As a Dean supporter, who should I support now?

[PartyPooper]

Dean placed second in New Hampshire. Should I continue to support him...or, should I switch my long-time support to another candidate? If so, whom? I have personal reservations about Kerry. He's ok...but, I still am not sure I want him to be the nominee. (I am an ABB voter!)

I still like Clark and Kucinich because they opposed the "war". But, are they "electable"? And, Edwards voted for the IWR. (Some say he would make an excellent VP with Kerry or Clark.)

I suppose my favourite ticket would be Dean / Clark.

What should I do now?

:shrug:

[AP]

1. The outsider--Edwards.

What America has been doing isn't working.

[deminflorida]

6. Sure support the Outsider who took an Insider Stance on the War

in Iraq....

That's just where they should go.....

[joshcryer]

13. Edwards is Iraq invasion, eh?

Figures.

[AP]

48. Yeah. Apparently it's part of the 'electability' thing voters are looking

for.

Psst. Dean has been running on this single issue and has been losing to the candidates whom he has been criticizing the most on this issue.

Time to take the hint.

[Casablanca]

51. Dean hasn't just been running on the anti-war issue ...

But it is the first thing that distinguished him from the other Democratic candidates the earliest. Which says more against the other candidates than him.

[deminflorida]

19. I swear to my maker, I hope Clark and Dean come to terms....

go on the ticket together, and kick some REAL insider ASS in the next two weeks.......

I would love nothing more than to have Dean hold Bush by his collar and Wes Kick his ass out of the White House.

[AP]

47. Which looks to be the stance MOST VOTERS PREFER!

Nobody wants the Republicans to exploit the idea that Democrats are weak on national security.

[bhunt70]

2. no need to change your support...he's still in it for now.

[aquart]

3. Why are you letting other people choose your candidate?

You know who you prefer. But you'd vote for someone else? Why? Because the other kids are doing it?

Make your own decisions.

[Sean Reynolds]

4. Vote your heart.

If your heart says Dean, stay with it! Never vote for a candidate just because the media says he's more electable!

[deminflorida]

11. Actually, if you want to take back this counrty....Go with the

guy the media hates most....

[Sean Reynolds]

21. I am.....

Dean. ;-)

[jpgray]

5. Pick whomever you agree with most--follow your head and your heart

I can't tell you what's right--you have to decide for yourself. :hi:

(plenty of others will have a candidate to sell you)

[candy331]

22. Why would you have to ask?

The choice is yours and the responsibility is on you. If someone told you who to vote for would that mean that you were making a decision based on your knowledge of the candidate? I would certainly wonder whether you were really supporting Dean as you seem to be willing to toss in the towel after two small sprints. What will you do if you switch and that candidate loses some primaries switch again? I hope you stick with Dean but if not good luck to you.

[MidwestMomma]

7. Stick with Dean

It's far from over.

Go Wes!

[La_Serpiente]

8. I say vote with your heart

:thumbsup:

[Skwmom]

9. Clark is not only electable, he will expand

the Democratic party.

[Bucky]

20. the verb you're looking for is "realign". The direct object is "the USA"

The subject is "he" and the helping verb is "will". The antecedent to the pronoun that is your subject is "Wesley Clark", while the prepositional phrase that modifies the verb is "for the next two generations".

The interjection is "Hell, yeh!"

[SharonAnn]

10. Support Dean. There's a lot of opportunity in the next few

primaries and Dean could take them

Why would you switch just because he didn't come in first in NH?

[RummyTheDummy]

52. You're kidding yourself.

Dean is finished and I find it hilarious given the way his arrogant supporters on this board conducted themselves in the summer and fall.

I can barely control my glee.

[Democrats unite]

12. Dean! What a silly question.

Dean is by no means out of the race. Don't give into the Media whores! Trust me as a Clark supporter, they can be brutal!

[not systems]

14. Support Dean and Clark. n/t

[hedgetrimmer]

15. stop flopping like a damn fish and stand with your candidate

have some backbone...

[Bucky]

16. "Clark" But Dean's still in. Kerry collapsed once before & he could again.

I think Clark is who you should support. He's Dean's natural successor in the mojo department. But Dean is hardly out of it. I don't think he'll eventually pan out, but obviously you did at some time. Kerry is far far away from being the prospective nominee.

[Jim Sagle]

17. I'm with Dean til the end.

[pocoloco]

18. Keep the faith,

and climb on the rollercoaster!

