Monday, July 07, 2003
DEAN FIRST PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE DECLARED ELIGIBLE http://www.fec.gov/press/20030707matching.html
Thanks to David Nir of New York for bringing this FEC press release to our attention:
For Immediate Release
July 7, 2003
DEAN FIRST PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE DECLARED ELIGIBLE
FOR PRIMARY MATCHING FUNDS IN 2004 RACE
WASHINGTON – Howard Dean today became the first 2004 presidential candidate to be declared eligible by the Federal Election Commission to receive federal matching funds. Dean is seeking the Democratic nomination for president in 2004.
To become eligible for matching funds, candidates must raise a threshold amount of $100,000 by collecting $5,000 in 20 different states in amounts no greater than $250 from any individual. Other requirements to be declared eligible include agreeing to an overall spending limit, abiding by spending limits in each state, using public funds only for legitimate campaign-related expenses, keeping financial records and permitting an extensive campaign audit.
Based on documents filed by the Dean campaign on June 17, 2003, contributions from the following states were verified for threshold purposes: California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.
Once declared eligible, campaigns may submit additional contributions for matching funds on the first business day of every month. The U.S. Treasury Department will pay the FEC-certified amounts beginning in January 2004. The maximum amount a candidate could receive is currently estimated to be $18.6 million.
Go to the 2004 Presidential Campaign Matching Fund Summissions page for more details.
# # #
Target: Howard Dean: Episode I http://www.msnbc.com/news/934761.asp?0cv=KB20
The Republican Unity Coalition, a pro-gay GOP group, is the focus of this Newsweek interview with Former Senator Alan Simpson (R-Wyoming) on MSNBC.
And yet another – yes, one more! – of the great contradictions on the right presents itself. What does Simpson really mean by “kiss half the Congress goodbye?” Sounds like a worried guy to me. I mean, I think the guy might be right, but he’s referring to the wrong half of Congress. Have our current crop of legislative leaders -- many of whom are running for President -- helped us to get or to keep a majority in Congress? If Alan Simpson really cared about our numbers in Congress, he’d be advising John Edwards to run for his Senate seat and not for POTUS. But obviously that is not his real concern.
Simpson’s true sentiment is one of concern for his own party, and thus the oxymoronic quality of Simpson’s dismissal. It’s the gay issue itself and Dean’s support of civil unions that many, left and right, have said makes Dean supposedly unelectable. So what’s Simpson’s beef? Hard to know, but it seems like Dean worries him for the very same reasons that he would join a group like the RUC – because when the GOP demonizes gays, they lose. The specter of Buchanan in 1992 and his famous “cultural war” speech still haunt their nightmares. Note that the goal of the RUC is not “LGBT equality” but rather to make LGBT rights a “non-issue” because when it’s an issue and the right starts frothing at the mouth, they lose. No one knows this better than Rove & The Neo-Cons.
And thus, my final point, which illustrates one reason that Rove and Co. are so frightened of Dean as the nominee: LGBT rights will not be a “non-issue” it will be a huge issue. What at first seems like a liability for Dean quickly becomes an asset, as there is no way, let me repeat no way in hell that the Fundamentalist Right will sit on their hands and keep their lips zipped if Howard Dean is the nominee. But hey, let Senator Simpson tell you himself:
Thanks, Alan. Now we know why you are so anxious to dismiss Howard Dean. As Rove and Simpson and many other smart politicians know, the Rabid Right in full form will be a huge liability for the GOP, and it gives them one more reason get Dean out this race ASAP -- and by any means possible. Which, of course, ain't gonna happen. And best of all voila! a principled position on LGBT civil unions is a winning issue for Howard Dean. Maybe they should quit worrying about the Democrat’s tent and pay a little more attention to their own hot-air balloon, sinking, like a stone.
Q:Is the GOP’s big tent getting smaller? A:I don’t think so. If you want to go and look at the big tent shrinking, go and look at the Democrats. The fabric is unraveling at the edge of their tent because if they nominate Howard Dean, they can kiss half the Congress goodbye.
And yet another – yes, one more! – of the great contradictions on the right presents itself. What does Simpson really mean by “kiss half the Congress goodbye?” Sounds like a worried guy to me. I mean, I think the guy might be right, but he’s referring to the wrong half of Congress. Have our current crop of legislative leaders -- many of whom are running for President -- helped us to get or to keep a majority in Congress? If Alan Simpson really cared about our numbers in Congress, he’d be advising John Edwards to run for his Senate seat and not for POTUS. But obviously that is not his real concern.
Simpson’s true sentiment is one of concern for his own party, and thus the oxymoronic quality of Simpson’s dismissal. It’s the gay issue itself and Dean’s support of civil unions that many, left and right, have said makes Dean supposedly unelectable. So what’s Simpson’s beef? Hard to know, but it seems like Dean worries him for the very same reasons that he would join a group like the RUC – because when the GOP demonizes gays, they lose. The specter of Buchanan in 1992 and his famous “cultural war” speech still haunt their nightmares. Note that the goal of the RUC is not “LGBT equality” but rather to make LGBT rights a “non-issue” because when it’s an issue and the right starts frothing at the mouth, they lose. No one knows this better than Rove & The Neo-Cons.
And thus, my final point, which illustrates one reason that Rove and Co. are so frightened of Dean as the nominee: LGBT rights will not be a “non-issue” it will be a huge issue. What at first seems like a liability for Dean quickly becomes an asset, as there is no way, let me repeat no way in hell that the Fundamentalist Right will sit on their hands and keep their lips zipped if Howard Dean is the nominee. But hey, let Senator Simpson tell you himself:
Q: Where do you want to see the GOP go from here? A: As I see this election coming, it seems that for the first time I see people realizing that these tests of [ideological] purity do nothing at all to help us win [elections]. All they do is energize zealots, [the] 100-percenters. I tell them: “Why don’t you forget this one issue [about gays]” and remember that George W. is going to be with you 60, 70, 80 percent of the time. And that whoever is on the other side is not going to be. So let’s not cut each other up.
Thanks, Alan. Now we know why you are so anxious to dismiss Howard Dean. As Rove and Simpson and many other smart politicians know, the Rabid Right in full form will be a huge liability for the GOP, and it gives them one more reason get Dean out this race ASAP -- and by any means possible. Which, of course, ain't gonna happen. And best of all voila! a principled position on LGBT civil unions is a winning issue for Howard Dean. Maybe they should quit worrying about the Democrat’s tent and pay a little more attention to their own hot-air balloon, sinking, like a stone.
Dean Hits the Trifecta http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/000634.html
Over at the official blog, Matt Gross gives us a Mark Shields column and says that Shields gets it. And Shields does get it, more than any other writer who has gotten it. Even Lizza's early piece (in the New Republic) that picked up on the importance of internet organizing and Manjoo's more recent piece on Dean.com (in Salon.com) have missed something:
We chose Howard Dean.
Last fall, on my first (of now 3) blog, Left in the West, I started writing about Dean and even managed to convince one reader to cut a hundred dollar check. I soon found other Dean supporters. Matthew Yglesias was leaning towards him. Atrios had kind words. Rich Klau was there. Soon, Ezra came along.
And there was, of course, Aziz and this blog.
And you looked around for favorable words about Kerry or Edwards or Gephardt and you could find them, but no one was dedicated.
Soon, I left my blog and moved in to Ezra's netspace. And MeetUp continued to grow and the campaign eventually decided to launch an official blog (still back on blogger in those days).
But all along, it's been Dean who has inspired those of us who are most plugged in to politics (and outside-the-Beltway) and still normal citizens.
Dean's campaign has done amazing things figuring out how to steer this rising tide, this Perfect Storm.
But Shields is right when he says it is Dean, not Dean's internet ability, that is getting him where he is.
And that's why we'll hit the trifecta: Dean is a candidate unlike any in recent memory with an amazing ability to be at the center of every political stage. He is the story. His staff has figured out how to take advantage of new situations remarkably quickly and keep 180,000 volunteers happy (that's twice the size of my hometown, folks). And we, his roots, are dedicated. We've got people canvassing, phone calling, fund raising, leafletting, tabling.
Hell, we can have 5 tables at events where other campaigns won't have the volunteers to set up one.
The candidate.
The campaign.
And us.
We've got the trifecta.
So, to give you something to do, donate to the campaign in the name of the Dean Nation (this blog).
This is not just about the quality of the internet organizing. It's about the quality of the candidate.If you read between the lines, a new picture of the Dean internet world becomes clear.
We chose Howard Dean.
Last fall, on my first (of now 3) blog, Left in the West, I started writing about Dean and even managed to convince one reader to cut a hundred dollar check. I soon found other Dean supporters. Matthew Yglesias was leaning towards him. Atrios had kind words. Rich Klau was there. Soon, Ezra came along.
And there was, of course, Aziz and this blog.
And you looked around for favorable words about Kerry or Edwards or Gephardt and you could find them, but no one was dedicated.
Soon, I left my blog and moved in to Ezra's netspace. And MeetUp continued to grow and the campaign eventually decided to launch an official blog (still back on blogger in those days).
But all along, it's been Dean who has inspired those of us who are most plugged in to politics (and outside-the-Beltway) and still normal citizens.
Dean's campaign has done amazing things figuring out how to steer this rising tide, this Perfect Storm.
But Shields is right when he says it is Dean, not Dean's internet ability, that is getting him where he is.
And that's why we'll hit the trifecta: Dean is a candidate unlike any in recent memory with an amazing ability to be at the center of every political stage. He is the story. His staff has figured out how to take advantage of new situations remarkably quickly and keep 180,000 volunteers happy (that's twice the size of my hometown, folks). And we, his roots, are dedicated. We've got people canvassing, phone calling, fund raising, leafletting, tabling.
Hell, we can have 5 tables at events where other campaigns won't have the volunteers to set up one.
The candidate.
The campaign.
And us.
We've got the trifecta.
So, to give you something to do, donate to the campaign in the name of the Dean Nation (this blog).
Today's Note http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/TheNote/TheNote.html
It's loaded up with Dean. Read it all for yourself. Here's just a bit:
Practicing and covering nomination politics are imperfect sciences, but you really can learn something about the mood of a party and — we are serious — about the mood of the nation, when an insurgent candidate does well.
We'd like to lock Congressman Gephardt and Senators Kerry, Edwards, Lieberman, and Graham in a windowless, un-air-conditioned classroom in Concord this afternoon and give them this pop quiz (not open book, and candidates only — no help from Elmo, Jer-dan, Baldick, the Campaign Director, or Jarding):
--List three lines from Howard Dean's stump speech that always get a big crowd reaction and explain why. (15 minutes)
--Write an essay explaining what Dean's surge says about what the party wants in its nominee, and what larger sentiments does his message reveal about the state of the American psyche right now? (45 minutes)
Episode II (Attack of the Clones)
The conservatives are terrified of Dean, because they know he is the real threat. NewsMax insinuates Dean has a drinking problem, and along with American Daily tries to use Dean's son as ammunition (both rags are seemingly unaware of what a Pandora's box this line of reasoning is to their Golden Child, Bush). American Daily is (unintentionally, unlike The Onion) hysterically funny in it's reactionary attempts to spin Dean as the Second Coming of Lenin:
Some conservatives are in denial. Mark Steyn of the Sun Times goes to great lengths to explain just how Vermont is the epicenter of "ponytailed granola progressivism." He also gets in a reference to Cameron Diaz and Miramax somehow. Joseph Farrah of WorldNet Daily is scared enough to actually say "No on Howard Dean" (as if he had anything to say about it), sounds the "danger! extreme liberal!" alarm:
That's real meat and potatoes stuff, but it's not the Machiavellian conservatives who read that tray liner. There's actually an emerging "Conservatives for Dean" movement (not to be confuse with the true principled Republicans for Dean meaningfully who contribute to our ongoing dialouge here at Dean Nation). Some conservatives are actually donating money to Dean's campaign! Rush Limbaugh has an article titled "Please Let it be Howard Dean" which thankfully I'm prevented from accessing unless I become a dues-paying ditto-head. Karl Rove himself has joined in:
(Jerome has covered the convergence between Rove and the DLC's rhetoric in an earlier must-read post).
Now, the American Spectator is concerned for Dean's privacy, claiming that Kerry's campaign is digging through Dean's trash for "oppo" research. And Drudge chimed in yesterday claiming that Dean wants McAuliffe out as head of the DNC (easily refuted by Trippi). Both Daily Kos and Joshua Marshall have covered these events in excellent detail.
What this all boils down to is fear. The DLC is afraid of Dean, so Al From attacks him for being too liberal, invoking McGovern's defeat. The conservative media is afraid of Dean, so they are trying to convince Democrats (leveraging their domination of mass media) that Dean is too liberal. The other candidates are afraid of Dean, so they dismiss the fundraising success as the "crazy base". Karl Rive and the DLC are handing out talking points to their sides, and we are seeing an amazing convergence of rhetoric from left and right.
This all works to the conservatives' benefit of course - after all, you have the moderate liberals denouncing Dean, the quintessential moderate, as being too liberal (exactly which party do the DLC think they belong to?).
