Which candidate is most like Dean?

[LoZoccolo]

I was a Dean supporter last time. Which candidate should all the Dean people vote for this time?

[xxqqqzme]

1. Gore - he supported Howard!

[mnhtnbb]

2. Unfortunately, none of them. Dean was unique. None of the

current crop fires me up--and I don't think Gore will get in it. But if he does, I hope to hell he doesn't let himself be handled.

[k_jerome]

3. of the candidates who have announced...

Hillary Clinton is close to Dean on a large majority of the issues. They are both left leaning moderates.

[snowbear]

4. Get outta town!

[hippiechick]

5. NOT even close!!!

:puke:

[shance]

7. Whatcha smokin Jerome?

Must be pretty potent.

[mnhtnbb]

8. No f*ing way! Dean wanted universal health care and was AGAINST Iraq War

[LoZoccolo]

9. Hillary was in charge of drawing up the plan under Bill if I remember correctly. n/t

[mnhtnbb]

10. Hillary's plan was NOT universal health care. It was a piece of

crap to be run by managed care companies.

[k_jerome]

12. Dean is also pro NAFTA, in fact, would like globilization to...

a greater degree. pro bankruptcy reform. really a good fiscal conservative.

[TheFarseer]

13. He also said NAFTA isn't working for the American people

and fiscal conservative does NOT mean a balanced budget, contrary to popular belief. Fiscal Conservative means strip down the government so you can lower taxes (not saying that's bad or good). I don't know which side of the spectrum Dean would be considered but I bet you just meant he balanced the budget.

[foo_bar]

31. I'll take that bet

I am what is commonly referred to as a social liberal and a fiscal conservative. I am proud of the fact that as Governor I routinely balanced the budget – which I was not required to do by Vermont’s constitution – and paid down our state debt by nearly a quarter. I had to make tough decisions, and I will admit that some of them did not make the progressive community happy.

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0417-07.htm

[snowbear]

26. LOL...

"Hillary was in charge of drawing up the plan under Bill"

If I were under Bill, I'd probably be drawing up a plan to get out from under him too..

He used to be one BIG DAWG!

[k_jerome]

27. that is a good one. nt.

[RegimeChange2008]

18. Pardon me while I projectile vomit

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[dsc]

6. I am at sea too

I would love for Gore to be in the race this time but that is not to be. I am leaning toward Richardson based on experience but I don't know his record on gay rights. If it is good, then I will probably settle on him.

[Rowdyboy]

22. Generally speaking, I think he's pretty good.....

From his blog...

"In Richardson’s first term as Governor, he threatened to veto a New Mexico DOMA-type law, unless it was enacted alongside civil unions. (It was never necessary.) He is also for letting gay and lesbian servicemembers serve openly in our Armed Forces, and said so during the “Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell” debates in the 90’s. He extended civil rights laws to homosexuals and transgendered people while Governor of New Mexico. And so on.

It helps give lie, I think, to the idea that the Governor is somehow a split-the-difference “moderate.” He isn’t. He’s a principled Westerner who can compromise to get things done, but will always stand strong for our Democratic values when those values are under attack."

http://billrichardsonblog.com/?p=214

[Infinite Hope]

11. Gore then Edwards. n/t

[skipos]

14. Is hasn't announced he is running yet, but Lieberman would be a good choice for Deaniacs.

Just kiddin'

[NoPasaran]

15. Nobody

Frankly, I don't care who wins out of this cycle's pack.

[zulchzulu]

16. I'm thinking Obama...

This was before my first choice decided not to run..namely John Kerry.

I was down at the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus for some research thangs and was in a room with about a dozen college students. They were all talking about the upcoming election.

Someone mentioned about Mrs. Clinton and everyone said...no. Then one guy said "Obama! He's what we need!" to a joyous majority in the room. It reminded me of the excitement college people had for Dean in 2004. I remember that pretty well.

I've been wavering on Richardson but am troubled by his not wanting to count the vote in New Mexico...perhaps someone could clear that up if I'm in the wrong zone on that. Otherwise, I think Obama offers the most promise and I feel his campaign will be very interesting to watch unfold....

[garybeck]

17. Do you mean Dean, or people's image of Dean?

I live in Vermont so I know what I'm talking about. Dean was a big "all talk and little action" politician. I hate to disappoint you, but it's true. I went through at least 2 or 3 of his elections and listened to him promise to promote renewable energy in Vermont. He did NOTHING, PERIOD. I was at the capitol building one day for a renewable energy conference, and he couldn't make it because he was doing a photo op for the new Vermont stamp.

[Hippo_Tron]

20. IMO, I really like Dean and the work he did as DNC chair but I tend to agree

Dean talked a good game so as to try and get disgruntled progressives to vote for him, but in reality he wasn't all that much different from Kerry or any of the others running. He was an outsider and talked like an outsider and people always love that.

I'll give him that his definitive statement early on that he would've voted against the IWR was certainly intelligent if not courageous. He did say that he would've supported Biden-Lugar, but Biden-Lugar was actually a responsible resolution that didn't give Bush unlimited authority to attack Iraq.

[madfloridian]

24. The Outsider. It is just like 2003 all over again. Deja vu.

:rofl:

I love it, and I now have a sense of humor about it. It is amazing that he is not running, yet the conversation just naturally takes a turn to him.

:rofl:

[Contrite]

25. I was a Dean supporter and there is a lot of difference between Dean and Kerry

I was really genuinely pissed when the Kerry operatives put the kibosh on Dean's campaign in Iowa and then we were forced to accept him as the nominee instead. I even (reluctantly) campaigned for Kerry through moveon.org.

