Article is a MUST READ-especially for "establishment" conspiracy theorists

[lifelong_Dem]

(begin quote)

Houston has a problem
Explosive N.H. turnout will send GOP scrambling to switch Dems


MERRIMACK, N. H. -- Here's the Republican Party line for the near future, coming from a conservative pundit near you: Sen. John Kerry is the establishment candidate who derailed Howard Dean's brave insurgency on behalf of a frightened party leadership.
The party-liners will then predict that Dean's intrepid supporters, intent upon real change, will -- and should -- continue to vent their rage and take Kerry apart.

Many who will be saying this were, just 10 days ago, trashing Dean as a dangerous, unelectable, flaky dove. That won't bother them a bit. The identity of the Democratic front-runner has just changed, so all the hostile fire must be redirected Kerry's way. Now that Dean seems harmless, many conservatives will be quite happy to turn him into a hero.

On the night of the New Hampshire primary, you could already see the battalions turning their guns. Mike Murphy, the brilliant Republican strategist and self-confessed spinner, told Ted Koppel on "Nightline" that "the establishment side of the party has taken control of the race again. ... I think you'll see a rush of the party establishment (to) Kerry because they don't like Dean. He's an outsider."

The only problem with this story line is that Kerry's comeback came despite, not because of, the party establishment, such as it is. In the weeks before Dean's defeat in the Iowa caucuses, a large share of the Democratic leadership was, in fact, already making its peace with Dean and writing off Kerry, John Edwards, Wesley Clark and the rest.

(...)

No, Kerry was not brought back by any establishment. He was brought back by rank-and-file Democratic voters in Iowa and New Hampshire. And what's striking is that while Kerry had across-the-board support in Tuesday's primary here, his constituency was decidedly non-elitist compared with Dean's.

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This is a very important article and I encourage everyone to read the whole thing here:

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=16357

[Sliverofhope]

1. Bravo

We musn't do Rove's work for him.

[Enjolras]

2. Kerry beat Dean among gunowners??!!

How the hell did that happen? That trend can't possibly hold up as the race goes national.

And among union members? Never mind the union endorsements for Dean, do these people understand that Kerry doesn't even want to raise the minimum wage?

I can understand both of them appealing to well-educated, wealthy professionals; they're both of that class. But Dean is certainly not more so than Kerry.

And president Bush ran against only "nuisance candidates"? I thought he was a nuisance candidate. :thumbsdown:

[mrdmk]

3. Democrats coming out in droves

I like this part

<snip>
And here's a note of comfort for Howard Dean: Democratic turnout was so high that in losing, he actually received more votes on Tuesday in the Democratic primary than George W. Bush got in the Republican primary, where the president was running against nuisance candidates only.
<snip>

Are the facts of this story verifiable?

[joshcryer]

4. USA Today

Claims that Howard Dean was responsible for a majority of the "new voters..."

I can get a link if you want, but their stragety was to go after new voters and it seemed to work.

[oxymoron]

5. uh....except for the fact that they didn't vote for him. (nt)

[mb7588a]

10. If he was responsible for them, wouldn't they vote for him?

Or did they vote for him in NY, and that's what you mean?

They went overwhelmingly to Kerry in Iowa. I haven't looked at NH yet.


Dean's biggest challenge as a candidate may be to get his supporters to start going after Bush if he is not the nominee. No, i'm not part of the Kerry camp already planning for Kerry to be in the GE.

[AngryWhiteLiberal]

6. Nice try at pretzel logic, but KERRY IS ESTABLISHMENT

Dean was brought down by the media, who's more than happy to have Kerry as an alternative to Bush. Dean scared the crap out of the corporate media dogs and the prospect of "real" change in DC. Dean would have threatened any prospect of more liberalization of media oversight, while Kerry is sure to be hands-off on media ownership...I'll bet the farm on this.

Dean represents what's needed in this country right now. Kerry represents what's been wrong with this country (i.e., rampant political opportunism and waffling on important issues to save ones political stature).

Who wants to bet that if Kerry does win the Presidency (very doubtful), not a DAMN thing will change in terms of the power structure in Washington. Same elitists, just different faces.

JB

[oxymoron]

7. Oh good lord...

Dean brought himself down. This "it was the media's fault" theme is disingenuous at best.

[Capn Sunshine]

12. and explain HOW you think "Dean Brought himself down?"

By a speech that wasn't at all as it was presented perhaps?
Yeah. That was Dean all right.

[oxymoron]

15. uh....Dean lost before the speech.

I am not anti Dean. I like the man. I just wish he would take some responsibility for his missteps. He has made some truly monumental mistakes in this campaign.

[polpilot]

20. Go to the DLC website for a complete education on what's up.

DLC's establishment pro-war candidate- JKerry.

Dean '04...

[Capn Sunshine]

9. Or as my Grandpa, who worked for FDR used to say

same old shit ,in a brand new bag

Then Grandma would roll her eyes

[George_Bonanza]

13. Dean showed what kind of a leader he was in Vermont

A very able one, but not exactly a "ruffler of power structure" as you put it. With a Republican majority in Congress, I'd be very impressed if any of the Democratic candidates managed any sort of shake-up in their first term as president.

[lifelong_Dem]

17. Pretzel logic?

Let's see, the establishment loved Kerry so much, most of the superdelegates came out for him...

Whoops. Dean got more superdelegate endorsements than Kerry did.

Well, the establishment loved Kerry so much, all the Democratic power brokers were endorsing him....

Whoops. Dean got endorsements from all sorts of Democratic power brokers... McGreevey, etc.

Hmm. The establishment loved Kerry so much, the big money men just flooded his campaign with $$$....

Whoops. Kerry had to mortage his house in order to raise the money he needed to continue his campaign.

In short, you don't know what the hell you're talking about, so you might want to educate yourself before speaking again.

[George_Bonanza]

8. Very insightful article

It's quite true, and now, the RNC has Kerry in their sights. If Dean's own party wanted to sabotage him, why'd they let Gore and Harkin, and all those other guys, endorse him? Why waste those big-name endorsements on a candidate they just knew would be taken down? And if the establishment coerced Kerry's victory in Iowa and NH, how did Kerry manage to win among the blue collar people? Face it, his victory was fuelled by good old regular people, not corporate interests or insidious Washington insiders.

[Terwilliger]

11. I have said on record that I thought John Kerry would win the nomination

precisely because he is the establishment candidate

And I don't see the Clinton's running to Kerry, and the Clinton's are DLC.

[Capn Sunshine]

14. There's also the super delegates

who have seen as much of Kerry as they have Edwards, Kuccinich, Clark and Dean.........

They support Dean

[mrdmk]

16. Folks, the race has only begun!

:evilgrin:

[Myra]

18. Divide and conquer alert kick.

The dark side plots against us.

[lifelong_Dem]

19. kick

For the daytime crowd.