But what the conservatives really fear is Dean's ability to reclaim the center. Under GOP rule, this country has drifted so far right that a moderate like Dean looks liberal. And their own position seems moderate. What Dean presents is a real threat that the Emerging Democratic Majority will wake up and realize that the center is theirs. And that's something that threatens the elites at both ends.
Back here in the real world, a man named Howard Dean is running for president, and what he is selling is a snake oil worse than anything ever pedaled door-to-door or at any MLM convention. In fact, what Howard Dean is pushing would make FDR gasp and Lenin applaud.
Some conservatives are in denial. Mark Steyn of the Sun Times goes to great lengths to explain just how Vermont is the epicenter of "ponytailed granola progressivism." He also gets in a reference to Cameron Diaz and Miramax somehow. Joseph Farrah of WorldNet Daily is scared enough to actually say "No on Howard Dean" (as if he had anything to say about it), sounds the "danger! extreme liberal!" alarm:
This idea that discrimination – meaning the making of a value judgment – is a bad thing demonstrates just how whacky Howard Dean is.
This guy is out there. He is trying to position himself as the "most progressive" of all the candidates – and, depending on your definition of the term, he has been successful.
My guess is the candidacy of Howard Dean will not make the first cut of primaries. His attacks on President Bush's character exceed the boundaries of good taste and civil politics – even by Democratic Party standards.
That's real meat and potatoes stuff, but it's not the Machiavellian conservatives who read that tray liner. There's actually an emerging "Conservatives for Dean" movement (not to be confuse with the true principled Republicans for Dean meaningfully who contribute to our ongoing dialouge here at Dean Nation). Some conservatives are actually donating money to Dean's campaign! Rush Limbaugh has an article titled "Please Let it be Howard Dean" which thankfully I'm prevented from accessing unless I become a dues-paying ditto-head. Karl Rove himself has joined in:
Rove told a companion, "Heh, heh, heh. Yeah, that's the one we want, How come no one is cheering for Dean? Come on, everybody! Go, Howard Dean!"
(Jerome has covered the convergence between Rove and the DLC's rhetoric in an earlier must-read post).
Now, the American Spectator is concerned for Dean's privacy, claiming that Kerry's campaign is digging through Dean's trash for "oppo" research. And Drudge chimed in yesterday claiming that Dean wants McAuliffe out as head of the DNC (easily refuted by Trippi). Both Daily Kos and Joshua Marshall have covered these events in excellent detail.
What this all boils down to is fear. The DLC is afraid of Dean, so Al From attacks him for being too liberal, invoking McGovern's defeat. The conservative media is afraid of Dean, so they are trying to convince Democrats (leveraging their domination of mass media) that Dean is too liberal. The other candidates are afraid of Dean, so they dismiss the fundraising success as the "crazy base". Karl Rive and the DLC are handing out talking points to their sides, and we are seeing an amazing convergence of rhetoric from left and right.
This all works to the conservatives' benefit of course - after all, you have the moderate liberals denouncing Dean, the quintessential moderate, as being too liberal (exactly which party do the DLC think they belong to?).
But what the conservatives really fear is Dean's ability to reclaim the center. Under GOP rule, this country has drifted so far right that a moderate like Dean looks liberal. And their own position seems moderate. What Dean presents is a real threat that the Emerging Democratic Majority will wake up and realize that the center is theirs. And that's something that threatens the elites at both ends.
Our Goals http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1090&px=1179278
Trippi lays out the Q3 goals on BFA:
Fantastic! We have a lot of work to do, and it starts right here with meeting our goal of $10K that Dean Nationites like you contribute to Dean.
You get the feeling that Dean is going to show up at the Doonesbury House Party (again today).
Our focus for July through September -- is now expanding to at least 8 or 9 states organizationally beyond Iowa and New Hampshire, begin strong outreach beyond the Net -- grow our online support to 450,000 from about 180,000 and grow our offline support to 50,000 using 800 numbers and the tabling efforts etc through our self organizing tools and outreach efforts into every community -- and of course fundraising.
Fantastic! We have a lot of work to do, and it starts right here with meeting our goal of $10K that Dean Nationites like you contribute to Dean.
You get the feeling that Dean is going to show up at the Doonesbury House Party (again today).
Meetup diversity? http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030714-463096,00.html
Great analysis of the Dean and Internet convergence in TIME Magazine. The great thing about this article is the broad base - TIME is read by millions of people, and the exposure that this article gives Dean is enormous. They also are kind enough to mention Dean Nation :)
One critique in the article stands out however - their observation that the Meetup crowd is highly homogenous:
This same issue was addressed on Eschaton recently, in response to a piece in the WaPo:
However, our own Jerome Armstrong has some rather solid counter-points:
What do you think - how can we make sure that the next Meetup has a broader base of minority support? And what kinds of outreach are you planning? Or did you not have this problem at your meetup?
One critique in the article stands out however - their observation that the Meetup crowd is highly homogenous:
These meetups are evidence of the enthusiasm out there for the former Governor — enthusiasm the other campaigns can only envy. They are also evidence of a homogeneity among those enthusiasts. In San Rafael, Calif., last Wednesday, 75 attendees packed the back room of the Limelight restaurant. There were veteran campaigners and neophytes, a few Kerry supporters willing to be convinced and even a couple of Republicans angry at Bush — but not a single non-Caucasian. An ethnic-outreach subcommittee was swiftly announced.
...
The questions now are whether Dean can broaden his support and whether the Internet is just a boutique fund-raising tool or one that can generate actual votes.
This same issue was addressed on Eschaton recently, in response to a piece in the WaPo:
But had Meetup.com helped Dean reach new constituencies, such as African Americans, other ethnic communities, working class people, non-liberals? Not based on what I saw. Without the Internet, it was likely that Dean would find support among affluent, white, liberal professionals. With the Internet, he attracted affluent, white, liberal professionals who spent a lot of time online. Meetup.com was just a continuation of politics by other means.
But the Internet can't become a substitute for the gritty, difficult work of true grass-roots campaigning in diverse ethnic and socio-economic communities. As it stands, Meetup mostly preaches to the choir.
However, our own Jerome Armstrong has some rather solid counter-points:
If Dean is drawing across the board white people, more males than females, HELLO DC DEM ESTABLISHMENT, this is exactly the vote that the Democrats need more of to win in November!
I don't disagree with Gownder assessment. I'd just point out that if you look at the traditional turnout model for caucuses, this group has not been there. Sure, you could argue that Hart or Tsongas, maybe even Brown, and certainly McCain had elements of it, but nothing near what Dean has in place, not anywhere near this amount of national organization, and we still have months to go before the voting happens.
The primaries in the southern and midwest states are where Dean's campaign needs work on reaching to overcome the problems laid out by Gownder.
However, those are mostly general election concerns, not the nomination. That's the main flaw of his argument. Gownder's laid out a good case for why Dean needs to broaden his appeal to win the general, but applied it to his first need-- winning the nomination-- where it will work.
What do you think - how can we make sure that the next Meetup has a broader base of minority support? And what kinds of outreach are you planning? Or did you not have this problem at your meetup?
Monday's Deansbury http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/
motivating the "crazy base" http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1090&px=1179278
my fellow citizens of Dean Nation, we are $37% of the way to our goal of raising $10,000 for Dean! As of 6:15 AM this morning we have raised $3,662.23!
Remember - we are Dean's supporters - but Dean is ours, too. By donating through Dean Nation, we are demonstrating the true nature of how our government should be - of the people, by the people, for the people. The result will be a President among us, not amongst the beltway elites and the K-street lobbyists. Just remember what we are up against! No one thinks we can do it. Certainly not Al From, the leader of the Democrats Losing Consistently elites:
Apparently the way to beat a President with a "65 percent" approval rating is to pretend you're him, and hope the voters get confused. Apparently the way to win the White House is to lose the nomination. If we - Dean Nation - are the angry voters writing checks, let's show Al that we're the ones to appeal to, not marginalize.
What do the other campaigns think?
Are we the crazy base? well, maybe. Wouldn't it be just crazy if we donated ten bucks now to Howard Dean?
Let Howard Dean be Howard Dean:
So stand up and be proud of what you believe in - not what Al From or "senior aides" to other candidates want you to believe. Let's show them what an opposition looks like!
Remember, we need to reach our goal by Tuesday evening, so time is short. Of course we have all already reached deep into our pockets to help Dean break all Q2 records on $7 Million Monday, but this is our chance to show the campaign that of all the netroots, it's Dean Nation that carries the flag.
I'd also like to make an appeal to other bloggers - please link to the Dean Nation Rally today and encourage your visitors to join us!
Remember - we are Dean's supporters - but Dean is ours, too. By donating through Dean Nation, we are demonstrating the true nature of how our government should be - of the people, by the people, for the people. The result will be a President among us, not amongst the beltway elites and the K-street lobbyists. Just remember what we are up against! No one thinks we can do it. Certainly not Al From, the leader of the Democrats Losing Consistently elites:
"This isn't a personal fight against Howard Dean. It's about taking a party that went badly astray in the 1970s and 1980s and putting it back on course," said Al From, the leader of the moderate Democratic Leadership Council. "Anger can get people excited to write $20 and $25 checks on the Internet, but it is probably not enough to beat a president that 65 percent of the people like."
"The prize is the White House," he said, "not winning the nomination."
Apparently the way to beat a President with a "65 percent" approval rating is to pretend you're him, and hope the voters get confused. Apparently the way to win the White House is to lose the nomination. If we - Dean Nation - are the angry voters writing checks, let's show Al that we're the ones to appeal to, not marginalize.
What do the other campaigns think?
"He has motivated our crazy base," said a senior aide to another Democratic campaign. "But I don't think we need to be any more scared of him than the Republicans were scared of John McCain."
Are we the crazy base? well, maybe. Wouldn't it be just crazy if we donated ten bucks now to Howard Dean?
Let Howard Dean be Howard Dean:
"The very things that everyone else is saying make me unelectable I think are what make me electable," Dean said. "The reason the other folks are going to have a hard time beating this president is because they are so afraid to lose. The only way to beat this president is to stand up for what you believe in and be proud of it."
So stand up and be proud of what you believe in - not what Al From or "senior aides" to other candidates want you to believe. Let's show them what an opposition looks like!
Remember, we need to reach our goal by Tuesday evening, so time is short. Of course we have all already reached deep into our pockets to help Dean break all Q2 records on $7 Million Monday, but this is our chance to show the campaign that of all the netroots, it's Dean Nation that carries the flag.
I'd also like to make an appeal to other bloggers - please link to the Dean Nation Rally today and encourage your visitors to join us!
Sunday, July 06, 2003
A Libertarian for Dean http://thatother.blogspot.com/2003_05_01_thatother_archive.html#200320107
Johnny Bardine has a lengthy analysis of Dean's candidacy from the pragmatic libertarian perspective (note: not to be confused with the ideological libertarian perspective). It's exactly independent people like Johhny to whom we need to make the case for Dean. If the message is sound, it will draw support.
Johnny has a number of points but the one I want to excerpt is probably the biggest barrier to drawing in libertarian support, and I think his reasoning is one of profoundly enlightened self-interest:
He summarizes, "Libertarians wondering who to support should ask themselves: Which candidate will be devoted to fiscal responsibility, peace and security, and the protection of our fundamental rights? The answer is Howard Dean". Do you know any libertarians? People who hate big government? Or who are just reflexively against any kind of taxation? Try out these arguments and let us know how you fared!
Johnny has a number of points but the one I want to excerpt is probably the biggest barrier to drawing in libertarian support, and I think his reasoning is one of profoundly enlightened self-interest:
Universal Healthcare
I am a libertarian, and have been for as long as I can remember. But I now firmly reside on planet Earth, and I think that is a fairly new occurrence. In the realm of governance, there is Democratic turf; there is Republican turf. There is not, however, Libertarian turf, so then the libertarian -- when he is not off stockpiling beenie-weenies and starting militias -- must choose which turf makes the most sense. I do not believe that people have the right to health care. But an inescapable fact of reality is that we have a welfare state. America has a government that provides various social programs; they fund these programs through taxation. It is time for reasonable libertarians to give up the fight for a taxless society. Instead, we should work toward spending what we must pay in a cost-effective fashion. That's exactly what Governor Dean's health care plan accomplishes. Health care may not be a right, but it certainly is a desirable thing. And if we can do it in a reasonable way, we should. Dean's does that, which is a far cry from the unworkable monstrosity that is Gephardt's plan. Dean's idea is much less complicated and has actually been implemented on the state level. As he writes, "This plan is affordable and simple, relying on three existing systems -- one for children, one for seniors, and one for those in between -- which all Americans can understand." There are many flavors of libertarianism, but I think this plan sits well with most in the Jeffersonian vein.
He summarizes, "Libertarians wondering who to support should ask themselves: Which candidate will be devoted to fiscal responsibility, peace and security, and the protection of our fundamental rights? The answer is Howard Dean". Do you know any libertarians? People who hate big government? Or who are just reflexively against any kind of taxation? Try out these arguments and let us know how you fared!