[GreenArrow]

23. Kucinich

No, he's not "electable" (to the great detriment of this country) but since you like what he stands for already, why not vote for him? When the general election comes, you can vote for whomever happens to be the nominee. Right now, why not vote for the one who best represents your interests and has the best plan for the country's future.

[cprise]

24. Dean!

He is worth it, until he wins or concedes.

[LosinIt]

25. No need to change your mind, he is ahead in Delegate Count

If it works the way I think it does, not all delegates are tied to the primary. Of the ones who have committed, Dean leads by something like 114 to 96 for Kerry. So don't give up, we are far from out of this.

[clarknyc]

26. Dean!

This race is far from over.

[incapsulated]

27. It's not over!

Stand by your man at least until after Feb. 3!

[On the Road]

28. Second in New Hampshire is the Charm -- Dean is Still In

Clinton, Bush Jr, Bush Sr, and others have done it, even if they were front-runners who were upset.

[tishaLA]

29. Support Dean

don't be silly.

But if you waver long enough, you can always come to CLark.

[Auntie Bush]

30. Keep your chin up.

Don't drop him till he drops out...unless you vote for Clark.

[MercutioATC]

31. You should support Dean now. He's hardly out of it...

I still believe he's got what it takes to beat Bush and I think he'll make the greatest changes once he does.

That's why I'm sticking with him.

[overground1]

32. Clinton & Mondale both placed 2nd in New Hampshire; and won the nomination

It's far from over.
Clinton came in 3rd in Iowa and 2nd in New Hampshire, just like Howard Dean.

After getting 2nd in New Hampshire they called Clinton "the comeback kid".

And you know, it doesn't make sense why you would consider ditching Dean because he came in 2nd. Who would you ditch him for? Someone who did even worse?

If you want to go with someone who did better than Dean, there is only one choice. So why are you asking us?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

38. How many candidates have won both IA & NH without winning the nomination?

[HazMat]

46. yeah, but those candidates weren't trounced in their own backyard

It's time for Howard to pack it up and go home. He's done.

[Casablanca]

49. Big difference between VT and NH voters/politics

And New Hampshire isn't exactly Dean's backyard.

This race has barely started. Anyone who tries to call it beyond the top four at this point is automatically wrong.

[Edge]

33. Support Dean.

Don't jump on the Kerry bandwagon.

[jburton]

34. Dean is still in...

last time I checked!

[Printer70]

35. Clark supported the war....until it became inconvenient

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Retired Army General Wesley K. Clark said yesterday that he probably would have voted for the congressional resolution that authorized President Bush to wage war in Iraq....

"On balance, I probably would have voted for it," Clark said. "The simple truth is this: When the president of the United States comes to you and makes the linkages and lays the power of the office on you, and you're in a crisis, the balance of the judgment probably goes to the president of the United States."

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/clark/articles/2003/09/19/clark_says_he_probably_would_have_voted_for_war/

[mikehiggins]

57. Good quote. So at the time Clark would have believed what the

President, the Sec'y of State, and all those others were saying.

He didn't KNOW for a fact that they were lying.

Sounds like just about everyone else in America, doesn't it?

But as to what he thought of the whole situation? Let's ask Richard Perle:

PERLE: (in regard to Clark’s testimony) No, I don't believe it and frankly I don't think he made a very convincing case in support of that cliche but it was one of many cliches. At the end of the day when you sought to elicit from him a reconciliation of the view that time is on our side with what he acknowledged to be our ignorance of how far along Saddam Hussein is, he had no explanation. He seems to be preoccupied, and I'm quoting now, with building legitimacy, with exhausting all diplomatic remedies as though we hadn't been through diplomacy for the last decade, and relegating the use of force to a last resort, to building the broadest possible coalition, in short a variety of very amorphous, ephemeral concerns alongside which there's a stark reality and that is that every day that goes by, Saddam Hussein is busy perfecting those weapons of mass destruction that he already has, improving their capabilities, improving the means with which to deliver them and readying himself for a future conflict. So I don't believe that time is on our side and I don't believe that this fuzzy notion that the most important thing is building legitimacy, as if we lack legitimacy now, after all the U.N. resolutions that he's in blatant violation of, I don't believe that that should be the decisive consideration. So I think General Clark simply doesn't want to see us use military force and he has thrown out as many reasons as he can develop to that but the bottom line is he just doesn't want to take action. He wants to wait.

