"Dean's Campaign Depends on Enemies" by Thomas Oliphant, Boston Globe

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2003/12/23/deans_campaign_depends_on_enemies?mode=PF

An excerpt:

<>For a year, Dean's campaign has made it very clear that the enemies are not just conservatives. They also permeate the Democratic Party, and they must be crushed as permanently as the right-wingers. He tells his followers that they have the power not only to "take back" the country but to take back the party as well.

From whom? Well, for starters there are the "Washington Democrats," also known as the "Washington politics as usual club."

Where Iraq is concerned, this aspect of Dean's war is familiar. Rather than explain why he was willing to accept Saddam Hussein's regime as the price for not invading Iraq last winter, Dean attacks all his major opponents for being Bush toadies. He also uses a straw man by asserting that "the capture of one very bad man does not mean this president and the Washington Democrats can declare victory in the war on terror." No one is, of course, but it helps Dean avoid talking about the real issue.

<>No matter, he has anger and despair to work with, as well as all those enemies in the party. If Dean is indeed headed toward the Democratic nomination, he might want to channel some of that anger toward a less punitive approach to the very people he seeks to represent. His position on Iraq is enough of an albatross.

[demnan]

1. This is a highly emotional commentary which is not accurate

I don't see the Dean campaign that way. In fact I see the Dean volunteers teaming up with the local Democrats to do all sorts of good things in Arlington, VA. Get out the vote drive and charity collections. I see a lot of great young people energized into volunteering. It's great to see the 20 somethings so involved in politics.

Dean Democrats are good Democrats, not fringe Democrats. The Dean campaign is about hope, volunteerism and participation.

[Cheswick2.0]

4. I spent several hours with some young kids for Dean

For each of them it was their first time working for a campaign. They both said they were sick of Bush, but also turned off to politics as usual amoung the democratic party regulars. They were attracted to the campaign by the grassroots nature of the effort.

[KittyWampus]

16. In What Way Was Dean's Term As Governor NOT Politics As Usual?

And, other than the fact that Dean is using an innovative internet fundraising tactics, why should anyone believe he is not and will not engage in "politics as usual" if nominated?

Frankly, his entire campaign has been politics as usual with only his internet hook being different than the norm.

Too bad the kids you're around aren't attracted to Dean's actual record as governor...

I guess some people really are more interested in the "phenomenon" then the actual Candidate. It makes sense that young people would be especially vulnerable to the hype.

[worldgonekrazy]

18. You must not know much about his record as governor

It is easy to paint his record as your typical centrist-DLC fare because Dean was very good at hiding the fact that his policies were in fact quite progressive. Why did he hide it? So he wouldn't be open to attacks of being too liberal. Instead, he implemented REAL, PRAGMATIC changes that had the effect of helping out a LOT of people in Vermont. Take the school equalization bill as an example. I don't think I've ever seen a more progressive piece of legislation on public schools.

[bearfartinthewoods]

36. you used to hear the exact same stuff from the perot people

perot was waay hot in the grass roots department until he melted.

[stickdog]

2. War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery.

Truth is an albatross.

[Cheswick2.0]

3. I wonder why Thomas Oliphant thinks it is okay to invade Iraq

and pretend it is about removing a bad man? Does he really think the Iraqis with dead relatives are better off.... to say nothing of the dead relatives.

What a ridiculous but all too typically slanted opinion piece. How sad that posting it here is seen as a good campaign tactic.

[Jacobin]

11. Cause he supports Kerry and Kerry told him its ok

to "high five" about Saddam's capture, and oh by the way, Kerry's vote doesn't stink so much anymore (temporarily at least) until the next waves of mass killings takes place in IraqNam

[cprise]

5. Wrong. Conservatives/hawks are the enemy, RNC or DLC.

.

[sandnsea]

6. "Avoid the real issues"

Exactly the way I've seen this campaign for months now. As long as there's some sort of dirt to stir up, Howard doesn't have to have an honest debate on the issues. As the Kerry campaign said today, Howard is trying to make it a war of words instead of a contest of ideas. Particularly telling is when he thought he might stir up some anti-Clinton sentiment. That one didn't work so well. Not sure who he's going to go after next to keep that anger flowing.

"No one is, of course, but it helps Dean avoid talking about the real issue.

In domestic affairs, enemies are also required. I am convinced that he did not intend to strike out at Bill Clinton; the ex-Clintonites who are supporting Dean are people who dealt with him when he was governor and worked on last week's oration, and they are persuasive in arguing he was not specifically attacking the former president or his record.

What is so fascinating, however, is that this need for enemies -- for a domestic equivalent of people playing footsy with Bush on Iraq -- overrode mature judgment. Dean's words make sense only as an attack. Noting the Clinton phrase from the 1996 State of the Union address ("The era of big government is over"), Dean promised a "new era" -- "not one where we join Republicans and aim simply to limit the damage they inflict on working families."

[artr2]

7. Oh yea the kerry campaign

Where the ONLY message he can seem to put out is throwing as much mud as he can make up and throwing it as fast as possible at Howard Dean. Wow, what a visionary campaign. I can see why you would think he would be a great president

[paulk]

21. the Kerry campaign makes a good point

why don't you address it?