Bushed military http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=0-ARMYPAPER-1954515.php
On Meet the Press, Dean was off by 7% on his off-the-cuff guess as to the size of the armed forces. The resulting media elite chatter about Dean's foreign policy experience and supposed "hostility to the military" has been unceasing. But it's not the media elite that Dean needs to address - it's the military itself. And nowhere has Bush's hypocrisy and empty rhetoric - and outright betrayal - been more evident than the issue of supporting our troops.
via Billmon, from the 2nd Presidential Debate (Oct. 11, 2000):
Rebuild the military? Under President Bush, the military that Clinton built has been stretched far thinner on imperial adventurism than it ever was under Clinton. Nicholas Confessore's essential article in the Washington Monthly, GI Woe, details exactly how our armed forces are strained under the neocon-driven foreign policy that Bush, as Commander in Chief, must take ultimate responsibility for.
Pay our men and women more and make sure they are housed better? Ask the Marine Corp Times, which headlined: "House Republicans dig in against child tax credit for combat troops." Or ask the Army Times, which called the praise of the military by Bush and the GOP Congress "nothing but lip service". Army families are noticing- and reacting with anger.
Have a more focused mission for our military? What exactly are we doing in Afghanistan? Where are the WMDs that Rumsfeld knew for a fact were "in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad" ? Is there any coherence to our foreign policy whatsoever besides economic and strategic opportunism?
Then consider Bush's rhetoric for those who served - about veterans, Bush has said (at the VFW 2001 convention):
Understands America's obligations to our veterans? Then why didn't Bush provide additional funding to VA by designating $5 billion appropriated by Congress as emergency spending, as he had promised? Why are veterans in the Priority 8 Group (including vets with incomes as low as $24,644, affecting about 520,000 veterans by 2005) being shut out of health services? Why doesn't VA have sufficient resources to meet its obligations to those who served? Why won't the Bush Administration put its support behind concurrent-receipt - allowing those veterans who incurred a disability while serving the nation in uniform to receive both retirement and disability benefits?
These broken promises are the wounds - but Bush's dereliction of duty, his clumsy propaganda of ingratiation, and his false and harmful bravado thousands of miles from the front, are the salt rub.
These are the simple facts. Bush is unfit to be Commander in Chief, and the GOP is brazen in its attempts to sacrifice the interests of our men and women in uniform for tax breaks for the rich. And armed with these facts, Dean can wipe the floor with any who dare to suggest otherwise. We don't even need Wesley Clark to be onboard to make these simple arguments. The facts speak for themselves. Bush can't hide from his record.
via Billmon, from the 2nd Presidential Debate (Oct. 11, 2000):
It's time to have a new commander in chief who will rebuild the military, pay our men and women more and make sure they're housed better, and have a focused mission for our military.
Rebuild the military? Under President Bush, the military that Clinton built has been stretched far thinner on imperial adventurism than it ever was under Clinton. Nicholas Confessore's essential article in the Washington Monthly, GI Woe, details exactly how our armed forces are strained under the neocon-driven foreign policy that Bush, as Commander in Chief, must take ultimate responsibility for.Pay our men and women more and make sure they are housed better? Ask the Marine Corp Times, which headlined: "House Republicans dig in against child tax credit for combat troops." Or ask the Army Times, which called the praise of the military by Bush and the GOP Congress "nothing but lip service". Army families are noticing- and reacting with anger.
Have a more focused mission for our military? What exactly are we doing in Afghanistan? Where are the WMDs that Rumsfeld knew for a fact were "in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad" ? Is there any coherence to our foreign policy whatsoever besides economic and strategic opportunism?
Then consider Bush's rhetoric for those who served - about veterans, Bush has said (at the VFW 2001 convention):
My administration understands America's obligations not only go to those who wear the uniform today, but to those who wore the uniform in the past: to our veterans. And at times, those obligations have not been met. Veterans in need of care have been kept waiting, and thousands of veterans' claims have been delayed, or in some cases lost in the bureaucracy.
Understands America's obligations to our veterans? Then why didn't Bush provide additional funding to VA by designating $5 billion appropriated by Congress as emergency spending, as he had promised? Why are veterans in the Priority 8 Group (including vets with incomes as low as $24,644, affecting about 520,000 veterans by 2005) being shut out of health services? Why doesn't VA have sufficient resources to meet its obligations to those who served? Why won't the Bush Administration put its support behind concurrent-receipt - allowing those veterans who incurred a disability while serving the nation in uniform to receive both retirement and disability benefits?
These broken promises are the wounds - but Bush's dereliction of duty, his clumsy propaganda of ingratiation, and his false and harmful bravado thousands of miles from the front, are the salt rub.
These are the simple facts. Bush is unfit to be Commander in Chief, and the GOP is brazen in its attempts to sacrifice the interests of our men and women in uniform for tax breaks for the rich. And armed with these facts, Dean can wipe the floor with any who dare to suggest otherwise. We don't even need Wesley Clark to be onboard to make these simple arguments. The facts speak for themselves. Bush can't hide from his record.
Labels: military
the complete Dean-esbury
Monday: Dad, would you ever consider voting for Howard Dean?
Tuesday: Um, Dad, I was alive in 2000, ok?
Wednesday: Let me set the stage for you, Poppy...
Thursday:See, the Dean folks really have their act together on the Net...
Friday: Poppy, I think I'll host a Dean party, okay?
Saturday: Joe Lieberman, the Democrat?
Tuesday: Um, Dad, I was alive in 2000, ok?
Wednesday: Let me set the stage for you, Poppy...
Thursday:See, the Dean folks really have their act together on the Net...
Friday: Poppy, I think I'll host a Dean party, okay?
Saturday: Joe Lieberman, the Democrat?
Dean Nation Rally update http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1090&px=1179278
In two days, we've inched forward to 35% of our goal of $10,000 for Dean! Not bad, but we have a long way to go! Remember, our goal is to have $10,000 by the end of Tuesday - and we know the campaign is watching and deeply appreciative of all we have done so far!
There are over 2000 of us visiting this blog daily. If we all just kicked in $5 each, we'd blow right through our goal in one day! I know we have all given as much as we could to help Dean make history on the Q2 deadline - after all, it was $7 Million Monday - but there's surely got to be some spare change lying around that we can use, to raise our collective voices as Dean Nation, that we are Dean's and Dean is ours!
We are Dean Nation - and we are as much part of the fabric of the Dean Phenomenon as the candidate himself! It's our country and we aren't going to take it anymore - we want our country back, and we want to show the GOP-minion lobbyists on K-street just who the Declaration of Independence was for!
We are Dean Nation, and we can raise $10,000 for Dean. And we will!
There are over 2000 of us visiting this blog daily. If we all just kicked in $5 each, we'd blow right through our goal in one day! I know we have all given as much as we could to help Dean make history on the Q2 deadline - after all, it was $7 Million Monday - but there's surely got to be some spare change lying around that we can use, to raise our collective voices as Dean Nation, that we are Dean's and Dean is ours!
We are Dean Nation - and we are as much part of the fabric of the Dean Phenomenon as the candidate himself! It's our country and we aren't going to take it anymore - we want our country back, and we want to show the GOP-minion lobbyists on K-street just who the Declaration of Independence was for!
We are Dean Nation, and we can raise $10,000 for Dean. And we will!
open thread: meeting Dean http://metajournalism.blogspot.com/2003_06_29_metajournalism_archive.html#105708766677810468
A fellow blogger has a fascinating account of being Dean's chauffeaur for a day in New York:
This intensely personal view of Dean is quite at odds with the view that we tend to get from reading this blog or the campaign site or the other usual stories and coverage. And to an extent, Farhad Manjoo is correct in his recent Salon article, that Dean the real person is almost conspicously absent from the virtual side of his grassroots support (though the recent photo gallery of Dean does help rectify this a bit) Let's try and redress that (unfortunate but inescapable) imbalance - use the comments as an open thread to share your own personal experiences with having met Howard Dean in person.
--Howard Dean was a firebrand when his flame was on.
That is, he seemed to be able to turn his politician face on and off at will. While in the car, he even took a nap, presumably worn out from months of non-stop campaigning. But as soon as the occassion turned to movement and action, he had as much spirit as anyone I've ever seen. Truly, he was a physician. Only a physician can be accustomed to the kind of hours Dean keeps and the kind of work he does, while performing at his peak whenever it's needed. This, ladies and gents, is an extremely efficient human being.
--Dean was gracious but not warm.
Dean was genuinely nice when he first got in the car, introducing himself and thanking me for volunteering. He was being debriefed for most of the rides, but his interactions with his staff were, likewise, gracious, but matter-of-fact. This seems to be corroborated by stories in the press, of which there are many more now that Dean has taken flight.
--Dean was pink.
Not knowing when he'd be thrust in front of a camera, Dean had a centimeter of pink blush coating his leathery complexion. You could barely make out any wrinkles in the jowels of his square-lined face. My first thought was that he looked like he'd just gotten done with dress rehearsal for "Dancing at Lugnhasa," but I realized how necessary this paint job was once he ended up on stage and under harsh lights no fewer than a half-dozen times over the day.
--Dean was an amazing extemporaneous speaker.
Naturally he's practiced his many talking points til he's blue in the face, but he went the entire day without a single written word in front of him. (Try and get President Teleprompter to accomplish that.) I had the good fortune of seeing Dean give his final speech of the night, a 25-minute harangue/panegyric/sermon/inspirational that had the roof shaking. He covered every topic under the sun, and unlike most political speeches, this one was short on platitude and heavy on emotion. At the end, everyone left believing it was up to us to change the world; it felt almost like he'd given us a gift from onstage, passed it around the room and let us all share in a piece of the same token. I got that gentle tickle in my chest I get whenever I feel genuinely inspired.
--Dean never once mentioned his family, and they are being kept out of sight.
I noticed this a couple weeks ago, when the whole thing with dean's son blew up. His family has never been a visible part of his political life. It doesn't look like they're going to be. His wife wasn't travelling with him, even though it's only about a five-hour car ride to NYC.
--Lastly, Dean is an odd duck.
I almost didn't have the opportunity to drive Dean because he had insisted on riding the subway all day. This, in spite of 110 degree weather in the tunnel, unbearable humidity, and largely inconvenient routes for getting from place to place. People have suggested that he just wanted to be 'a man of the people,' you know, for political purposes. Everything I saw yesterday, however, contradicts that impression. Everyone on the campaign was actively trying to convince him to take a car because the weather looked stormy and it was obscenely hot. The distances he travelled by subway made him late for everything. Add to this Dean's relative and continuing annonymity, and he has no reason to go on the trains. No one recognized him; it had nothing to do with political gain. He just wanted to take the train. As a matter of fact, when I picked him up, he had been reluctantly convinced that the distance was too far to manage by train or by foot. The man wanted to walk in 90 degree weather from Madison and 35th Street all the way to Chelsea. Not only would this take far too much time, but it would be unnecessarily taxing on everyone involved.
This intensely personal view of Dean is quite at odds with the view that we tend to get from reading this blog or the campaign site or the other usual stories and coverage. And to an extent, Farhad Manjoo is correct in his recent Salon article, that Dean the real person is almost conspicously absent from the virtual side of his grassroots support (though the recent photo gallery of Dean does help rectify this a bit) Let's try and redress that (unfortunate but inescapable) imbalance - use the comments as an open thread to share your own personal experiences with having met Howard Dean in person.
Saturday, July 05, 2003
THANK YOU -- It Started Here as Much as Anywhere Else htp://www.deanforamerica.com
We just wanted to post a big Thank You to those who started this blog, those that were among its earliest visitors and commentors -- and to all those who visit here now and make the Dean campaign stronger everyday.
While the press and other campaigns try to figure out what has happened and what it all means -- we at Burlington HQ know that it was this blog and a few others that have from the very beginning sustained the campaign -- taught us so much -- and helped us grow to the 180,000 strong that we are today.
Thanks Dean Nation Team -- and we will be watching with everyone else on Tuesday as you hit $10,000.
Joe Trippi
campaign manager
Dean for America
While the press and other campaigns try to figure out what has happened and what it all means -- we at Burlington HQ know that it was this blog and a few others that have from the very beginning sustained the campaign -- taught us so much -- and helped us grow to the 180,000 strong that we are today.
Thanks Dean Nation Team -- and we will be watching with everyone else on Tuesday as you hit $10,000.
Joe Trippi
campaign manager
Dean for America
Short-Fused Populist, Breathing Fire at Bush http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A11710-2003Jul5¬Found=true
The Washington Post has been publishing what it calls the Contender Series in which it profiles each of the Democratic candidates running for president. This weekend, the paper printed the sixth profile of the series on Gov. Howard Dean, MD.
The article, as most have to date, recognizes the progress and growth the the Dean Campaign as experienced over the last several months.
It also sheds some light on the nick name "Ho-Ho."
