LA City Beat: Howard Dean is "The Contender"

[Melinda]

Dean’s next stop was another potential nest of vipers: lunch with the Democratic National Committee which, to believe some of the recent press coverage, is in a state of high agitation over the prospect of his nomination, fearing a McGovernesque rout in the general election next November. Again, the reality was starkly different. Two Latino members of Congress, Xavier Becerra and Hilda Solis, endorsed him with lavish praise for the hope he had offered the demoralized ranks of the party.

“Thank you, Howard Dean, for taking up the torch to be our hero,” Solis said, with the sweetness of a schoolgirl in love. Terry McAuliffe, the DNC chairman, could not be so overtly partisan – officially, he is backing nobody until primary season is over – but he barely contained his enthusiasm as he talked about the party’s new electronic databases listing supporters, swing voters, the issues each of them cares about, their phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Far from being skeptical about Mr. Dean’s unorthodox, decentralized, Internet-driven campaign methods, McAuliffe sounded very much as though he had already factored them into his calculations. Joe Lieberman might not have approved, but the event had the distinct feel of a coronation.

With Al Gore now officially cheerleading for Dean, the endorsements have come thick and fast – several key unions including the painters and the service workers; 27 members of Congress including the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Elijah Cummings; the Congressional Hispanic Caucus; the collected Democratic leadership of Puerto Rico; the governor of New Jersey; the mayor of Baltimore and dozens of state and local officials around the country. On the day after Saddam’s capture, TV and radio outlets tried to stir the pot over Dean’s anti-war position, but in their newscasts they also moved straight from President Bush’s news conference to Dean’s speech at the Pacific Council – effectively according him the status of rebutter-in-chief for the first time. Without entirely realizing it, the media had inaugurated Dean as de facto leader of the opposition.

The bizarre truth is that the more the pundits bash Dean and predict the imminent collapse of his candidacy – as they have been doing from the moment he first emerged as a major force on the eve of the Iraq war – the more they betray their profound lack of understanding of the movement he has unleashed. They haven’t grasped the extent of his grassroots organization and the radical way he is reshaping the whole notion of political campaigning, in the Democratic Party and beyond. And they have either failed to appreciate or have woefully underestimated the sheer excitement he is generating, not only within his party but also in a whole new constituency of supporters being politicized for the very first time.

http://lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=499&IssueNum=29


And the rest of the wannabee contenders can take that to the bank. :evilgrin:

[madfloridian]

1. Great article.

:hi:

[bhunt70]

2. true...

he reminds me of the guy in the movie "The Great White Hype" who wasn't Damon Wayans.

[janx]

11. This embrace on the part of the DNC should put to rest any

of the right wing lies about a split in the party, no?

Everyone should read this.

[Melinda]

3. Morning *kick*

:)

[janx]

4. At last--an article that unveils the lies of the media and pundits.

Thanks, Melinda. Some people here on DU even believed the lies. I hope they get a better understanding of the situation after reading this article.

[BootinUp]

5. Nice article for Dean

Still have major concerns about his ability to capture the support of a majority of the nation.

[JNelson6563]

6. Very good article

Thanks for posting. :hi:

Julie

[janx]

7. This deserves a

:kick:

[janx]

8. I especially like this part:

"Howard Dean does not just love his volunteers, in other words; he has also set them free. That decision has, in itself, rewritten the rules of political campaigning, and it has also created an unprecedented sense of exhilaration.

“This gives me so much energy,” marveled Rojas. “This is not me in my ordinary life.” Mike Meurer, a veteran volunteer on many political campaigns who runs his own telecommunications and marketing company, remembers his amazement when a volunteer coordinator from campaign headquarters in Vermont came out for a couple of months, and told members of the L.A. For Dean chapter to stop asking him for campaign strategy. “You don’t understand,” the coordinator, Aaron Holmes, told them: “You are the campaign.” “It was the most stunning statement I’ve ever heard uttered by any campaign,” says Meurer. “But that is the mentality.”

[Scott Lee]

9. Let me second that with a swift

KICK

[imax2268]

10. Great post Melinda...

A HUGE kick...