Or is it just easier to slam the "campaign", then dump on Kerry?

[retyred]

8. Did dean ever except the Kerry challenge for debate?

Thought not!



retyred in fla
“good night paul, wherever you are”
So I read this book

[artr2]

9. An why should he give him a forum?

Dean is the front runner and if he has a debate with him only it gives kerry some credibility. Just another mud pie thrown by the kerry campaign

[flpoljunkie]

12. Anger-powered Howard going after Clinton/Gore's '85 creation the DLC...

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-dean23dec23,1,5547586.story?coll=la-headlines-politics

By Matea Gold, Times Staff Writer


PEMBROKE, N.H. — Even as he called on rivals to mute their criticism, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean took a swipe Monday at some moderate Democratic Party leaders, calling them the "Republican wing of the Democratic Party."

"One of the reasons I wish the others guys running for president would tone it down a little bit is that at the end, we're all going to have to pull together in order to beat George Bush," he told several hundred people at a packed town hall meeting.

And, he added, "even the Democratic Leadership Council, which is sort of the Republican part of the Democratic Party … the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, we're going to need them too, we really are." The Democratic Leadership Council was founded in 1985 by Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Missouri Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, among others, to remake the Democratic Party in a more centrist, competitive mold.

While Dean shares much of the group's political philosophy, conservative fiscal principles and progressive social ideals, he has been at odds with its leaders, who have questioned his ability to beat President Bush.

...more...

__________________________

More red meat to keep his base stoked, but will this strategy work in a general election campaign? Dr. Dean has waged a divisive campaign-- like Nader, he seeks to destroy the Democratic party in order to save it--it didn't work for Nader, and it won't work for Dr. Dean.

[artr2]

13. The Democratic party is close to being destroyed

Being repub-lite is not going to make it this year. It was taken to far right by the DLC & others. Dean is trying to bring it back where it should be - progressive - liberal. And if that means we have to tell the repub-lite to go where they really belong that is ok with me

[flpoljunkie]

14. Dean himself is DLC, calls himself centrist, and governed as a centrist..

That his supporters do not see this, speaks volumes.

[worldgonekrazy]

19. But we do see it

I see that he runs as a centrist and governs as a centrist when in fact his policies have the effect of being quite progressive. That is all that matters in the end, and nobody but nobody (not even Clinton) does it better than Dean has.

[paulk]

22. that you go to these lengths to defend Dean

says a lot.

Left is right.
Up is down.
In is out.


God help us if Dean gets the nomination.

[ferg]

20. centrist is not necessarily wimpy

Washington politicans like Feinstein are Republican-appeasing collaborators. So is the DLC leadership (although not all the DLC members.)

It's the cowards like Feinstein who vote for Republican deficits and Republican tax cuts for the rich and Republican wars for Republican oil companies that are the problem.

There's nothing wrong with principled centrism. It's the gutless "where's the middle? what does the NYT say? that's what I'll support" that's the problem.

(On edit: Kerry's "I support Bush's war. No, I was misled. Hah! I was right to support Bush's war." is the kind of "centrism" that we can do without.)

[Scott Lee]

30. I'd call poop, but we already know this.

To repeat, just because one is "formerly" something does not prohibit them from attacking that institution to remake it (the examples of Mikhail Gorbachev and boris Yeltsin come to mind).

Dean goverened as he goverened. Whether it was left, right or center is pure subjectivity on the part of the observer - which doesn't amount to a whole lot in the long run.

[TLM]

35. Dean is not DLC....

He broke with them a while ago.

He has been attacked by the DLC as a fringe leftist... how fucking far to the right do the DLC have to be to consider Dean a fringe leftist?

[TLM]

34. What crap... Dean takes a shot at the DLC for being too far right

and this hack says, "some moderate Democratic Party leaders."

Why not say Dean took a shot at the DLC? Why because most democrats know the DLC is about as moderate as a shotgun blast to the face.

[flpoljunkie]

39. Kick for evening DUers.

:kick:

[TexasPatriot]

10. i read this this morning

and i think it's a big stretch. I think there are a number of people in most of the dem campaigns for whom having an 'enemy' is a good thing. Delenda est Carthago and all that. While the printed argument is devoid of the more inflammatory examples that could have been cited to defend the case, it is still a matter of this author painting with too broad a brush.

Most Dean Supporters are perfectly rational - and the mid-keel focus of the campaign doesnt really seek out enemies. Now I think that because a lot of the Dean support comes from non-politics as usual types, you're going to see a larger amount of frenetic energy - which for all it's positives has some negatives. We see some of those a lot more clearly around here (regardless of the campaign).

We are not enemies, we are allies who disagree. Eventually, there will be but one banner.

[quinnox]

15. It's Dean vs the party

This is the bed he has made, and he will have to lie in it.

All along, he has put out a not-so-subtle message that he is the saviour come to save the party, and some people have bought it.

I don't buy it, never have.