And it's always refreshing when you see the media recognize the fact the the conventional liberal/conservative labels can't be fairly put on Howard Dean:
The story traces Dean's history and politics. It's worth the read. There will probably be a few tid bits of information in it that you haven't heard about the governor before.
He says he is running for president because he is too upset at the direction the country is heading not to do something about it. Howard Brush Dean III, 54, a Park Avenue-bred medical doctor, is the Democrats' angry Everyman, heading to Washington to make things right.
The article, as most have to date, recognizes the progress and growth the the Dean Campaign as experienced over the last several months.
After six months of full-time campaigning, he has gone from being the asterisk to the rising star of the nine Democrats vying for the nomination to challenge Bush. In aggressively confronting the administration, Dean has tapped the discontent, and even anger, among the party's ranks with the self-assurance of the doctor he once was and the combativeness of the governor he became. Now Dean, the shortish (about 5-foot-8) contender with the flushed face and the rolled-up sleeves, is the one with the buzz and the blogs.
It also sheds some light on the nick name "Ho-Ho."
"Sometimes Howard's tongue is faster than his brain," said Peter Freyne, a columnist for Seven Days, a weekly newspaper in Burlington, Vt. It doesn't help matters that Dean speaks off the cuff; out of hundreds of campaign speeches he has delivered, only four were written in advance. The rest were ad-libbed. "He's smart and energetic," Freyne said. "I've been calling him Ho-Ho for years, because he's like the little engine that could."
And it's always refreshing when you see the media recognize the fact the the conventional liberal/conservative labels can't be fairly put on Howard Dean:
"His being called a liberal is one of the great white lies of the campaign," said Tom Salmon, a fellow Democrat and governor of Vermont for two terms during the Nixon-Ford era. "He's a rock-solid fiscal conservative," Salmon said, "and a liberal on key social issues. But we're talking key issues."
The story traces Dean's history and politics. It's worth the read. There will probably be a few tid bits of information in it that you haven't heard about the governor before.
Rove is for Dean, and the DLC is against him, OK?
When you have the DLC and Rove saying the same thing, all kinds of red things start popping up in places. A top-of-the-pile rule is that when your opponent is going down what you know is a dead-end road, the last thing you do is show up to say so. You just let it be. Karl Rove is a professional liar. If you take anything he does at face value, you are being taken. As such, the press and Democratic establishment are regularly taken for rides into the long night by Rove:
What Rove fears is anything that upsets the current makeup of the electorate.
If the Democrats actually turnout their base to vote, that equation shifts to equal number of partisan voters. No one besides Dean, in the current field of Democrats, has the look of being able to energize the base to do this. Yet without it, as NDOL points out, Democrats have a slim chance at winning. If they can acheive that parity, then the Democrats have good odds in their favor in reaching the moderate voters:
I read that and see Howard “Social justice can’t occur without a balanced budget” Dean.
If you can believe that Karl Rove sees the netroots and grassroots activism that's happening in the Democratic Party for Howard Dean, and fathom him in thinking it's a great thing for Bush, he's fooled you again. What Rove is really doing is giving the DLC candidates and the media some fodder to try and take down Dean with, because Rove knows Dean is the strongest Democrat in the field-- which is why he's saying the exact opposite.
As a dozen (actually three dozen) people marched toward Dana Place wearing Dean for President T-shirts and carrying Dean for America signs, Rove told a companion, "Heh, heh, heh. Yeah, that's the one we want, How come no one is cheering for Dean? Come on, everybody! Go, Howard Dean!"
What Rove fears is anything that upsets the current makeup of the electorate.
For the past decade, the American electorate has been 30 percent conservative, 20 percent liberal, and 50 percent moderate...
If the Democrats actually turnout their base to vote, that equation shifts to equal number of partisan voters. No one besides Dean, in the current field of Democrats, has the look of being able to energize the base to do this. Yet without it, as NDOL points out, Democrats have a slim chance at winning. If they can acheive that parity, then the Democrats have good odds in their favor in reaching the moderate voters:
The Bush years have created a long list of unfinished business -- restoring an ethic of responsibility in Washington and in corporate America, asking more Americans to serve, rewarding work instead of wealth and privilege.
The way for Democrats to recapture the high ground and the White House is not to spend big, but to be genuinely bold. We need a president who, unlike Bush, won't give away money the country doesn't have. We need a president who doesn't think a new tone in Washington means putting his party's special interests first. Most of all, we need a president who won't just tell his friends what they want to hear, but will ask more of Americans and give them the chance to do better.
I read that and see Howard “Social justice can’t occur without a balanced budget” Dean.
If you can believe that Karl Rove sees the netroots and grassroots activism that's happening in the Democratic Party for Howard Dean, and fathom him in thinking it's a great thing for Bush, he's fooled you again. What Rove is really doing is giving the DLC candidates and the media some fodder to try and take down Dean with, because Rove knows Dean is the strongest Democrat in the field-- which is why he's saying the exact opposite.
Friday, July 04, 2003
The Dean Nation Rally Day http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1090&px=1179278
Next Tuesday, July 8th, is Rally Day on this Dean 2004 weblog. By the close of Tuesday, we want to meet our goal of $10,000 in Dean Nation contributions.
As of June 29th, we were at $1,800. Today, July 4th, we are at $3,300. So give now, or come back on Tuesday for the webathon. $10 or $20 dollars, whatever you want to contribute. Tell your friends in the other chat message board sites, blog it, get out the netroots.
We'll post regular updates on the top of the left column sidebar. Lets kick off the 3rd quarter here by showing some people-powered-Howard action and sending the red up to the top for Dean Nation!
As of June 29th, we were at $1,800. Today, July 4th, we are at $3,300. So give now, or come back on Tuesday for the webathon. $10 or $20 dollars, whatever you want to contribute. Tell your friends in the other chat message board sites, blog it, get out the netroots.
We'll post regular updates on the top of the left column sidebar. Lets kick off the 3rd quarter here by showing some people-powered-Howard action and sending the red up to the top for Dean Nation!
Dean on ESPN http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/quickie
We know Dean's hit the big time when he gets off-hand mention on ESPN. But what's especially great about it is the context:
that's right - the Ichiro of the Democratic Party is all about letting the "fans" have a real say. The Daily Quickie gets it! Wish we could say the same for the DLC...
How appropriate: a Fourth of July voting controversy. Japanese baseball fans took advantage of online MLB All-Star voting to surge Ichiro and Hideki Matsui to likely starting spots, when the teams are announced on Sunday (7 p.m., ESPN).
Don't be an "international-hater": Plenty of U.S. fans propped up undeserving domestic stars or hometown players when the All-Star Game was decided on paper ballots available only in the U.S.
The point is that letting fans have a real say -- about anything -- is one of the best sports traditions, a reflection of uniquely American democracy. Technology has just made it easier for everyone to take part (just ask Howard Dean, the Ichiro of the Democratic Party).
Don't like Japanese fans running the show? It's the same as when you don't like the politician running your town: Exercise your opportunity to vote, and get others to vote, too. That's the American way.
that's right - the Ichiro of the Democratic Party is all about letting the "fans" have a real say. The Daily Quickie gets it! Wish we could say the same for the DLC...
reclaiming liberty from the Liberals http://www.denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2003/07/Suicidebybureaucracy.shtml
Steven Den Beste has another essay I can agree with - about the absurdity of the EU's proposed regulations to force individual companies, not public agencies, to guarantee the "safety" of chemicals in industry.
The deeper problem is the same thing that afflicts the Right as well as the Left - taking your view too far on ideology rather than looking for a pragmatic synthesis (and willing to accept compromise). The necessary and counterbalancing principles that can safeguard our society from such dangerous folly are principled pragmatism and perfection is the enemy of the good, respectively.
I'm not a true conservative, so I'll leave the redefinition of conservatism to my equally principled and pragmatic friend Tacitus, who occupies the sole position in his niche as far as I am aware in the Blogsphere.
But I do identify myself as a liberal, and so it's reclaiming the word from the idealouges that I turn my attention towards. By liberal, I mean that I want liberty - to practice my faith, to pursue happiness, to make personal decisions and raise my family. I am liberal because to me liberty means removing obstacles to these pursuits and freedoms. And throughout history, the major barrier to the common man achieving them has been the interests of the Uncommon man - the powerful, the elite, the upper class, all those who have sought to concentrate economic, social, and political power in the ranks of the few.
The worst terrorists can do is kill me. I will live free and die free. But the worst that the Powers can do is make me live without freedom - because their goal is to bend my existence towards supporting theirs. Such is the foundation of their power. I prefer to live free or die.
To understand just how essential the struggle against these Powers has been, and how dearly bought our freedoms are, I strongly recommend Howard Zinn's book, A People's History of the United States. The foundations of American freedom were laid in 1776 on today's date, but they were not achieved until much later for blacks, women, American Indians, war resisters, poor laborers... The spirit of America is the struggle to put the written words of the Declaration of Independence into actual tangible reality for all those without the money or the influence to have mattered.
But Howard Zinn's history book is not a paean to socialism! It is simply a reminder using historical facts of what being Progressive means, of the goal of freedom and the details of teh struggle of the journey towards that goal.
For many Liberals today, however, that journey is equated with the goal. There is no recognition that the journey and the goal of the Progressives throughout history were to redress a balance, not serve as a complete system of philosophies on their own. The European Union is in many ways the ultimate manifestation of embracing the mechanisms of the Progressive movement while having completely lost sight of their rationale.
I mourn what Europe will become if it continues. And I know that there are many Liberals in America who see themselves as the intellectual heirs to the Progressive movement, but who do not realize the simple truth that by following the Liberal ideology they risk everything that the Progressives fought for. If the economy is destroyed as business moves away, there will be more poor and fewer rich - and the yoke of class tyranny will rise. If we abandon our sovereignity to higher and higher supra-national entities whose decisions are made in remote assemblies, then we again shackle ourselves to government without representation.
It's why I cannot support Dennis Kucinich - his vision of where America should be is fixed with Europe as an ideal. That way lies the destruction of our society. It is why I support Howard Dean, who has demonstrated the ability to find balance between principle and pragmatism. Dean is not a Liberal but he is a better guardian of Progressive ideals than any self-labeled Liberal candidate. The irony of his being labeled "unelectable" because of his supposed extreme liberalness is ironic - and even hilarious, as Republicans donate money to Dean thinking that they are torpedoing the Democratic party.
We must avoid the temptation of the extremes. Europe's Liberal implosion will take decades to play out - and we have to act in 2004 to avoid the mirror image process occurring here under extreme Conservative rule. This is why Dean matters. More than just his abiliity to raise funds from the Internet, even more than just his ability build the greatest grassroots suppport than any other candidate in history - it's his ideas that matter. And the process by which he arrives at them.
The deeper problem is the same thing that afflicts the Right as well as the Left - taking your view too far on ideology rather than looking for a pragmatic synthesis (and willing to accept compromise). The necessary and counterbalancing principles that can safeguard our society from such dangerous folly are principled pragmatism and perfection is the enemy of the good, respectively.
I'm not a true conservative, so I'll leave the redefinition of conservatism to my equally principled and pragmatic friend Tacitus, who occupies the sole position in his niche as far as I am aware in the Blogsphere.
But I do identify myself as a liberal, and so it's reclaiming the word from the idealouges that I turn my attention towards. By liberal, I mean that I want liberty - to practice my faith, to pursue happiness, to make personal decisions and raise my family. I am liberal because to me liberty means removing obstacles to these pursuits and freedoms. And throughout history, the major barrier to the common man achieving them has been the interests of the Uncommon man - the powerful, the elite, the upper class, all those who have sought to concentrate economic, social, and political power in the ranks of the few.
The worst terrorists can do is kill me. I will live free and die free. But the worst that the Powers can do is make me live without freedom - because their goal is to bend my existence towards supporting theirs. Such is the foundation of their power. I prefer to live free or die.
To understand just how essential the struggle against these Powers has been, and how dearly bought our freedoms are, I strongly recommend Howard Zinn's book, A People's History of the United States. The foundations of American freedom were laid in 1776 on today's date, but they were not achieved until much later for blacks, women, American Indians, war resisters, poor laborers... The spirit of America is the struggle to put the written words of the Declaration of Independence into actual tangible reality for all those without the money or the influence to have mattered.
But Howard Zinn's history book is not a paean to socialism! It is simply a reminder using historical facts of what being Progressive means, of the goal of freedom and the details of teh struggle of the journey towards that goal.
For many Liberals today, however, that journey is equated with the goal. There is no recognition that the journey and the goal of the Progressives throughout history were to redress a balance, not serve as a complete system of philosophies on their own. The European Union is in many ways the ultimate manifestation of embracing the mechanisms of the Progressive movement while having completely lost sight of their rationale.
I mourn what Europe will become if it continues. And I know that there are many Liberals in America who see themselves as the intellectual heirs to the Progressive movement, but who do not realize the simple truth that by following the Liberal ideology they risk everything that the Progressives fought for. If the economy is destroyed as business moves away, there will be more poor and fewer rich - and the yoke of class tyranny will rise. If we abandon our sovereignity to higher and higher supra-national entities whose decisions are made in remote assemblies, then we again shackle ourselves to government without representation.
