Why not Dean?

[Canadiana]

I'm a Candian with a dual Can/US citizenship....Maybe there's something I'm missing, but why do I not see much support for Howard Dean here? (with respect to running on '08).

I've seen him on multiple interviews and he seems like a true liberal - none of that centrist crap. He is so incredibly and refreshingly straight forward about his position on the war in Iraq....I think that's where Kerry lost a lot of respect by me. (I still really liked him him and voted for him...but common give a brief and straight forward answer).

Dean is an excellent speaker, he seems smart as hell, and well informed. I don't see a thing that is wrong with him...maybe someone can give me some more information or a different point of view on Dr. Dean?

Thanks.

[NoPasaran]

1. When he ran for DNC Chair

It was with the understanding that he would not be a candidate for President in 2008.

[Drum]

2. I'm sure you're gonna get plenty of responses,

but I'm going to guess that the why-not will be due to his being the present leader of the DNC (Democratic National Committee.) Maybe he is ineligible, or must sit out the election cycle unless he's replaced on the DNC?

On it's face though, I agree w/you...he was my fave preliminary candidate in the '04 race. I think he's the real deal.

[Demoiselle]

3. I'm with you Canadiana. Howard speaks for me. So does Gore. ...

They're my top two. With Wesley Clark in there somewhere for veep, maybe.
I'll support the party's candidate, but my dream team is Gore/Dean or Gore/Clark.

[cali]

4. He gave his word

that he wouldn't run for pres when he ran for DNC chair. Aside from that, I never viewed him as particularly liberal, at least in the classic sense of the word. I like him a lot, I voted for him for Gov 5 times, and I agree that he's very bright. Of course, what's considered liberal in Vermont and what's considered liberal in the most of the country are two different things.

[Debi]

5. Dean made a promise - not to run in 2008 if he was made DNC Chair

He keeps his promises.

If he were to run (and hadn't made that promise) you'd see loads of support for him!

[Canadiana]

6. I see! I didn't know that.

That's too bad....I really like the guy.

[Debi]

15. I caucused for him in 2004 and then made phone calls for him

in his bid for DNC Chair. I'd campaign/caucus for him again in a heartbeat!

[NoGOP]

7. I think he's damaged goods

because of his speech that was replayed about a million times by the MSM last time he ran. Kind of like Dukakis and the tank and Quayle spelling potato. It's really hard to overcome something like that in politics.

[EFerrari]

12. Welcome to DU, NoGOP.

That's their spin.

Dean is one awesome Democrat and he's kicking the progressive movement out of the basement.

:hi:

[WI_DEM]

13. If that destroyed him politically he wouldn't be DNC chair

so I disagree. That was overkill by the media which wanted nothing more than to bring Dean down. Exactly how does being excited at a rally of your supporters and yelling so they can hear you make someone unsuitable to be president? I've never understood that.

[NoGOP]

21. I agree.....

I thought he was treated very unfairly. I wanted him to win over Kerry. But that thing was just replayed over and over and over and over etc....and just became fodder for the MSM. He even made fun of it. Remember the Monday Football Intro he did about it? The real Democrats still like him and he's an excellent fund raiser with a lot of innovation. He's in the perfect job for what he's good at. I love it when he fires a bomb at the GOP! I just think that thing has been beaten into the ground so much that the people who vote and don't really follow politics will be constantly reminded about it until they are bothered by it. The MSM latches on to any imperfection (Especially when it comes to a Democrat, anyone remember Gary Hart from Colorado?) and beats it to death. In their view, someone with a little fire in their belly who isn't always calm, cool, and unflappable is imperfect and should be mocked.

[CAcyclist]

22. They didn't just "latch onto an imperfection"

They went after him specifically because he stated he would break up the media consolidation.

[Debi]

17. Then how'd he become head of the national party?

That's not usually a consolation prize.

[pansypoo53219]

24. please

he was taken out by the DC crowd. if anything KERRY is damaged goods. why isn't he sitting down. or at least fighjting the 'legitamacy' of 04".
but then i certainly see VP! for dean.

[WI_DEM]

8. He gave his word...but I wouldn't rule out VP

If we end up nominating someone the progressive wing of the party isn't overly taken with--I think Dean might make a good running mate and help unite the progressive wing.

[EFerrari]

9. Why not, indeed. Well, we're lucky to have him in any capacity.

Howard Dean will always have my vote.

[bklyncowgirl]

10. By becoming DNC chair he took himself out of the race

If the Dems oust him from the chairmanship--which is not outside the range of possibility--he could run. The remnants of his presidential campeign exist today as DFA and it's very likely that the Deaniacs would be hot to support him.

