Post Meetup Thoughts

I just wanted to share a few thoughts with all of you. It's a cross-post from my own site...

I have a lot of theories about the Dean Campaign. There are some things that excite me, there are others where I think that more work is needed. In general, I keep my opinions off this weblog. I scour the web and put up the stories that are out there so you don’t have to. But I thought that I’d put a few words of my own down tonight.

Tonight I attended the Dean Meetup held at Headlines Bar & Lounge in New York City. It was only my second Meetup. My last meeting, was the first one where I was one of the original “Dean Fifteen.” It’s amazing how much has changed in only a few months. From the original small group of us (I take no credit for this, as I was not able to contribute too much time) formed New York for Dean. Tonight it was announced that New York will have an official campaign apparatus in effect soon with hired staff members.

But the thing that impressed me most is the people who were there. There was Tyler, the interested supporter who was just dying for some way to help or to get involved; there was Franz and Rachel from Music for America, a PAC devoted to helping Gov. Dean – who had an amazing amount of enthusiasm; also, there was a woman whose name I would misspell, so I won’t attempt to try, but she is from Switzerland, lived in Lebanon, moved to DC in the late 60’s and has been in NYC since and she just stopped in to check out what everything was about. These people make me think that perhaps Gov. Dean is the type of candidate that we’re supposed to have – someone who is sought after more than he seeks.

So many people are drawn to him. We are enthusiastic about him. He energizes people. I think this is what is needed to defeat Bush – a candidate who excites people and someone that you can believe in. Just look at the blogs out there. The grassroots support for Governor Dean is astounding. This is why Sen. Kerry and the other candidates are so worried have begun to focus on stopping the Dean Momentum: they know it is a campaign on the move. In the words of Howard Fineman, Gov. Dean “a man to watch, if not the man to beat.”

Let’s take our country back.