It's why I cannot support Dennis Kucinich - his vision of where America should be is fixed with Europe as an ideal. That way lies the destruction of our society. It is why I support Howard Dean, who has demonstrated the ability to find balance between principle and pragmatism. Dean is not a Liberal but he is a better guardian of Progressive ideals than any self-labeled Liberal candidate. The irony of his being labeled "unelectable" because of his supposed extreme liberalness is ironic - and even hilarious, as Republicans donate money to Dean thinking that they are torpedoing the Democratic party.
We must avoid the temptation of the extremes. Europe's Liberal implosion will take decades to play out - and we have to act in 2004 to avoid the mirror image process occurring here under extreme Conservative rule. This is why Dean matters. More than just his abiliity to raise funds from the Internet, even more than just his ability build the greatest grassroots suppport than any other candidate in history - it's his ideas that matter. And the process by which he arrives at them.
open thread: Independence Day
let's reflect on our nation today - share your thoughts, your dreams, and your aspirations, your vision of a better America. And celebrate our fortunes to live in the greatest country in the history of the world.
Thursday, July 03, 2003
Statement by Governor Howard Dean on Bush’s Failed Economic Policies
From the Dean Campaign...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 3, 2003
Statement by Governor Howard Dean on Bush’s Failed Economic Policies
DAVENPORT, IA--While campaigning in Iowa today, Governor Howard Dean, M.D., released the following statement on today's economic: "Today's economic news provides further evidence that America's working families are under siege-by the Bush administration and by the worsening economy.
"New unemployment figures show that more Americans are unemployed than at any time since the end of the last Bush recession. For the first time since Herbert Hoover, there may be fewer Americans with jobs at the end of a Presidency than at the beginning.
"The Bush administration's economic policies give with one hand and take away with the other: While giving enormous tax cuts to those who need it least, they're taking away protections for workers who need it most.
"In the midst of an economic recession hitting hardest at America's working families, the President should not be trying to take away basic protections for workers that have been in place since Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.
"I call on the Bush administration to end its efforts to take away from eight million middle class workers the protections afforded by the Fair Labor Standards Act-a 40 hour work week and overtime pay.
"For the millions of Americans without a job, the millions who may lose overtime and worker protections, and the millions more who have stopped looking for work, today's headlines only confirm the reality they know all too well-George Bush's economic policies are failing America's working families."
-- 30 --
Washington Post's Cohen http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1907-2003Jul2.html
Today, Richard Cohen of the Washington Post published a column in which he accused Gov. Dean of changing his position on the death penalty for political benefit. The article quotes extensively from the governor's Meet the Press interview not too long ago.
I disagree with Gov. Dean on the death penalty. But I respect the fact that he stands by his position. Dean did not change his position for the 2004 presidential race. He changed his position in the early 90's. Cohen plays loose with the facts and in the process paints the governor as a fraud - one who portrays himself as a straight talker for political benefit, and then turns around and flip flops.
If the governor was really picking and choosing the positions he takes to appeal to the majority as Cohen asserts he does on the death penalty, would he really have signed civil union legislation? Further, would he continue to advocate for gay rights? Would he have opposed military action in Iraq? Would he attack a popular president? Of course not. We know better than that, and I'm fairly sure Cohen does too.
I would encourage you all to write letters to the editor and send them to the post. letters@washpost.com is the address to use.
The Washington Post is a very big paper in Washington, as I'm sure you are all familiar. Gov. Dean's credibility being called into question before the crowd down there is not a good thing. Please take a few moments to send The Post a note regarding the article which you can read in whole by following the link above.
UPDATE: The Dean Defence Forces address this topic online here.
I disagree with Gov. Dean on the death penalty. But I respect the fact that he stands by his position. Dean did not change his position for the 2004 presidential race. He changed his position in the early 90's. Cohen plays loose with the facts and in the process paints the governor as a fraud - one who portrays himself as a straight talker for political benefit, and then turns around and flip flops.
If the governor was really picking and choosing the positions he takes to appeal to the majority as Cohen asserts he does on the death penalty, would he really have signed civil union legislation? Further, would he continue to advocate for gay rights? Would he have opposed military action in Iraq? Would he attack a popular president? Of course not. We know better than that, and I'm fairly sure Cohen does too.
I would encourage you all to write letters to the editor and send them to the post. letters@washpost.com is the address to use.
The Washington Post is a very big paper in Washington, as I'm sure you are all familiar. Gov. Dean's credibility being called into question before the crowd down there is not a good thing. Please take a few moments to send The Post a note regarding the article which you can read in whole by following the link above.
UPDATE: The Dean Defence Forces address this topic online here.
Computerworld on Dean http://www.computerworld.com/developmenttopics/websitemgmt/story/0,10801,82771,00.html
Excerpt:
"He's really leveraging the medium, putting it in the hands of the people," said Carol Baroudi, an analyst at Baroudi Bloor in Arlington, Mass., and a co-author of The Internet for Dummies. "This medium is the most dynamic medium available. It's when I want it, it's there, and it keeps getting refreshed."
....
"What he's done is substantiated a community."
....
"To me, this is hopeful because it has a way of reaching out and touching people in a way that can't be controlled yet," Baroudi said. "[President] Bush has been putting all of his money into owning the media, and this is a medium he doesn't own."
Templates for Dean flyers and leaflets http://annatopia.com/pics/dean/flyers/
I've got a small collection of flyer and leaflet templates on my site. With Dean currently barnstorming the country, I've noticed lots of comments on the zonkboard from people requesting flyers. Feel free to grab what I've got. Most of the files are pdfs, so you can modify them to suit your local events. There are four brand-new flyers, each named Rally*. You'll notice that there are spanish-language flyers, and I'm waiting on a friend to email me the templates for flyers written in Mandarin Chinese.
And as a general shout out, if anyone has flyers in Korean or Vietnamese, please leave a comment. My town has a very large Korean and Vietnamese population that we'd like to reach out to.
Go get 'em!
update July 4th flyers can be download from the great people at DeanVolunteers.org. Grab the pdf by clicking here.
And as a general shout out, if anyone has flyers in Korean or Vietnamese, please leave a comment. My town has a very large Korean and Vietnamese population that we'd like to reach out to.
Go get 'em!
update July 4th flyers can be download from the great people at DeanVolunteers.org. Grab the pdf by clicking here.
Kos Cattle Call: Dean #1 http://www.dailykos.com/archives/003269.html#003269
Kos ranks Dean at the top:
read the full entry for his analysis of how (poorly) everyone else fared in the Week of Dean. Also, Kos has some fairly insightful critiques of just what the hell Joe Biden thinks he is supposed to be doing. Maybe Biden wants to challenge Joe Lieberman for last place - or has his eye on the Republican primary, I don't know. But he's making himself irrelevant.
Yup, he deserves top dog status. $7.5 million when everyone expected $3 million will do that to a candidate. Every other candidate is talking about Dean. The press is talking about Dean. Events in Iraq are supporting Dean's war stance, while the Supreme Court's ruling on Sodomy Laws vindicates his civil unions stance. Heck, even his much-maligned MTP appearance was a catalyst for his unbelievable fundraising numbers.
And word from the campaign is that money continued to pour into the campaign via the web even after the Q2 period ended (though obviously not at a clip of $600,000/day!).
Of course, now every other candidate is training his guns on Dean. One interesting advantage Dean has -- the GOP thinks (erroneously) that Dean would be the easiest candidate to face in the general. So expect the Mighty Wurlitzer to take a pass on Dean for the moment.
read the full entry for his analysis of how (poorly) everyone else fared in the Week of Dean. Also, Kos has some fairly insightful critiques of just what the hell Joe Biden thinks he is supposed to be doing. Maybe Biden wants to challenge Joe Lieberman for last place - or has his eye on the Republican primary, I don't know. But he's making himself irrelevant.
Dean Defense Forces: Rebuilding and Moving Forward http://www.deandefense.org/
Dean Defense Forces will be slowly evolving over the next month into a much stronger outfit. Check out our blog at http://www.deandefense.org/ to find out how to respond to questions about Dean.
Or join our listserv by emailing us at ddf -at- deandefense.org, subject line 'SUBSCRIBE' to get Action Alerts making sure the voice of Dean supporters is heard.
Or join our listserv by emailing us at ddf -at- deandefense.org, subject line 'SUBSCRIBE' to get Action Alerts making sure the voice of Dean supporters is heard.
Daily Howler on Dean's media coverage http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh070303.shtml
Bob Somerby's Daily Howler website is a fantastic resource for cutting through the hypocrisy of the Pundit Class. His piece on the way Dean has been treated in the media is a great example of how he cuts right through the morass. To make his point, Somerby draws a distinction using Cohen's piece on Dean's death penalty stance as an example of how coverage should be:
Meanwhile, Cohen presents an original view! You haven’t seen thirty-five other pundits say precisely the same thing this week. By the standards of contemporary punditry, therefore, this is a startling piece of work. You may or may not agree with Cohen. But if this were the way our elections were covered, THE DAILY HOWLER wouldn’t exist. Neither, of course, would the Bush White House.
Because this is certainly not the way Campaign 2000 was covered. As ombudsman E. R. Shipp wrote in the Washington Post, the press corps essentially “typecast” that race, creating a mindless, hackneyed “drama” in which each candidate was “assigned a role” (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 3/7/00). Once the various roles were assigned, facts were persistently rearranged to fit the corps’ preferred scripts. “As a result of this approach,” Shipp wrote, “some candidates are whipping boys; others seem to get a free pass.” Sadly, that is how the press covered Campaign 2000. And, to judge by the coverage of Dean’s recent session, they’re ready to do it again.
Familiar figures are hard at work, banging out pleasing new scripts. For example, the morning after Dean’s appearance, Katharine Seelye got busy spinning in the New York Times. According to Seelye, Dean had “equivocated,” “sidestepped” and “guessed” his way through the Meet the Press performance. Most strikingly, Seelye pretended that Dean had “sidestepped” issues where he actually gave quite detailed replies. But readers would have no way to know that. Readers weren’t told what Dean had said, only what Seelye thought of his answers. This was “reporting” at its worst—the same type of crabbed “reporting” Seelye presented throughout Campaign 2000. In August 2000, the Financial Times nailed the Times spinner, saying she was “hostile to the [Gore] campaign, doing little to hide [her] contempt for the candidate.” It’s bad, bad news for American politics if Seelye is out there again.
critique of Dean's death penalty stance http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1907-2003Jul2.html
Richard Cohen finds fault with Dean's infamous MTP appearance - but does so in a substantive way, without focusing on the inane issue of whether 7% error in the number of troops is "egregiously wrong". Cohen writes:
It's a pleasure to see someone disagree with Dean for actual reasons, not foolish ones. Of course, his sound motivations doesn't mean he is wrong - it's obvious that Dean is not saying that we should execute people as a preventive measure even when they haven't committed a execution-worthy crime. However, Dean definitely did a poor job of making that distinction in the interview.
Dean once opposed the death penalty, citing "two reasons. One you might have the wrong guy, and, two, the state is like a parent" -- it ought to set an example. He also said, "I truly don't believe it's a deterrent." That's three reasons, but never mind. Then, on account of two horrific crimes, Dean's thinking underwent an evolution. "I came to realize because of the Polly Klaas case and because of similar other cases that sometimes the state inadvertently has a hand in killing innocent people because they let people out [of prison] who ought never to have been let out."
Granted, that was the case with Klaas, the 12-year-old California girl who was abducted, sexually attacked and murdered back in 1993. Her killer, Richard Allen Davis, had a long criminal record and was out on parole when he committed the crime. But none of his previous crimes were for death penalty offenses. Dean could argue that Davis should never have been free and deserved to die because of what he did to Klaas, but not for anything he did before. Davis didn't slip the noose. There was no noose for what he had done.
... Going on about felons getting out of jail and then killing, say, "15- and 12-year-old girls," he added, "That is every bit as heinous as putting to death someone who didn't commit the crime."
In all my years writing about the death penalty, I have never heard any politician admit that he would countenance the death of an innocent person in order to ensure that the guilty die. Dean is maybe the first to acknowledge the unacknowledgeable. For that, I suppose, he ought to be congratulated. But by equating the murder of one individual by another with the murder of an innocent person by the government -- the unpreventable with the preventable -- he has casually trashed several hundred years of legal safeguards.
It's a pleasure to see someone disagree with Dean for actual reasons, not foolish ones. Of course, his sound motivations doesn't mean he is wrong - it's obvious that Dean is not saying that we should execute people as a preventive measure even when they haven't committed a execution-worthy crime. However, Dean definitely did a poor job of making that distinction in the interview.
NPR: Dean's online success http://publicbroadcasting.net/wnyc/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=516983
Listen to NPR's (from VT Public Radio) report on the Dean Campaign and online fundraising. You can also read the story here.
