WSJ: Dean Is Back, and Not on the Fringe, Either

[DaveSZ]

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB108655747737429973,00.html?mod=todays%5Ffree%5Ffeature


Dean Is Back, and Not on the Fringe, Either

Former Presidential Candidate
Studies the Right for Lessons
On How to Better Organize the Left
By DAVID ROGERS
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
June 7, 2004; Page A4

WASHINGTON -- Howard Dean has jumped back into this year's elections, urging support for his old nemesis, John Kerry, and promoting himself as a spokesman for the progressive wing in the Democratic Party.

The feisty former Vermont governor, determined not to be a fringe player, is boning up on the political right for guidance on how to better organize the left -- not just for November's elections but beyond. He is studying the tactics used by Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, and Ralph Reed, who helped make the Christian Coalition a political power. A decade after Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Reed, now a private consultant and adviser to President George W. Bush's campaign, helped usher in an era of Republican power, Mr. Dean hopes to begin to shift the balance back toward his progressive agenda.


"Those people were very organized, they were very methodical about what they did," he says. If history is amused by the ironies, Mr. Dean believes it soon will have to sit up and take notice.

Conservatives dismiss the whole Dean phenomenon as an overhyped, second coming of the 1970s liberal George McGovernites that moved Democrats to the left for years after. But there are two distinctions -- ones that echo themes of the Republican "revolution" a decade ago. First, the record government spending and huge budget deficits under President Bush give Mr. Dean an opening to stress fiscal responsibility. Second, increasing unhappiness about Iraq lets him cast the elections as a moral struggle about what it means to be an American.

-more

[KissMyAsscroft]

1. The whore right smears and minimizes Dean...

This article is all about trying to reduce Dean to a couple of issues...like there aren't many other reasons his supporters support him.

I support him just as much for his views on deregulation and equal rights as him being fiscally responsible...

This is a whoring right wing piece masquerading as an honest assesment. I hate these fuckers.

[DaveSZ]

2. .

I yanked it from Dean's site:

http://www.democracyforamerica.com/

[bklyncowgirl]

3. How is this a smear?

I thought it was a rather good article myself.

Sure it didn't cover every issue that Howard Dean ever advanced--but the focus of the article was about Democracy for America and Dean's role in the Kerry campeign.

I thought it showed Dean's determination to oust Bush from the White House and furthermore to help revive the Democratic Party quite well.

[I thought so.]

4. Never trust the WJC on politics.

Dean is working hard beyond the flood lights.

I just wrote a letter to Dave. I said get rid of your wedge. Then I said that the Dems are united. I pointed out that he might be on easy street. At this point I went on and on about these times. I just had to say out eloud that wealth cannot rest on an exhauted fondation. I thought it was ok. I doubt it will work,but it felt good. In closing I said that Dems are united and ,Look Out!

[madfloridian]

5. This was an excellent article about what is going on.

Why would you think it was critical? The divide exists already, though most will vote Kerry. I think this is one of the most fair articles to come out of the WSJ.

This statement says a lot:
"Mr. Dean's whirlwind presidential campaign was always about more than a single candidate. What has changed most is that he has begun to better grasp the political hunger it exposed. "I never really had a chance to look under the hood of the campaign until it was over," Mr. Dean admits."

You know I am a huge supporter of Dean and DFA, and I found it to be an excellent article. It points out the political hunger that exists for someone to say something real.