Dean: I will not run for President in 2008...

[Rose Siding]

The quote is in answer to a question asked by So Region delegates at the DNC chair candidate event in Atlanta. It's in a pseudo transcrip by a blogger who was there- I don't know how reliable that is, as Matt Stoller writes on MyDD: "I wasn't able to take notes".

snip>
What are your future aspirations?

Dean: None. I will not run for President in 2008, because I feel that if the DNC isn't reformed, no democrat can win.

http://www.mydd.com/story/2005/1/8/154359/7514

edit- A re-read shows me that Stoller wasn't the author of the write up; he was promoting it.

[PassingFair]

1. This does not surprise me at all.

Dean is working to reform the party. This is our most important goal. I don't care if Dean runs in 2008, so long as we have a strong progressive candidate, who, for lack of a better term, is not afraid to call a spade a spade.
I will vote for whomever he vetts as his FIRST choice.

[janx]

2. He's right. I heard something about this before, as well.

Thanks for this link. It might be worth posting in the GD Politics forum for those who want to know how things are progressing.

[Capn Sunshine]

3. He might change his mind; but he HATED being a candidate

to Gov. Dean it was always about the moevement , less about him.
He's right, of course.
There's always 2012

[patricia92243]

4. Hmmm? "No Democrat could win" . Maybe he will not continue to be a Dem.

If he doesn't get chairman of the DNC, I think he should pull out. I'll vote for him, and hope this will be the start of a new, VIABLE party.

[madfloridian]

5. That is not what he said.

I listened and taped. He said if he gets chair he will not run...
Then he went on to even further clarify.. he will support Jeffords in 2006. Then he said people ask him why he says he won't run in 2008..he reminds them that no Democrat can win in 2008 if the party does not change.
Got huge applause for that.

[Rose Siding]

6. Thank you!

Are you sure it was the same event? -he did more than one last week in the south.

I can't even find anywhere that he's officially announced anything beyond exploration of the chair position so far. The articles all assume it tho. Imagine, inaccurate Dean coverage lol

[madfloridian]

7. The blogger was covering this week in Atlanta.

My hubby and I looked at each other when he said that. It was pretty obvious he had been misquoted. I posted it in GD Politics last night, and it dropped like a runaway elevator.

He can't have aspirations if he runs. Bottom line. Hubby said did he just make a power type play? I said I think so, and then I shrugged because I was not sure.

[Rose Siding]

8. The more I think about it, the madder I get

I read your gdpol post just now, too. MyDD is usually fair about Dean, but if I'd stopped to think about it for a minute I would have realized: If Dean made a definitive decision like *that*, he would have put the news out through DFA FIRST! He wouldn't have just sprung it in the pursuit of some pol-type job!

It's easy to get used to not trusting ANY of them- I need to remember that Dean doesn't fit into that catagory.

I so hope he does a deal with someone else for the chair

[madfloridian]

9. I just rewatched it, exact words....he was badly misquoted.

This guy seems to be the original quote.

http://scrutinyhooligans.blogspot.com/

Dean said:
"If I get this job, I'm no running for president in 2008, and I'm supporting Jim Jeffords....in 2006. I am not using this as a stepping stone."

Then he said people often ask him why he says that, he says that if the party is not changed then no democrat will win in 2008.

That context leaves an entirely different impression. Perhaps the blogger was using another source, but he referred to Atlanta.

[Kolesar]

10. Did any of those other 6 DNC candidates impress you?

David Leland is the cast-off former chair of the Ohio Dem party with nothing to show for it. The only other name I recall was Tim Roemer. I was watching the show to help me fall asleep.

[janx]

11. Rosenberg wasn't bad, but I kept wondering, every time he

mentioned his eight-year-old organization, why he hadn't made more headway with it.