All Dean supporters

[Mile Hi]

I just don't get the results.

Per their websites
Dean has over 691,000 people that signed up.
Kerry has about 325,000

Since 1/27
Dean has raised over $2.5M
Kerry has raised over $1.4M

Per the Meetup website
Dean has over 189,000 people signed up
Kerry has just over 38,000

Per the FEC
Dean had 42,216 people donate to his campaign this quarter
Kerry had 16,280

Last Quarter
Dean had 24,162 people donate to his campaign
Kerry had 13,422

Only Bush had more donars to his campaign (82,986, 50,554)

Dean had more people supporting him, more endorsemnets, more money (and still has more than Kerry). Has 2/3 less debt than Kerry
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/special/president/fec/index.debt.html

I guess it just shows how the masses can be swayed. Somehow Kerr comes back from the dead and wins Iowa. That starts the trent. Most voters vote for who ever is winning at the time. Not the best candidate.

Dean was the only one with the network to compete against Bush.
This country is divided right down the middle. Bush doesn't have to carry Florida this time to win because he has enough EC votes in the other states that voted for him last time. Dean was the only one that could have brought in the disgruntled Republican votes.

[meegbear]

1. You can have all the fundraiser and meetups you want ...

but if people don't VOTE for your candidate, it doesn't realy matter.

[liberalnurse]

3. That is correct......

I won't vote for Kerry or Edwards, ever.

[Name removed]

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[deutsey]

12. Well, maybe not in terms of winning over establishment Dems

But our Meetup, for one, is staying together regardless of what happens to Dean and we're going to continue on as the Progressive Meetup.

The people who have joined this group are longtime activists, Dems (including an elected councilman), Greens, people who have never participated in the political process before, young, advanced in years, etc. We would not have come together had it not been for the Dean campaign.

Jim Hightower writes: "The significant thing about the Dean Phenomenon is not Dean, but the phenomenon. Hundreds of thousands of progressive activists--especially young people and other Web-active folks" came together because of the promise of the campaign, not of a candidate.

And as Howard Zinn says, real change always comes from people's movements (civil rights, anti-war, women's, labor, etc.), not from our so-called leaders (who often follow when the movements are strong enough). Too often it doesn't seem to matter even if people DO vote (i.e., 2000).

[gWbush is Mabus]

2. It's the goddam media.

and stupid people as well

[gWbush is Mabus]

4. swing voters don't care about electability

they care about:

jobs
healthcare
balanced budgets
education

Dean is the best candidate on the issues.


As soon as Kerry is the nominee,
the media will CRUSH him,

librul
Ted Kennedy
botox
family wealth
nearly the same position as bush on iraq, PA, etc.


the media will take a 1 second clip of Kerry licking his lips when he speaks and BAMM!!!
he will be finished.
they will play it over and over again until you don't know which end is up.
the only thing you know is that, "well, i guess Kerry is not electable then if he licks his lips like that"

[rucky]

5. Don't forget the delegate counts

this ain't over by a mile

[NNN0LHI]

6. I think its the votes that count? n/t

[CWebster]

7. Kerry has the support that matters

We don't count except for the expectation that we will vote per instructed.

[Larkspur]

9. The transistion from building a political base to executing the game plan

to win the nomination didn't happen with Dean. Getting caught in that negative spin cycle with Gephardt hurt Dean a lot more than the Scream speech. It got him off his message and with 10 days before Caucus, voters saw Dean and Gep being negative and Kerry and Edwards looking positive, even though both their campaigns were attacking Dean.

I'm sure there was a lot more to the Iowa Caucus results than we'll know immediately.

[PVnRT]

10. Where are those supporters?

That's the question - if most of them are in places like New York and California that don't get to vote for a while, it doesn't make a bit of difference.

As for the money, Dean spent way too much on Iowa and New Hampshire. Bad campaign strategy, and so far, he has paid for it.

[Anwen]

11. It's depressing.

People do tend to rally around the "winner" even without doing some research on that candidate.

They hear Kerry is the only one who can beat Bush, thanks to one poll, and then see Dean "ranting" 700+ times in his famous Iowa speech, and so they go over to the "electable" candidate's side. But I feel like I've said this a million times.

I've even seen a few Dean supporters on this board go with someone else because Dean wasn't winning. And I'm sure they represent hundreds and probably thousands of other Dean supporters across America. They don't think Dean can win, so they jump ship.

I think you should base your support of a candidate on the ISSUES, not whether or not you think they can win. Things will never change if you always go for the safe bet.

The thought of Kerry being the nominee makes me want to go back to bed and give up on politics forever.

[Lisa0825]

13. You got that right....

"People do tend to rally around the "winner" even without doing some research on that candidate."

I was at my conty dem meeting last night. We (Dean) had more representatives there to vote on the club's endorsement than anyone else... no one spoke for Clark or Kerry, and only one guy showed up for Kucinich, and he made his speech more of a speech for Edwards than for his own candidate. I see Dean bumperstickers. I see (and walk with) Dean groups in parades. But the average person gets NOTHING but the mainstream press, and when the mainstream press says "Kerry" and "Edwards," the average person's eyes glaze over as they fall in line like a robot.

[Anwen]

15. Exactly.

I have a friend who pays no attention to politics, and I was talking to her about the primaries. She said the only candidate she's heard of is Kerry, and she was under the impression that he had already won.

People who think the mainstream press doesn't influence people is dead wrong.

[farmbo]

14. You can recover from a negative ads, but not from Pop Culture mockery

I really think we could have battled back in NH if it weren't for the Scream Speech. There is no hope of recovering the gravitas of a presidential candidate when you're being mocked 24/7 by the Late Nite comics, Howard Stern, and every drive time DJ in the country.

That's what did it.

Our campaign was destroyed by one uni-directional mic and 10 frenzied Program Directors.