------------

So Perle thinks Clark is against the war? Who would know better than him.

[pacifictiger]

36. Stick with Dean!

He's certainly not done yet. There has never been a race like this before so the TV talking heads are having a hard time shifting from "conventional wisdom." He has had the ability to get all the other front runners copying his core message from months back. He was speaking up against this particular war before it became politically "fashionable". I think is also responsible in large part for attracting disolutioned or new voters back into the process. Notice, now the other front runners are all up to speed and parroting what he alone was saying months back, Dean is starting to focus on broader domestic issues that the others really have not addressed. Womens and childrens issues and others. He may not always be the most polished in presentation, but his core message of shaking up business as usual in washington by being to the point and truthful can only be done by an "unconventional," really really intelligent, quick thinking candidate. He also happens to be a fiscal conservative, unlike Kerry's long voting record, an issue the core republican base is really upset with bush over. Stick with Dean, even if he does not get the final nomination, so that he can get his message of standing up for what is right, not necessarily popular. Maybe the winner will continue to co-opt that message right through and past November, whether it ends up by being Dean or not.

[PartyPooper]

37. Thanks to all of you loveable DU'ers for your insight!

I'm gonna continue my support for Dean! (Come hell or high water!)

:loveya:

:kick:

[Anwen]

42. Excellent choice!

:D

[PretzelWarrior]

39. apparently you should support Bush or Nader

and give up on the Democratic party altogether. That seems to be the prevailing mood right now.

[PartyPooper]

43. Are you kidding?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!??!?!??!?!?!?!?

:kick:

[PretzelWarrior]

44. yes. I'm kidding. just annoyed at all sour grapes

and the "Stop Kerry" comments, "Kerry is Bush", etc.

This is a free country and a democracy. So...you gather as much info from as many independent sources and make up your own mind. That's how it works.

[AntiCoup2K4]

40. Stick with Dean

He will be the nominee :)

[mvd]

41. Go with your heart

My heart tells me Kucinich.

[Casablanca]

45. Stick with the fighter - Dean!

The man's got passion and iron determination. And the best financial support, the most delegates, and he's come out of the circular firing squad tactics of the other Dem candidates and scarlet letter treatment of the corporate media battle-hardened and ready for the next round.

Two reasons to support Dean now:

1. To do your part to see him utterly demolish GW Bush in the debates.
2. To not compromise your support with theoretical ideas about "electability" if and until it's needed for the final slam on Bush. This is the time to vote your convictions, not tactics. You'll be glad you held out later, however it turns out.

[Lisa0825]

50. Stick with Dean!!!!

He's following the Clinton path. Don't give up yet!!!

[DjTj]

53. As an Edwards supporter, my advice is ...

... stick with Dean.

There is something that has drawn you towards Dean, and if that hasn't changed you should stick with your man.

If Dean drops out, then you can come over to the Edwards camp...

[Tesha]

54. Dean. (NT)

[creativelcro]

55. NH is a tiny state. Dean got 9 delegates Kerry 13.

The race is just beginning and Dean needs your support now more than ever.

[bowens43]

56. Dean.....

[mikehiggins]

58. Wait until next week to decide.

Senator Kerry is about to enjoy frontrunner status. Lets see how things play out on February 3rd.

Caught a blip on Imus this morning. He was talking with some pollster or something and they were talking about a Kerry ad. Imus said something about the ad showing that we wanted to elect someone who was capable of killing civilians, or something like that. Not at all clear but it caught my attention.

Another point was the guy went off about how Clark was an amatuer and just didn't have what it took to be a "presidential" candidate. Makes me wonder if the reason the media is so anti-Clark has a certain bit of embarrassment involved in it.

They built Clark up as the King of the World when he came into the race, and when he fell short of the expectations they had set for him they turned and savaged him. I've seen this kind of pathology up close in other campaigns but have never seen it so thoroughly involve a group of supposed analysts.

I guess poor Wes just dared to step onto their reservation and now they're throwing feces at him just like a bunch of monkeys.

Actually, that is a pretty apt image for 8:20 in the morning.

[NoPasaran]

59. Stay with Dean

I too have some reservations about Kerry although I will support him if he is the eventual nominee.

A week ago our campaign was declared dead. Last night we showed them we're still alive and kicking. If we stand together there is no reason why we cannot win this thing.

[PVnRT]

60. Jesus H. Christ

You're giving up after one caucus and one primary? Sounds like your support was never that strong to begin with.