people who send us emails mocking him, we are contributing to the problem. The "problem" is one which will kill us during this campaign. Apparently Bush could fall asleep while giving a speech and the press/pundits/public would say he made some good points. One of ours is savaged for rallying his workers. The whole thing is crazy. It's out of control. It's time for us, as Democrats, to stick together and not put up with outrages like this. I am sad that any Democrat has contributed in any way to this out-of-control media feeding frenzy. Even NPR played the clip twice!

[drfemoe]

37. Ya ..

Hey .. if that was so *scary* :scared: we have a secret weapon.

B***ita could've just sent Dean to Ira* to scream at SH a little to get him in line.
Oh . but bombing a foreign country into oblivion is so much more polite, as is not counting civilian deaths, and hiding American soldiers when they come home in boxes, and ....

[Comadreja]

39. A Republican take on it

This is from Dean's Forum on America:


"First off, I'm a Republican. I like Bush quite a bit, but at the same time I don't really hate Dean. Here's my perspective on Dean:

I know a lot of Republicans that are afraid of Dean. Dean doesn't hold back, and is hard to back-up in a debate. Ultimately, Dean's accusations will do damage to the president, regardless if they are true or not... ALL Republicans agree on this.

Also, Republicans see the groundswell that Dean has made. He's broken records for dem fundraising and has brought many people into the process... and this is KEY. For Bush to win he needs two things: 1) More money 2) A relatively low voter turnout. Dean is the ONLY dem candidate that can challenge Bush on both counts. (I believe the economy is a lock and Iraq is fading as an issue.)

Many Republicans saw this from the begining, as evident in the early onslaught of attacks directed against Dean. It was the Republican leadership--both political and non-politcal--that labeled him as "angry and crazy". It's a similar tactic to the "stupid" Bush crap that was pushed on GWB 4 years ago.

The great thing about the attacks against Dean was that it painted him as unelectable... which is ironic as hell when you think about it. This guy just raised 40 mil in a year, starting from absolutely nothing. He's found legions of supporters and garnered some amazing endorsements.

But, anyways, here's why you guys didn't win in Iowa: Kerry and Edwards ran politcally "unopposed". Think about it. There was no media spotlight on the "Johns". No Republican attacks. No Democratic attacks. They were the only one's with their hands unbloodied. Dean didn't do what he does best: attack.

Look at the numbers... they don't lie. A lot of Kerry/Edwards votes came from "late deciders". They only surged in the polls over the last 5 days. Kerry and Edwards got their message out, and nobody called it on them. It left them as shinning stars.

Even with 40 Million, your movement will DIE in NH unless you bring down Kerry and Edwards. Dean needs to be Dean. The problem is, I think he won't be. I think Kerry will win, which is fine by me... cause Kerry is goof. Karl Rove will tear him up.

The next waves of Republican attacks will go against Gen. Clark. He's the only other candidate that attacks Bush with any zeal. The media will follow suit, trust me. The Republicans will not say crap about the "Johns"... matter of fact, on his show today, Rush Limbaugh said that he thinks Edwards is the best candidate. Chew on that. I think he's the best candidate too... to get Bush re-elected."