Transcript from Dean/Blitzer interview today, a few of my favorite parts.

[madfloridian]

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0509/09/sitroom.02.html

He has traditionally started dialogues on issues...here is the pattern.

1.Howard Dean says something that we all know but no one ever says.

2.Even though it is generally known to be true, the outrage begins.

3.People start to talk about the issue, but he gets blasted. That is ok with him...nothing to lose. You can speak truth to power when you have nothing really to lose.

4. Others start saying it.

BLITZER: "All right. So what did you mean when you say skin color, age, and economics played a significant role?

DEAN: I meant the same thing that Colin Powell meant when he talked about this issue. I like to try to look for some good in every horrible tragedy. This gives us an opportunity to look at an issue that's been swept under the rug for the last 20 or 30 years, since the Civil Rights Movement. And that is, if you are poor, if you are black, if you are old, you disproportionately suffered in this disaster.

And that means we need to have a national discussion, which a lot of people have been talking about, but nobody has really led us on about poverty and race in America."

And a few more quotes I like:

People who were affected in this disaster, the people who are holed up in the Astrodome, look at the kinds of things that have been said about them. Look what the Republican representative from the Louisiana said this morning in "The Wall Street Journal"; that finally God has gotten -- or has cleaned up the public housing in New Orleans.

It's not enough to be a nice guy. I'm not disputing the fact the president is a nice man, and maybe he's compassionate in his personal life. The truth is that Americans have suffered deeply under this presidency, 80 percent of Americans, and that black people, Hispanic people, and poor people and old people have suffered disproportionately.

DEAN: I think there's an indifference in the Republican Party towards people who aren't at the very top of the income level. Their whole tax policy has shown that.

And a couple of the best quotes. He calls Wolf on the very talking points Randi was pointing out. He makes it clear that everyone going back for years could have done better beforehand, but that FEMA had the after storm responsibility; and it failed big time.

DEAN: You're holding the mayor to a different standard. This is a Republican spin machine stuff. You're holding the mayor to a different standard than you are holding FEMA.

DEAN: What I'm saying is everybody could have done a better job ahead of time, including the last three or four presidents, who didn't put money into the levees. After the fact, however, it was very clear what everybody's job was, and there was one group of people who didn't do their job.

[WinkyDink]

1. The President

is NOT "a nice man", Howard.
Don't be stupid.

[rodeodance]

4. yeah, that was a bit overboard.

[madfloridian]

8. No, this was not overboard.

This is how people talk in situations like this. Think about the phrasing, just think.

"I'm not disputing the fact the president is a nice man."

(That is like saying that everyone SAYS he is nice, so I won't dispute it. It is called tact.)

[madfloridian]

5. It is a little nicety to say that when you are chair of the opposing party

Actually he did think that when they were governors together. He said Bush was welcoming to them when he was governor. He did not see this extremist side.

It was fine for him to say that. I am afraid this board is getting so obsessive about speaking out that they forget that sometimes a sentence like that will make people listen.

He did a good job.

[rodeodance]

2. Clinton always our country needed a discussion about race.

And that means we need to have a national discussion

[crispini]

3. my fav:

"I do not think that this president cares about everybody in America. It's one nice -- I'm sure the suspect a nice man on a personal level. His policies have been devastating to middle class and poor people in this country, white, black, and brown. "


say it howard!!!!!

[madfloridian]

7. I can't figure where this sentence came from:

"It's one nice -- I'm sure the suspect a nice man on a personal level."

LOL, I sure don't remember that one in the interview and can't make heads of tails of it. I think that a transcriber goofed.

[gumby]

6. That was an excellent job by Dean.

Woofie sat there dumbfounded. HA!

Dean seems to have impressively improved his "performance."

Dean knows the importance of "language" and he is getting really good at using it!!

[texpatriot2004]

9. Go Dean. Thanks for the transcript. n/t

[Totally Committed]

10. Thanks for the transcript!

Howard did an awesome job.

TC