"Bring them on" Fallout http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=1&u=/nm/20030703/ts_nm/iraq_bush_dc
Reuters is running this story on the fallout from President Bush's poor choice of words in terms of Iraqi militants who are attacking our troops overseas. The article opens the section on the Democratic response with a statement from Gov. Howard Dean.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush has used colorful language before to great effect, but he is taking some heat for his "Bring them on" challenge to Iraqi militants attacking U.S. forces, who he said were tough enough to take it.
Even some aides winced at Bush's words, which Democrats pounced on as an invitation to Iraqi militants to fire on U.S. troops already the subject of hit-and-run attacks by Saddam Hussein loyalists and others.
"These men and women are risking their lives every day, and the president who sent them on this mission showed tremendous insensitivity to the dangers they face," said Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean.
All Iowa, all the time! http://mensnewsdaily.com/archive/newswire/nw03/talonnews/0703/newswire-tn-070303e.htm
There's lots of interesting coverage of the Adopt-An-Iowan strategy running across the nation today. First, the article I've linked above gives a brief description of where the campaign stands, then goes on to briefly explain the AAI program. It's a good briefer for anyone who's new to this grassroots effort. There's also a nice quote from Trippi, who explains how this strategy was formed:
With the announcement of this strategy comes more press coverage of local meetups. Here is coverage from University Place, WA, which features some choice quotes from Dean supporters. I love the sampling of quotes because they are varied and demonstrate that Dean's support isn't isolated to the "activist elite" or "ultra left":
Along those lines, the Milwaukee meetup group also gets some coverage. This is a great article which focuses on the enthusiasm actions like the AAI programs generate among supporters, including those who have never been involved in a grassroots campaign.
Now let's turn our eyes on the Iowa press. First, there's this brief article describing the strategy which is running statewide in Iowa. The Des Moines Register also covers Dean today. The article is pretty fair and balanced (heh heh) and features a few quotes from Iowans who are taking a close look at Dean:
Seems like these folks will be very receptive to the positive, empowering message of the Dean campaign.
And finally, from the Daily Iowan, there's an article (registration required) about Dean's meetup visit last night in Iowa. According to the article, Dean touched upon some of his key platforms, such as balancing the budget, health care for all Americans, foreign policy, and a new idea called "Dean Corps" that's designed to renew our sense of community and responsibility to each other.
What I loved most about this article was the following quote from Cedar Rapids resident Libby Slappey:
You got it, Libby! What most pundits still fail to realise is that this grassroots effort is not being sprearheaded by "activist elites", but rather, it is being spurred by the efforts of everyday Americans across the country. Perhaps this is why most of them still don't seem to grasp why we're growing exponentially. For lack of a better way to describe it, they just don't get it. But you know what? WE GET IT. TRIPPI GETS IT. And slowly but surely, our fellow Americans are beginning to GET IT.
I'd love to hear from the readers of Dean Nation who attended meetups and wrote letters. What did you emphasise? How far did you stray from the guidelines? Let's give the media (cause you know they're reading this) something to talk about in their follow ups, folks. Keep hammering the message home, and eventually, they too will GET IT.
Dean campaigners expect the individual approach to have big returns. "This program is the result of our supporters asking us to include them -- to give them the power directly to influence the important presidential caucuses," Campaign Manager Joe Trippi said. "This is grassroots politics as it should be. The only special interests at play here are the concerns of 47,000 ordinary Americans."
With the announcement of this strategy comes more press coverage of local meetups. Here is coverage from University Place, WA, which features some choice quotes from Dean supporters. I love the sampling of quotes because they are varied and demonstrate that Dean's support isn't isolated to the "activist elite" or "ultra left":
“Because I have two family members sitting in Iraq right now.”
“He’s against the weird craziness Bush is doing – Dean isn’t against war, I’m retired military, and I know Dean is not going to declare war for the wrong reasons.”
“I like Howard Dean because he follows in a long tradition of very independent Vermonters. Vermont happens to have the only independent Senator. Howard Dean falls in that long tradition and so I am for him.”
“I like Dean because he is a fiscal conservative and has the ability to repair some of the damage that Shrub has done to us. Bush-like is not going to beat Bush in this election; we need a true Democrat.”
“I like his stand on equal rights for all people, regardless of their sexual orientation.”
“His Healthy Start program which reduced child abuse by 43 percent.”
“One of the reasons I support him is that when I listen to him, the positions he takes are his and not the product of coaching.”
Along those lines, the Milwaukee meetup group also gets some coverage. This is a great article which focuses on the enthusiasm actions like the AAI programs generate among supporters, including those who have never been involved in a grassroots campaign.
Now let's turn our eyes on the Iowa press. First, there's this brief article describing the strategy which is running statewide in Iowa. The Des Moines Register also covers Dean today. The article is pretty fair and balanced (heh heh) and features a few quotes from Iowans who are taking a close look at Dean:
Martha Avelleyra Powers, a Dubuque elementary school music teacher, saw the ads and attended the library event to see whether Dean was as "genuine" as he appeared to be in the spot. "I found him articulate and forthright," she said afterward. "He doesn't appear afraid to take on the Bush administration."
Seems like these folks will be very receptive to the positive, empowering message of the Dean campaign.
And finally, from the Daily Iowan, there's an article (registration required) about Dean's meetup visit last night in Iowa. According to the article, Dean touched upon some of his key platforms, such as balancing the budget, health care for all Americans, foreign policy, and a new idea called "Dean Corps" that's designed to renew our sense of community and responsibility to each other.
What I loved most about this article was the following quote from Cedar Rapids resident Libby Slappey:
"The numbers say Gephardt, but I'm hard-pressed to say that," she said. "When you look around the room, do you see three-piece-suit politicians? No, you see the face of America."
You got it, Libby! What most pundits still fail to realise is that this grassroots effort is not being sprearheaded by "activist elites", but rather, it is being spurred by the efforts of everyday Americans across the country. Perhaps this is why most of them still don't seem to grasp why we're growing exponentially. For lack of a better way to describe it, they just don't get it. But you know what? WE GET IT. TRIPPI GETS IT. And slowly but surely, our fellow Americans are beginning to GET IT.
I'd love to hear from the readers of Dean Nation who attended meetups and wrote letters. What did you emphasise? How far did you stray from the guidelines? Let's give the media (cause you know they're reading this) something to talk about in their follow ups, folks. Keep hammering the message home, and eventually, they too will GET IT.
candidacy takes 'Wing' http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/newyork/columnists/ny-vpmcc033356524jul03,0,816464.column?coll=ny-ny-columnists
With the influx of media attention, the inevitable West Wing comparisons are springing up again - but this one from Newsday is particularly insightful:
Dean-Bartlett in '04!
The most striking thing about Bartlet and his "West Wing" crew, however, is that they are principled. Sure, they get worked up over what to do about a presidential aide who's dating a call girl. But what they agonize over most is how not to compromise their principles for the sake of politics. As Toby, the angst-ridden director of communications would say, "We have to remember why we're here. And if we don't use this office to do some of the things we came here for, then what's the point?"
Democrats have forgotten this, which is why it's refreshing to have Dean remind us that he belongs to "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party." In a profile that appeared on the Web site "TheStranger.Com," the words used to describe him apply equally to President Bartlet: "a muscular Democrat"; "pugnacious and a little prickly"; "doesn't back down from a fight"; "willing to play political hardball if that's what it takes to get what he wants."
...
Like Jed Bartlet, Howard Dean is complicated and pragmatic but principled. And with a Republican administration filled with cowboys, zealots and religious fundamentalists lacking in empathy, Dean is appealing.
"One of the things I like about Bartlet is that he combines the better qualities of four or five presidents - JFK's hair, Reagan's affability, Truman's directness, Carter and Clinton's genteel intelligence," says my TV-watching colleague. I'd like to have Bartlet as president. But if I can't, why not a Democrat who's not afraid to be a Democrat and who has some idea of what that means? Howard Dean gets more interesting by the day.
Dean-Bartlett in '04!
Salon profiles the Dean blogosphere http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/07/03/dean_web/index.html
Hey, we're famous! The article tells the stories of the birth of Dean Nation, Dean Meetup, and blogforamerica.com (or rather its predecessor). It also quotes many names that will be familiar. Get the Salon Day Pass and read the whole thing. Here's just one piece:
But political experts don't seem to know what to make of Dean's Internet strategy. Many of them have discounted it. Donna Brazile, Al Gore's 2000 campaign manager, told the Washington Times on Wednesday that she was "skeptical" of Dean's boasts about what the Internet could do. And William Mayer, a political scientist at Northeastern University, says that he's "not convinced that a whole lot of his success is attributable to the Web." The skepticism is understandable: When you slip into Dean's online world, with its all-Howard-all-the-time ethos, one can easily mistake the obsessive love of a certain activist few for something larger and more momentous. But it is easy to wonder how real it all is.
But if you ask that, says Karl Frisch, a professional political consultant and a full-time Dean blogger, you have to also ask whether the alternative political reality -- that of the "Washington media establishment" -- is any more "real." "How many times have they been wrong?" Frisch asks.
Thursday's Deansbury http://images.ucomics.com/comics/db/2003/db030703.gif
Wednesday, July 02, 2003
The good part of a Deanophobic NY Times article http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/03/politics/campaigns/03DONA.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=
Mr. Trippi, Dr. Dean's campaign manager, told of the remarks [of other campaigns], said he was not worried, saying Dr. Dean had built up a strong base of passionate support among Democrats who had not been involved in this kind of primary campaign before.
"Bring it on," he said. "They don't understand this kind of campaign."
"Part of the reason why some people have been kept off balance by us is because they think they're like us, and they're not," he said. "We're different."
open thread: meetup reports http://dean2004.meetup.com
New Iowa Poll Numbers! http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-iowa-poll,0,4964934.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines
Great news to report at tonight's meetups!
Gephart 21%
Dean 20%
Kerry 18%
Lieberman 11%
everyone else = single digits
That's means that according to this research firm we are statistically tied for the lead! *happy dance*
Gephart 21%
Dean 20%
Kerry 18%
Lieberman 11%
everyone else = single digits
The poll of 611 caucus voters was conducted June 16-24, before the recent fund-raising numbers, and had an error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points. The subgroup of 328 who participated in the 2000 caucuses had an error margin of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
That's means that according to this research firm we are statistically tied for the lead! *happy dance*
Gov. Dean Criticizes Bush for ‘reckless rehetoric’ toward Iraqi militants http://www.deanforamerica.com
From the Dean Campaign...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 2, 2003
HOWARD DEAN CRITICIZES BUSH FOR ‘RECKLESS RHETORIC’ TOWARD IRAQI MILITANTS
IOWA CITY, IA—“Today, President Bush provoked Iraqi militants targeting our soldiers in Iraq, saying ‘Bring them on.’ This was incredibly reckless rhetoric.
“These men and women are risking their lives every day, and the President who sent them on this mission showed tremendous insensitivity to the dangers they face. This is the wrong message to send to our troops in the field and their families who wish them a safe return. President Bush should focus on encouraging the keeping of the peace, since that is now our mission.”
###
Bush: "Bring them on" http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/02/politics/02CND-PREX.html
If there was any shred of doubt that to George W. Bush, being leader of the free world is just a game, where the lives of American servicemen are worth as much as plastic toy soldiers in the sandbox, then let today's quote cleanse that doubt forever:
Coupled with the GOP-led assault on a living wage for soldiers, how can anyone credibly argue that the GOP is pro-military?
One of the conventional wisdoms that we supporters of Dean have been striving to refute is that Dean is weak on defense, as are all Democrats. The reason this idea has such currency (even among hack sellout comedians) is actually because of the mistaken perception that the GOP is friendly to military and security interests, rather than any specific policy statement by the Democratic opposition. In order to make our case, we have to therefore target that perception of a strong-defense GOP.
Dean can take the lead if he condemns Bush's latest admission of his low regard for the safety of our soldiers. But he has to follow through with a detailed look at the pattern of abuse doled out to our servicemen by GOP legislators. If Dean can use his newfound media access to push this issue hard, it can really go a long way towards removing the "defense offense" in 2004.
President Bush vowed today to pursue and prosecute Iraqis who attack American troops, saying: "Bring `em on! We've got the force necessary to deal with the security situation."
....
His comments came as still another serviceman died today as the result of wounds received in an ambush on Tuesday. That brings to at least 25 the number of Americans who have died in combat since Mr. Bush declared an end to major hostilities in Iraq in May.
"We're not going to get nervous," Mr. Bush told reporters.
Coupled with the GOP-led assault on a living wage for soldiers, how can anyone credibly argue that the GOP is pro-military?
One of the conventional wisdoms that we supporters of Dean have been striving to refute is that Dean is weak on defense, as are all Democrats. The reason this idea has such currency (even among hack sellout comedians) is actually because of the mistaken perception that the GOP is friendly to military and security interests, rather than any specific policy statement by the Democratic opposition. In order to make our case, we have to therefore target that perception of a strong-defense GOP.
Dean can take the lead if he condemns Bush's latest admission of his low regard for the safety of our soldiers. But he has to follow through with a detailed look at the pattern of abuse doled out to our servicemen by GOP legislators. If Dean can use his newfound media access to push this issue hard, it can really go a long way towards removing the "defense offense" in 2004.