My guess is he'll fight off the attacks and stay in the chairmanship.

[rniel]

11. I don't see a thing wrong with him either

He's a great guy

[cenacle]

18. He's raising up the grass roots...

Dean has found a good niche for now, traveling around the country, giving firey speeches, funding long moribund progressive movements in states the DNC had previously written off. His work is absolutely necessary, a man who can inspire and organize, prepare the base for the Nov 2006 firefight.

Think the republico-fascistas are going to give up their hold on power easily, or battle with honor and honesty? No, none of us do. Neither does Dean. He knows what most of us know: (to paraphrase the coroner in the "Wizard of Oz") to win this fall, we must not only merely win, we must MOST SINCERELY win. It has to be a nationwide stomping of Emperor Retard of Earth's so-called mandate. It looks hopeful now, but we'd best go into it with the rabid underdog mentality, the nothing-left-to-lose perspective.

So it seems like Dean is looking directly toward then, keeping the corporatists and Liebermeny from drowning out the progressives in the party completely. I say the man is doing a lot of good, and just his presence in such an important job is keeping a lot of people from telling the Dems to fuck off for good.

[Warpy]

14. Well, he's not particularly liberal

He's socially liberal but tends to be fiscally conservative. The main strength he's always brought lies in being an outsider to the Washington DLC establishment. As an outsider, he didn't have access to their corporate contributions, and retaliated by building his own organization from the grassroots up (the way the party had always been run pre-DLC) and raised much more money than any of the corporatist candidates did.

There's not a whole lot of support for his candidacy because we all hope he'll be more effective as party chair, using the DLC as one fund raising arm but maintaining the grassroots, also. We also hope he'll be able to dislodge the DLC from its unique power position within the party and manage to return the party to its roots, connecting with a working class that has been its traditional base. In any case, keeping him where he is will keep his organization growing at the local level, which is what desperately needs to happen.

While I like many of Dr. Dean's policies and perspectives, I realize that electing him last time would have been a mistake. Not only would he have had to fight a majority GOP congress, he'd also have had to fight the entrenched conservatives within his own party.

Consider what happened the last time an outsider, Carter, was elected to the presidency.

Eventually we will prevail in wresting our party back from the conservatives. Leaving Dr. Dean where he is will be part of that process.

[Canadiana]

16. I hear ya

I admit I am unfamiliar with what his entire political platform was...I just heard him talk about the war so clearly and honnestly that I liked him right away.

[Fridays Child]

19. Dream ticket...

[WI_DEM]

20. Amen!

[bemildred]

23. I'd vote for him in a minute.

But that is not what he is doing right now, and what he is doing right now is much more important than who is President.

[Ufomammut]

25. Many Dems have been so propagandized....

That is, DINO's - democrat in name only - have been effected by the 24/7 right wing propaganda machine ...for a very long time, largely due to media/corporate consolidation. This encourages the notion of favoring a "moderate" over and instead of anyone aligned with "liberal" or "progressive" ideals and values.

In my estimation, "moderates" drop to their knees and suck shit straight out of ass; the entire premise is grounded in "sensible," "reasonable" sounding, "can't-we-all-just-get-along" rhetoric, but is only a cover for downplaying the significance of liberal virtue while promoting unconscionable right wing "values" and further shifting the entire framework of the public discourse into rightist mode.

It's like Clinton; he wasn't a democrat, he was a moderate republican. But because our populace is so shifted to the right, the propaganda machine was able to sell us a "Clinton" that was this very "liberal" figure, when the real Bush is much closer to that media "Clinton" that was intentionally set up and smeared via the Lewinsky ordeal to better pave the way for the illegal power grab they all knew was coming in the 2000 (S)election. And the idiots here buy it up because we've been trained like seals to worship media personas and follow sensationalistic distractions, and place greater emphasis on that end of it rather than taking the time to inform and educate ourselves on the reality of the issues, and their consequences.

In short, Dean wouldn't be viable. He's often promoted as "politically unrealistic" because he's not shifted to the right. This has another specific purpose as well: it's a way of the media establishment to try and place boundary on "acceptable" thought. If "wacky," "loose gun" Howard Dean says something "outrageous," it's way of the establishment instructing "accepted" criticism; thus far, and no further. To do so, as Chomsky claims, is to take off from the planet.

[WilliamPitt]

26. Dean has mountains of support here

Say something bad about him and you'll see it in Technicolor.

CW has it that Dean won't run in '08 because he has the DNC chair.