Dean is a typical politician, just like the rest of 'em. He lies, distorts, and panders, but he happens to be a master panderer. That is the only difference.

And I have said all along Dean will not win the nomination running against both the GOP and his own party, just wait and see.

[unfrigginreal]

17. I don't agree with your assessment but if you feel...

Dean is a typical politician, just like the rest of 'em. He lies, distorts, and panders, but he happens to be a master panderer. That is the only difference.

that Dean is no different than all of the others, just better at it, then why doesn't he have your support?

[paulk]

23. I've said almost the same thing, quinnox

You can't run against your own party and win a National election.
You can, however, win the nomination, especially with the primary process so front loaded. I just hope enough people wake up to prevent this disaster from happening.

that Oliphant "gets it" about dean is a good sign.

[Scott Lee]

29. Good! Here's to a NEW party. A real Democratic Party.

I think that's his point.

[killbotfactory]

24. What a bunch of crap...

Did Dean kill his mother, or something?

[Scott Lee]

25. "His position on Iraq is enough of an albatross."?? Excuse me?

I guess the Boston Globe doesn't get in sync with current events much these days.

The Saddam capture gave Bushhole a tiny bump in popularity, which may well fall off the radar in a week or so. This tiny spike in popularity was much smaller than predicted, in fact in some polls it didn't even register.

Dean has been vindicated, in fact proven correct, in his assertion that Saddams capture did not make us safer viz a viz the increasing violence in Iraq post capture, and the code Orange terror alert we are now living under here at home.

Albatross? Oh yeah baby. He could use more "albatrosses" like that one.

[killbotfactory]

26. The writer of this article also said Gore wouldn't have endorsed Dean...

If Saddam was captured earlier.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2003/12/16/a_speed_bump_for_dean_in_capture_of_saddam/

And he says Lieberman has "class and spunk"

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2003/12/10/lieberman_shows_class_and_spunk/

He's an idiot... or on Lieberman's payroll.

[Scott Lee]

28. Goes to show any moron with a resume can be an op ed writer

I wonder if his resume is as chock full of misinformation and fibs as his articles are?

[DemDogs]

27. Oliphant -- as usual -- hits the nail on the head

No one can say Oliphant has not always been an intelligent and critical voice. When he tells us (as a party) something, we ought to be prepared to listen. And what he says is that Dean cannot win on a strategy that makes all of the rest of us the enemies.

When Dean supporters wonder why the supporters of the other candidates don't like Dean, all they have to do is look at what Dean says about them: toadies as Oliphant says, or cockroaches, spineless, whatever he has to say to make the other Democrats the enemy. He has, by the way, been the most negative candidate for the longest period of time, his aw-shucks, I have buck-shot in my butt because I am ahead notwithstanding. He has been shooting since Day 1. But, before Day 1, when he was actually governing, he was WORSE than any candidate (except perhaps Lieberman) in betraying Democratic Party ideals for expediency.

So what do we have: a potential candidate who divides us when we need to be united, who plays to frustration and anger (never a winning combination) instead of hope, and who has positioned and re-positioned himself on so many issues that wherever you shot that buck-shot, you are liable to hit Howard Dean.

We have to do better.

[quaker bill]

31. Or Kerry perhaps? More from the Globe

http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061903.shtml

By Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff, 6/19/2003

<<<Snip>>>

Kerry was scornful, for instance, of the Grenada invasion, launched by Reagan the previous October to evacuate US medical students after a Marxist-backed military coup on the Caribbean island.

At one point he likened it to "Boston College playing football against the Sisters of Mercy." Earlier, Kerry told The Cape Codder newspaper: "The invasion of Grenada represents the Reagan policy of substituting public relations for diplomatic relations . . . no substantial threat to US interests existed and American lives were not endangered . . . The invasion represented a bully's show of force against a weak Third World nation. The invasion only served to heighten world tensions and further strain brittle US/Soviet and North/South relations."

Campaigning now for president, however, Kerry is rewriting that history. As he accuses President George W. Bush of hamhanded diplomacy before the invasion of Iraq, Kerry often lists Grenada among the US military incursions he says he has supported.

"I was dismissive of the majesty of the invasion of Grenada," Kerry says now. "But I basically was supportive. I never publicly opposed it."

<<<end snip>>>

The article runs 5 pages and is loaded Kerry with repositions.

[killbotfactory]

32. Vermont is a libertarian hell hole...

thanks to Dean.

I heard he cut taxes, while raising taxes, and cut the growth of some programs while expanding them... so it must be true.

[stickdog]

38. The thing is that the majority of Dem activists agree with Dean.

I wonder why.

[kaitykaity]

33. I nominally trust Oliphant, but at this point

the 'inside-the-beltway' cocktail circuit can corrupt
just about anybody, including the 'good' bow-tie.


edit: typo

[markus]

37. And Bush* et al don't rely on "enemies"

Where exactly was Mr. Oliphant during the 1990s.

The rules have changed, and we have learned a thing or two from the NeoCons.

An Angry Democrat who mobilizes the base but is, at the end of the day, a barely-left-of-center moderate quite palatable to the shrinking middle, may be just the tonic we need.