Dean Press Release on Crisis in Liberia http://mattbailey.blogspot.com/politics/2003_06_29_deanarchive.html#105717630481402254
Below is a portion of a press release from the Dean Campaign on the crisis in Liberia. The full release is found via the link above.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 2, 2003
STATEMENT FROM HOWARD DEAN ON WORSENING CRISIS IN LIBERIA
Dubuque, IA – “Today, the world community looks to the United States for leadership in addressing the worsening crisis in Liberia. One week ago, I called for a foreign policy under which our nation reclaimed its role as the inspirational leader of the world and the beacon of hope and justice in the interests of humankind. I said that American military force should be committed only when American security interests are imminently threatened or in the face of imminent humanitarian catastrophe. And I argued that, in such cases, we must always strive to act multilaterally not unilaterally.
“Currently, we face a challenge to our long-term security interests in West Africa, and the world faces an emerging humanitarian crisis. The situation in Liberia is unfolding in the context of increasing instability throughout West Africa - Sierra Leone is still going through a difficult transition, and more recently Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) collapsed into conflict. We can ill afford a swath of instability stretching across that region. There are also credible reports that terrorist networks, including Al Qaeda, have begun to exploit that instability by, for example, trading in illegal "conflict diamonds" to finance their operations.
Dean's a doctor on the campaign trail http://www.benningtonbanner.com/Stories/0,1413,104~8676~1487790,00.html
I wrote on the recent trip to NH with New York for Dean earlier in the week, and mentioned how my partner in going door to door was the victim of a dog bite. The Associated Press decided to write about it as well:
Having a doctor on the presidential campaign trail can come in handy.
In this case, it's the candidate, Howard Dean. He assisted a campaign volunteer who was bit on her rear-end by a dog Sunday while going door-to-door in Nashua, campaign spokeswoman Dorie Clark said.
Later that day, Dean was meeting with the volunteers to thank them for their day's efforts in Manchester when the volunteer asked him about her wound.
Mother Jones "gets it" http://www.motherjones.com/news/dailymojo/2003/27/we_473_02.html#one
Thank you, Mother Jones, for this succinct and accurate wrap-up of the Dean phenomena!
This article summarises what's been said about Dean in the press and attempts to crack a few of those stereotypes (you know, the McGovern thing, the ultra-left thing, etc).
Yep, they compared him to the Big Dog.
Go read the rest of the article. It contains several links to articles that we all should read.
Dean's early success is due in no small part to the Internet. He has tapped its power in a way that no other candidate ever has, launching a surging grassroots organizing effort through his official site, and raking in donations online. Along the way, Dean has inspired excitement in voters -- largely due to his willingness to take on the White House aggressively. As Time's Joe Klein notes, " ... [T]he former Governor of Vermont has emerged as the one Democrat who can draw a crowd."
This article summarises what's been said about Dean in the press and attempts to crack a few of those stereotypes (you know, the McGovern thing, the ultra-left thing, etc).
Dean's politics, though, bear little resemblance to those of the Democrats' most notorious losers. In fact, they look more like one of its most enduringly popular (albeit divisive) figures: Bill Clinton. While Dean is pro-choice and supports same-sex civil unions, he is pro-gun, pro-death penalty, and as hawkish on Iran and Israel as many of the neoconservatives running the White House today.
Yep, they compared him to the Big Dog.
Go read the rest of the article. It contains several links to articles that we all should read.
Dean-esbury week continues http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/
Trippi: "The old game is gone. It's new politics time, baby!" http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/TheNote/TheNote.html
As quoted in the Note from a USA Today article. The Note today is almost all Dean. Too much to post here--check it out.
Latest Meetup Figure http://www.demog.berkeley.edu/~gabriel/dean2004blog/worldwide_meetup_figure.pdf
53177 at 10:30 AM EST. How soon until we hit 55K? Signup for tonight's Meetup!
Moving on from MoveOn http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8247
An article in Tom Paine.com says that MoveOn.org's future may be rough, claiming that Dean and Kucinich's showing in the online primary are a flaw of the organization's susceptibility to the radical left:
I think that the "concern" of the Beltway types is highly opportunistic. The political establishment would love to see Dean's campaign stumble, because it has consistently defied the expectation that a candidate's success can only be vetted by the punditocracy rather than the grassroots. The attempt to lump Dean and Kucinich together under the same tired "electability" label is dishonest.
Compare Dean and Kucinich on the issues. We can see from this handy table drawn up by a Kucinich supporter that Dean's positions are nowhere near as radical as Kucinich's. If anything, Dean has been drawing rhetorical ammunition that rightfully should be targeted at Kucinich, because those doing the firing (*cough* DLC *cough*) see an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.
What has Washington's liberal-establishment types worried is that the Dean and Kucinich MoveOn supporters seem not to function on the basis of orthodox political criteria. If, as expected, MoveOn holds a run-off to formally endorse a presidential candidate, the winner could rake in some $10 million in new money, which would be doubled by federal matching funds. That's a war chest to contend with by anyone's reckoning -- and to see it deployed on behalf of a candidate whom the Beltway libs are convinced hasn't a prayer of beating Bush has them fretting (negative coat-tails from a Democratic nominee would further erode the already- slim chance the Democrats have of forestalling new House and Senate losses to the GOP next November).
Moreover, there's much concern by Beltway types that if the Democrats nominate a candidate unacceptable to the MoveOn tribe they could bolt the party and support a third alternative to Dubya. A lot of poor and working-class and black and Latino Americans who are key parts of the Democratic base don't live on the Internet, and so there's a middle-to-upper-middle-class tilt to the MoveOn rank and file, as Gephardt discovered to his discomfiture. That's why some worry, like the liberal writer Bruce Shapiro, that MoveOn "will further promote the kinds of fake reformist 'insurgent' campaigns which leave nothing behind -- John Anderson rather than Jesse Jackson."
The half-dozen people who run MoveOn have enormous power as the site's administrators. Although they've said quite frequently -- as their man Exley did on C-Span last weekend -- that their hope is to unite around the eventual Democratic nominee to defeat Bush, what happens if MoveOn's members start demanding accountability and democracy in the running of the organization? A grassroots MoveOn revolt and party bolt against an eventual nominee named, say, Lieberman or Edwards is not out of the question.
I think that the "concern" of the Beltway types is highly opportunistic. The political establishment would love to see Dean's campaign stumble, because it has consistently defied the expectation that a candidate's success can only be vetted by the punditocracy rather than the grassroots. The attempt to lump Dean and Kucinich together under the same tired "electability" label is dishonest.
Compare Dean and Kucinich on the issues. We can see from this handy table drawn up by a Kucinich supporter that Dean's positions are nowhere near as radical as Kucinich's. If anything, Dean has been drawing rhetorical ammunition that rightfully should be targeted at Kucinich, because those doing the firing (*cough* DLC *cough*) see an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.
audio: Dean on NPR's Morning Edition http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/democrats2004/dean.html
NPR had an interview with Dean on the Morning Edition program today. The broadcast version was an abridged interview, though the longer version is also available. Dean handled himself superbly in the wake of relatively predictable questions from Bob Edwards that addressed different stereotypes about his positions - Dean clarified where he stood, and made a strong principled case in each one.
I thought that his response on the Health Care question was particularly comprehensive and effective:
However, I thought he fell somewhat short on details when asked, what he would do different in Iraq. Dean is absolutely on-target that the biggest obstacle to winning the peace is the lack of manpower, and that lack is the direct result of the schoolyard-petulance foreign policy of the Bush Administration:
Given the perception of the Democrats as weak on defense, the response to this question needs to be more detailed than "get more troops" - for example, does Dean support the canceling of all local elections? There needs to be a more in-depth discussion about how we reconstruct Iraq, given how essential the outcome is to our own security.
(full transcript also available)
Dean on NPR Morning Edition, 7/2/03
I thought that his response on the Health Care question was particularly comprehensive and effective:
EDWARDS: Why would your plan to provide near-universal health care coverage fare any better than Hillary Clinton's plan of several years ago?
DEAN: Because we have a plan that actually works. I tried a comprehensive heath care plan the year before Bill Clinton became president. One of the advantages I have is that I was governor for so long in Vermont that I actually served through both Bush recessions, not one of them. And during that first recession we had a comprehensive health care plan before our legislature which failed. But I was very persistent. What we got out of it was health care for everybody under 18. In our state, everyone under 18 has health insurance and everybody who makes less than about $17,000 a year is guaranteed health insurance whether they qualify for Medicaid or not. On that building block, I build my national plan. We use something called the Family Insurance Plan, which is modeled after what we did in Vermont to cover everybody under 25 and everybody under about $30,000, $33,000 a year income. Above that, if you have no insurance you can buy into this same plan your congressman has for about 7 and a half percent of your adjusted gross income. If you don't want to have the health insurance you don't have to, but we sign everybody up, and you can opt out. So it covers everybody, it costs less than half of the Bush tax cuts, and it brings America into the same civilized category as every other industrial country in the world
However, I thought he fell somewhat short on details when asked, what he would do different in Iraq. Dean is absolutely on-target that the biggest obstacle to winning the peace is the lack of manpower, and that lack is the direct result of the schoolyard-petulance foreign policy of the Bush Administration:
EDWARDS: What would you be doing differently in post-war Iraq?
DEAN: Now that we're there, we can't leave. We cannot allow chaos or a fundamentalist regime in Iraq because it could be fertile ground for al Qaeda. First thing I would do is bring in 40,000 to 50,000 other troops. I'd look to Arab countries, Islamic allies, countries, Islamic countries who are our allies, NATO, the United Nations. Gen. Shinseki, before we went in, said that we did not have enough troops. The administration ignored that advice. It turned out to be true. It was a good thing that Shinseki made us give us that advice. It was a bad thing the administration ignored their own military expertise. We need those troops, we're not keeping order in Iraq. And it seems to me that what we need is some expertise from people who know how to police countries that are in some chaos and who understand how to administer and build the institutions of democracy. We're gonna be there for a long time in Iraq. We can't leave, because if we do before there's established democracy, many worse things will happen to both the Iraqi people and to America if the terrorists move in.
Given the perception of the Democrats as weak on defense, the response to this question needs to be more detailed than "get more troops" - for example, does Dean support the canceling of all local elections? There needs to be a more in-depth discussion about how we reconstruct Iraq, given how essential the outcome is to our own security.
(full transcript also available)
Tuesday, July 01, 2003
American Prospect: message is king http://www.prospect.org/webfeatures/2003/07/franke-ruta-g-07-01.html
An article appeared in the American Prospect detailing the recent fundraising success of the Dean campaign. I found it interesting for two reasons:
1) It focused on the fact that Dean's message matters. (For more selections and my analysis, follow the link above.)
2) It quoted this blog:
Pfb, you're famous!
UPDATE (Aziz): Matt has more analysis of the Prospect article on his weblog, Grassroots for Dean)
1) It focused on the fact that Dean's message matters. (For more selections and my analysis, follow the link above.)
2) It quoted this blog:
"All the analysts say we are donating based on anger," posted "pfb" on the Zonk Board, a thread forum on the unofficial Howard Dean blog that allows users to link to and share news articles within their comment posts. "That's makes me angry, but I won't turn green (Hulk pun not Nader) over it. I beg to differ their opinion and say we donate based on HOPE of an investment toward a better future."
Pfb, you're famous!
UPDATE (Aziz): Matt has more analysis of the Prospect article on his weblog, Grassroots for Dean)
Governor Dean Raises $7.5 million in Second Quarter http://mattbailey.blogspot.com/politics/2003_06_29_deanarchive.html#105708694760973512
Below is a selection of the press release issued by the Dean Campaign on the total for the second quarter. It's a bit lengthy, so follow the link above for the whole statement:
Follow link above to continue...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JULY 1, 2003
Governor Dean Raises $7.5 million in Second Quarter Small donations to Dean campaign lead to big numbers
BURLINGTON—In the second quarter ending yesterday, 59,000 Americans donated an average of $112 to help boost Governor Howard Dean to the top of the second quarter fundraisers with a total of $7.5 million raised.
Unlike the small, exclusive multi-million dollar fundraisers held in major cities by President Bush over the last week, the Dean campaign saw its numbers surge based on small donations over the Internet—with nearly $3 million raised online in the last week alone. In the second quarter, 45,030 people donated online a total of 51,474 times. The average donation online was $74.14.
“When we said last week during the governor’s announcement that ‘You have the power,’ we had no idea just how much power our supporters had,” said Campaign Manager Joe Trippi. “They are people participating directly in their democracy, and doing whatever they can to help us take our country back—giving $20, $30, or $50. This is People-Powered Howard.”
Second quarter fundraising by the numbers:
Follow link above to continue...