Dean not only stood early (and pretty much solely) against the war in Iraq he also stood up for universal health care, workers rights, and the environment. He himself said he was "socially progressive" and "fiscally conservative"--and I believe his record as Governor of Vermont certainly bears this out.

[madfloridian]

23. Wow....11 years doing nothing as governor. Bet Vermonters were pissed.

:rofl:

[lojasmo]

30. Yeah...especially those 3% without health care.

And that ballanced budget is a bitch too. Er...I bet the gays are angry about their civil rights as well.

Yup....Dean did nothing. :eyes:

[karynnj]

34. And they kept electing him every 2 years (I think)

We always spent a week in the summer in Vt. One year, we took our kids to Montplier, which has to be the tiniest state capital in the nation. We took the kids, then ages 5 through 10, on the tour through the capital building.

My oldest was the same age as Dean's daughter, Ann. The older gentleman leading us (and another family through the statehouse) took my daughter into Dean's office (he was not there and the legislature was not in seesion) to show her a picture of his daughter. He then spent most of the time speaking - mostly to my 10 year old daughter about what a good governor he was, how he was a doctor and what a good person he was.

Any politician will suggest more in his/her vision than they are likely to be able to do. That's only natural. A better test is whether he did move in the direction of the vision expressed. I have a bigger problem of some one who moves away from the direction of their vision or someone, who when given a chance to do what they said, doesn't. As someone who spent one whole week on vacation a year in Vt, I am completely unqualified to even consider judging Dean using this criteria.

As, to your question. Each race and each candidate is unique - and who is closest depends on what set of Dean characteristics you were most looking for.

-If you mean you were looking at his record in VT, he was a moderate Democrat. Ignoring foreign policy, this is closest to Vilsack or Clinton (though my reaction was the same as those recorded up thread.) Obama is more liberal and progrssive in his combined US and Illinois Senate. Edwards was more conservative, but also more of a protectionist (trade).

-If you mean as one with an outsider, insurgency campaign, there is no one currently in who is obvious. The party is making entry far more difficult. The primaries will be more bunched than ever with some big states included in the mix. (This makes an early frontrunner harder to dislodge and significantly adds to the cost.)

Of those not in, Al Gore is closest in many ways. Feingold would have fit very well. Ironically, before he said he wouldn't run, Kerry could have been another possibility. He had no party support - but was right on the issues and would have been a grassroots candidate. He also was speaking with more intensity on the war than anyone else - as in his Dissent speech. Clark, has considerable network support and fits on that level, but he seems very non-Deanish in others. (This is not a negative - some think the Dean intensity - which 2007 Gore, 2007 Kerry, and Feingold have - may have been a problem in 2004. The question is - could the country, more awake in 2008 accept it.)

If the party succeeds in cutting the candidates to the top three, I suspect that Obama may end up with the Dean support. He was an activist on the streets of Chicago, a civil rights lawyer and he has a good record on health care (Il). Fair or not, Edwards does not seem authentic a leader of the grassroots. There are two many shifts from the past, which I think are honest, but stemming from an immature political mind.

- he was not political (or passionate on an issue), for the first (at least) 40 years of his life. No one, even marginally political, really doesn't remember if they voted for McGovern or Nixon.

- His record includes voting for the 2001 bankruptcy bill, that people like Kennedy, Kerry, Dodd, etc voted against. I looked but couldn't find any comments by him in the Senate record. For fun, I used the search feature on Thomas - the Senate record to see the count of hits for "poverty" as the key word for both him and Kerry for 1999, 2000, and 2001 - Kerry had considerably more hits. (I did this a few months ago - if I did it now I would use Hillary and compare 2001 only.)

- His shift on Iraq is because it is clearly not working. What I don't see is an explanation of when war is an option - and am not comforted by the Iran comments.

Hillary cannot be Dean because she is 100% the establishment in the party.

[thatsrightimirish]

19. In terms of Anti War

I'm going to have to go with Obama.

[Hippo_Tron]

21. I think hands down it's Obama, but there's some major differences

Obama is more or less a Washington outsider because he's been in the Senate a very short time. He's going to campaign on change in Washington like Dean did. The difference is that Obama is somewhat of a known commodity already and has a political organization behind him. Dean came out of nowhere and built his political organization from the ground up during his presidential campaign, not two years (or in Hillary's case over a decade) before it.

[1932]

28. Is this how you chose Dean?

[Apollo11]

29. It's gotta be Gore !!

Al Gore endorsed Dean in December 2003. So my guess is that if Gore takes part in the primaries, he will get the support of almost all those who voted Dean in 2004.

Let's all find ways to show our support for Al Gore! :)

Read Rolling Stone magazine: WHY GORE SHOULD RUN -- AND HOW HE CAN WIN
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/13248532/why_gore_should_run__and_how_he_can_win

Get ready for Al Gore's next book - The Assault on Reason - out in May!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/16/AR2006091600877.html

Visit the following pro-Gore websites:
www.algore.com
www.algore.org
www.draftgore.com - Sign the petition! :)
www.draftgore2008.org
www.patriotsforgore.com

:kick:

[SCDem]

32. It's Gore and not Edwards

I liked what Edwards was saying - start doing today - and don't wait until elections - lots of grassroots talk - but then I saw him when he came to our state for his Town Hall Meeting and all the answers seemed to be so scripted - I mean we were a die hard Democratic audience and he was playing the safe card already so early in the race. I was really disappointed because I thought he was taking lessons from Dean - but realized that's just window dressing.

[Pirate Smile]

33. Gore but if he doesn't run, probably Obama.

[paulk]

35. Edwards -

he's saying what people want to hear, even if it's 180 degrees away from the positions he took when he actually held office.

ouch.