Honest Question: How can we trust Dean to balance the budget

[ringmastery]

and restore fiscal discipline to the country when he makes special commission deal with Joe Trippi and burns close to $40 million campaigning in two states?

This is not what I expect from a self-described frugal person.

[Hoppin_Mad]

1. LOL - The anti Dean hysteria is getting even more desperate -nt-

[jsw_81]

4. What?

Your candidate blew over THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS and has yet to win a single primary or caucus (the "win" in D.C. doesn't count). He can't even afford to pay his campaign staff! So it's not at all "desperate" for someone to ask why such a candidate should be put in charge of the world's largest economy; in fact, it's an excellent question. Do you have an answer?

But all of this debate and discussion will be moot in a few days anyway; Dean will drop out on or before February 3. It's all over for him.

[AP]

6. Desperate?

There may be a huge volume of discussion on Dean. However, very little of it, including this post, are overblown. If Dean had run a small business like this, it would be a major issue.

Quite to the contrary of 'desperate,' I think the comments on Dean have been incredibly muted considering the discousre we've had on Dean over the last 15 months.

[ibegurpard]

7. Ah yes

the expressions of concern and outrage on the behalf of Dean supporters have been most touching.

[ibegurpard]

2. Why are you worried?

It kind of looks like he's no longer a threat, right?

[DannyRed]

3. How can we

expect to have honest conversations with people who make broad, baseles, smearing accusations based on fast-spreading internet rumours, and who talk out of their butt about things they know NOTHING about?

Hmmm?

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/2004/la-na-trippi29jan29,1,5555740.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[sandnsea]

5. The campaign is still broke

It's amazing to me.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1075350019830_10/?hub=World

[DannyRed]

8. Ahem,

Please read the article carefully.

They are going to try and compete in ALL the upcoming states.

Is that the move of a campaign that is OUT of money?

No.

In order to do that, they are asking for belt-tightening...is that the move of a campaign that has spent a LOT of money building an organization?

Yes.

has there been some waste?

Of course.

Have there been some mistakes, poor strategies, bad bets?

of course.

Why was trippi replaced?

1) Disappointing results.

2) Difference of opinion on strategy...trippi said focus on one or two, Dean wants to do ALL of them...

Will it work?

Who knows?

[jsw_81]

11. Belt-tightening? That's an understatement

Dean can't even afford to pay his staff (or what's left of his staff). The fact of the matter is that the voters are rejecting Dean in favor of Kerry, and it's unlikely that all the money in the world will change that. Look at what happened in New Hampshire: Dean outspent everyone and lost by 12-points!

[OneBlueSky]

9. if the financial arrangement with Trippi is in fact a fact . . .

it shows incredibly poor judgement on the part of the candidate, imo . . . you pay people commissions to MAKE you money, not to SPEND your money . . . all that does is set up an incentive to spend it all, which is apparently exactly what Trippi did . . . becoming a very wealthy man in the process . . .

[ibegurpard]

10. Excuse me but the arrangement with Trippi

where he was foregoing a salary and getting a commission from the ads his company was doing for the campaign has long been well known. There is nothing sinister about this and if, indeed, there is no money left in the campaign it's because they gambled on a better showing in Iowa and New Hampshire and lost. If there WAS mismanagment of funds then I might get upset but I haven't seen anything yet to indicate that.

[OneBlueSky]

12. should have been a flat fee arrangement . . .

rather than a commission . . . when you're dealing with donated dollars, you have a responsibility to your donors to manage the hard-earned funds that they contribute responsibly . . . creating an incentive to spend as much as possible is irresponsible, imo . . . or, if it had to be a commission arrangement, there certainly should have been a strict budget with a cap on spending in each state . . .

[bowens43]

13. When did balancing the budget become a Democratic issue?

Are we in bizarro world? BTW what does campaign spending have to do with balancing the budget. They have NOTHING to do with each other.

[JasonDeter]

14. I don't think we'll have to worry about Dean. He's self destructing bad

It's either going to be Kerry or Clark. I'll take either one. Dean is starting to get embarrassing.

[FubarFly]

15. Honest answer.

Yes.

[MercutioATC]

16. What absolute poo.

You seriously don't see the difference between strategic campaign spending and balancing the Federal budget?

Poo, I tell you. Just poo.