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[janx]

12. VERY IMPORTANT!

“Thank you, Howard Dean, for taking up the torch to be our hero,” Solis said, with the sweetness of a schoolgirl in love. Terry McAuliffe, the DNC chairman, could not be so overtly partisan – officially, he is backing nobody until primary season is over – but he barely contained his enthusiasm as he talked about the party’s new electronic databases listing supporters, swing voters, the issues each of them cares about, their phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Far from being skeptical about Mr. Dean’s unorthodox, decentralized, Internet-driven campaign methods, McAuliffe sounded very much as though he had already factored them into his calculations. Joe Lieberman might not have approved, but the event had the distinct feel of a coronation.

______________________________

McAuliffe knows now that Dean is the nominee.

[CTLawGuy]

13. kick

a thread that does not induce vomiting

[Scott Lee]

14. bootsky

[Zinsipperlover]

15. Great Article

:kick: :thumbsup:

[killbotfactory]

16. Good article...

The 24 hour news networks and their "controversy of the hour" bullcrap is just a sideshow to what is really happening in this country.

We can either sit and bitch at the TV every day, or we can get up and do something about it. The Dean campaign is telling people to do something about it, and it's working.

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

17. Excellent!

This paragraph stood out to me:

That, of course, is Howard Dean’s message – to fight corporate greed and political corruption and government by special interests – but it is also built into the very bones of his campaigning strategy. People have made much of his use of the Internet, but for him the Internet has not been an end in itself so much as an organizing tool – a way not only to identify and keep in touch with his supporters, but also to empower them. Dean volunteers don’t just take instruction and send money into campaign headquarters; they make their own organizing decisions, set up their own events, and come up with their own ideas.

It's difficult for people who don't participate in Dean's campaign to truly understand it. Dean isn't just saying "You have the power" for the sake of saying it. That phrase is the defining idea behind this entire campaign, and is why Dean's team is unstoppable. Dean's team is literally thousands of volunteers doing the work for free, because Dean has empowered them to take control of the destiny of our country. This phenomen is entirely unique, as no candidate has come near this grassroots organization.

[polpilot]

18. Thanks.

Dean '04...

[drfemoe]

19. That's why I believe Joe

"You've heard about the efforts of others to "stop Dean." But they're not trying to stop Howard Dean - they're trying to stop you"
Joe Trippi

[janx]

20. It's not working.

Clearly...!

[ozone_man]

21. A very nice article

describing the Dean phenomenon.

(snip)
On the day after Saddam’s capture, TV and radio outlets tried to stir the pot over Dean’s anti-war position, but in their newscasts they also moved straight from President Bush’s news conference to Dean’s speech at the Pacific Council – effectively according him the status of rebutter-in-chief for the first time. Without entirely realizing it, the media had inaugurated Dean as de facto leader of the opposition.

The bizarre truth is that the more the pundits bash Dean and predict the imminent collapse of his candidacy – as they have been doing from the moment he first emerged as a major force on the eve of the Iraq war – the more they betray their profound lack of understanding of the movement he has unleashed. They haven’t grasped the extent of his grassroots organization and the radical way he is reshaping the whole notion of political campaigning, in the Democratic Party and beyond. And they have either failed to appreciate or have woefully underestimated the sheer excitement he is generating, not only within his party but also in a whole new constituency of supporters being politicized for the very first time.
(snip)

[RetroLounge]

22. Nice article

:kick:

[Melinda]

23. Kick for the evening crowd, and.........

:kick: for :loveya: Dr. Dean!! :loveya:

[DFLforever]

24. Nice article, Melinda, and with a fine conclusion:

"the grassroots fire he has ignited across the country is a genuinely novel development, one that deserves to studied and emulated far beyond the lifetime of this campaign. If the Howard Dean machine doesn’t win the White House back for the Democrats next year, it seems doubtful anything else will."

[Castilleja]

25. Good article!

Thanks for posting it. :kick:

[Andromeda]

26. Good article.

Dean just looks better and better...

[seventhson]

27. A great and uplifting read. Puts the lie to Juan Williams and the whores

whose whole shtick os the negativity and backbiting and infighting.

Dean is the man to beat Bush and he will.

No doubt in my mind.

[Melinda]

28. Positive thread *kick*