LA Times: Momentum Stirs Opponents’ Fears http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-dems1jul01,1,3171012.story?coll=la-home-headlines
This is a great reference article on yesterday's phenomenon - great press, with all the juicy quotes by Joe Trippi tyhat have been extensively re-quoted elsewhere in the media. Excerpts:
"People watched [Dean's appearance on 'Meet the Press'] and said, 'Hey, there's a guy who admits he doesn't know the answer. You never see anybody in Washington do that,' " said Joe Trippi, Dean's campaign manager.
But as the appearance also demonstrated, Dean has managed to avoid much of the critical analysis that attaches itself to a candidate thought to have a serious chance of winning the nomination.
"I think he's been treated as a novelty up to this point," said Jim Jordan, Kerry's campaign manager. "I don't think a lot of people have bothered to closely scrutinize him the way other candidates have been scrutinized. I suspect now that's going to change."
The Dean campaign, for its part, pushed ahead with its next unorthodox move — an Internet-based effort to gather tens of thousands of backers across the country Wednesday and have each pen a personal note asking a Democrat in Iowa to support Dean.
"We've been telling peoplefor months now what we'redoing" with grass-roots organizing and Internet fund-raising, Trippi said. "They would all roll their eyes. But I don't think they're rolling their eyes at us anymore."
if he could be turned... http://www.andrewsullivan.com/index.php?dish_inc=archives/2003_06_29_dish_archive.html#1057039003267
...Andrew Sullivan would be a powerful ally. Sullivan has been posting a lot about Dean recently, and today's post hints at just how receptive a gay fiscal conservative former editor of TNR can be to Howard Dean's message:
(emphasis mine). I think we need to (politely) educate Andrew Sullivan about Dean's foreign policy. The benefit of luring him into the fold could be significant indeed.
DEAN GAINS MOMENTUM: His financial prowess is impressive - but then we knew that. Maybe he'll begin to mellow a little in public debate, which would be a real advance for his campaign, and stop winging the facts in public. The reason he's doing well though, I think, is partly the awfully insipid nature of his competition (can anyone imagine John Kerry as president?) and partly his willingness to be at least occasionally a full-throated partisan. That may hurt him later but it's giving him electricity now among the base. If I were him, I'd make fiscal responsibility my main platform - as long as it contains some serious proposals for real spending restraint. This is Bush's weak point: the damage he has done and continues to do to this country's fiscal health. Bush's answer to this - that deficits don't matter - doesn't persuade any but a handful of true believers. Right now, his prescription drug benefit will add more untold billions of debt to the next generation. At some point, when the deficit reaches the stratosphere, this issue will come back to haunt the White House. And fiscal responsibility combined with social liberalism is a great way to appeal to the center. Dean could even, I think, benefit from being ahead of the curve on equal marriage rights. If Dean can get over his unelectable foreign policy - a massive if, of course - he could be a real player.
(emphasis mine). I think we need to (politely) educate Andrew Sullivan about Dean's foreign policy. The benefit of luring him into the fold could be significant indeed.
The Note noticed http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/TheNote/TheNote.html
The Note has a nice survey of links to various articles reacting to Dean's $7 Million Monday - and has this to say about the pundit class' perceived self-importance:
Exactly. Dean, unlike Bush or Kerry or even Gore, is running a campaign rooted in the real world. Not in the hallways of Power but on the Main Streets of America. And watch as the media backlash against Dean grows for that very reason, as his real-world performance (eg. $7 Million Monday) continues to excel even as his Pundit-Bizarro-World performance tanks (eg, Russert and MTP).
Does Dean need the media? not with the internet, he doesn't - and that's exactly what Joe Trippi means when he says that the Internet is poised to "undo" the effect of television on politics. The Note recognizes this reality (as should anyone with a brain who saw how history was made yesterday):
Kurtz lists some of the tougher media shots Dean has taken, but the standards he is being held to are still lower than those faced by the other top-tierers.
When, how, and if that will change, and when, how, and if it will matter, is for now the dominant dynamic of the whole Invisible Primary (and if you are wondering if this is our nut graph, it is).
But the growing reality (known in Burlington forever) is that, for what Howard Dean needs to accomplish politically in 2003, it simply might not matter what the BosWash media Establishment has to say about him.
While (by our estimate) approximately 7,000 people ponder Dean's place in the meta-political world, in the REAL world, state budget crises, affecting the real lives of real people, are marching forward.
Exactly. Dean, unlike Bush or Kerry or even Gore, is running a campaign rooted in the real world. Not in the hallways of Power but on the Main Streets of America. And watch as the media backlash against Dean grows for that very reason, as his real-world performance (eg. $7 Million Monday) continues to excel even as his Pundit-Bizarro-World performance tanks (eg, Russert and MTP).
Does Dean need the media? not with the internet, he doesn't - and that's exactly what Joe Trippi means when he says that the Internet is poised to "undo" the effect of television on politics. The Note recognizes this reality (as should anyone with a brain who saw how history was made yesterday):
"'He's blunt, but that didn't bother me,' Gordon says. 'He is not a touchy-feely guy. With John Edwards, John Kerry, even Joe Lieberman, you'll get the hug and kiss as a female reporter. You don't get that with Howard Dean.'"
(Note Note: kissing aside, how much time should a candidate have to spend on relations with the Fourth Estate? Ask Bill Bradley. Or John McCain.)
White House Greetings Office http://www.whitehouse.gov/greeting/
The following is simply general information, which I am providing as a public service, to my fellow citizens here in Dean Nation.
On a totally unrelated note, I think that Mighty Joe Trippi certainly deserves some kind of recognition from some kind of official entity for his brilliant vision of harnessing the power of the Internet to serve our American democracy. The Government of the United States, IMHO, should commend him with some kind of document or note.
I think it would be cool if Mighty Joe were to wake up one morning six weeks from now and find, addressed to him, c/o Dean for America, P.O. Box 1228, Burlington, Vermont 05402, a letter from a high Government official, praising him and congratulating him on raising $800,000 in 24 hours on $7 Million Monday.
Hmm.There's a fax machine at Kinko's on the way home...
The White House Greetings Office
Thank you for your interest in a greeting from President Bush. The White House Greetings Office handles as many requests as possible, in accordance with a set of long-standing guidelines. PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL GREETING REQUESTS MUST BE SUBMITTED IN WRITING PREFERABLY SENT BY FAX TO 202-395-1232 OR BY MAIL TO:
The White House
Attn: Greetings Office
Washington, D.C. 20502-0039
Please review these guidelines carefully before mailing your request to the White House.
U.S. CITIZENS ONLY. The White House will send greetings to United States citizens only, for special occasions as outlined below.
ADVANCE NOTICE REQUIRED. Your request must be received six (6) weeks in advance of the event date. We make every effort to honor every request, but we cannot guarantee a greeting if this guideline is not met. (Greetings are generally not sent after the event date, except for wedding congratulations and newborn acknowledgments.)
REQUIRED INFORMATION. Please include the following in your request:
- name and home address of honoree(s)
- form of address (Mr., Ms., Mrs., Dr., Miss, etc.)
- exact date of occasion (month, day, year)
- your (the requestor's) name and daytime phone number
- any specific mailing instructions if other than to honoree's address
On a totally unrelated note, I think that Mighty Joe Trippi certainly deserves some kind of recognition from some kind of official entity for his brilliant vision of harnessing the power of the Internet to serve our American democracy. The Government of the United States, IMHO, should commend him with some kind of document or note.
I think it would be cool if Mighty Joe were to wake up one morning six weeks from now and find, addressed to him, c/o Dean for America, P.O. Box 1228, Burlington, Vermont 05402, a letter from a high Government official, praising him and congratulating him on raising $800,000 in 24 hours on $7 Million Monday.
Hmm.There's a fax machine at Kinko's on the way home...
Trippi Live Chatting at 2 PM on MSNBC - Today! http://msnbc.com/news/933274.asp?0sl=-31
Joe Trippi will be answering questions in a live streaming audio chat on msnbc.com today at 2 PM. You can listen and submit questions and comments by clicking here (scroll half-way down the article for the link).
Doonesbury on Dean Today! http://images.ucomics.com/comics/db/2003/db030701.gif
Latest Meetup Figure http://demog.berkeley.edu/~gabriel/dean2004blog/worldwide_meetup_figure.pdf
Meetup growth is explosive! How soon until we hit 50,000? If you're still not signed up, now is the time! Click for the full page PDF.
UPDATE: 49,927 at 10 a.m. Pacific! The number updates hourly or so. We'll hit 50K by the next update!
UPDATE: 49,927 at 10 a.m. Pacific! The number updates hourly or so. We'll hit 50K by the next update!
thank you from Howard Dean http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/000571.html
Thank you! We've raised an amazing amount of money this quarter and it would not have happened without you. I know many of you contributed to a political campaign for the first time, others of you opened your wallets more than once, and most of you asked your friends and family to support the campaign. I deeply appreciate your hard work and support. We've still got a long way to go, but with your continued enthusiasm we'll make it to the White House and who knows, perhaps in 2005 we'll be seeing a White House blog!
You're the best. If we keep moving like this we WILL take our country back!
Posted by Howard Dean at 11:43 PM
Monday, June 30, 2003
WP on the Deanathon http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A54865-2003Jun30?language=printer
Washington Post Tuesday:
Thanks to a wide-open field and the power of the Internet, Dean has gone from dark horse to serious contender at a time when many Americans are only vaguely aware that a nomination battle is underway.
....
Dean's online gold mine -- he also has signed up 45,000 supporters to attend "meet-ups" across the country Wednesday night -- stunned his rivals.
An adviser to another candidate said: "Ever since 1996, people have been talking about the potential of the Internet to organize and raise money, but no one figured out how to do it. Not even Al Gore. The thing about Dean is, not only is he using it, he is building an organization through it and he is raising money through that organization."
The last hours of Dean's effort bore a faint resemblance to the woozy end of a Jerry Lewis telethon. Dean's Web site -- DeanforAmerica.com -- featured a running total of contributions received. Every half-hour, the number rolled a little closer to $7 million. Online donors were offered the chance to chat on the phone with the candidate himself -- normally a privilege reserved for the rich. Dean said he would call five contributors chosen at random from the virtual pool.
"What this campaign and the Internet is about is putting the grass roots and the community back into politics," said Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi. "It puts back what television took out."
$7 Million Monday: We are the Champions
I've paid my dues, time after time
I've done my sentence, but committed no crime
And bad mistakes, I've made a few
I've had my share of sand kicked in my face
But I've come through
We are the champions, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting till the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions
Of the World
I've taken my bows, and my curtain calls
You brought me fame and fortune
And everything that goes with it
I thank you all But it's been no bed of roses
No pleasure cruise
I consider it a challenge before
The whole human race, and I ain't gonna lose
We are the champions, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting till the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions
Of the World
We are the champions, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting till the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions
Of the World
I've done my sentence, but committed no crime
And bad mistakes, I've made a few
I've had my share of sand kicked in my face
But I've come through
We are the champions, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting till the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions
Of the World
I've taken my bows, and my curtain calls
You brought me fame and fortune
And everything that goes with it
I thank you all But it's been no bed of roses
No pleasure cruise
I consider it a challenge before
The whole human race, and I ain't gonna lose
We are the champions, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting till the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions
Of the World
We are the champions, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting till the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions
Of the World
The Home Stretch http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1090&px=1179278
The Bat is at $6.95 Million !!! Just $50k to go! The Dean Nation Team tally is at $1900!
Let's bring this baby home! SUH-WING BATTUH BATTUH BATTUH!
Let's bring this baby home! SUH-WING BATTUH BATTUH BATTUH!
transcript: CNN Inside Politics http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0306/30/ip.00.html
CNN Inside Politics today featured an extensive segment of how $7 Million Monday is redefining this race. Hat tip to Scott on the ZonkBoard for te link to the transcript, excerpts:
I find the thought that all the other campaigns are glued to DeanForAmerica.com, hilarious! But Woodruff goes on to put all this in perspective - George Bush has raised $30 million in just six weeks. Bush raised $1.8 million during Monday lunch hour in Miami alone.
But Woodruff is wrong that these insane sums demoralize Bush's opponents. It should energize us. It gives us a clear view of what we are facing - a small pool of the moneyed elite. But we have the vast base, the netroots and the grassroots, who Meet Up and Move On and who collectively have made their voices heard today.
Join the chorus. Donate NOW. Let's break the cap on $7 Million Monday and show Bush Corp, Inc. that it's not money, it's men, and women, united to reclaim democracy. Let's take our country back.
TODAY!
SNOW: ... Judy, Moseley Braun's campaign treasurer says, "I'd like to steal some of Dean's fund-raisers, if I could." In fact, every campaign aide I spoke with today, all the other eight campaigns, most of them said they were watching Dean's Internet Web site, they had it up on their computers, Judy, and they wanted to how he was doing. They all said they were amazed by it. But they wonder whether it will hold -- Judy.
I find the thought that all the other campaigns are glued to DeanForAmerica.com, hilarious! But Woodruff goes on to put all this in perspective - George Bush has raised $30 million in just six weeks. Bush raised $1.8 million during Monday lunch hour in Miami alone.
But Woodruff is wrong that these insane sums demoralize Bush's opponents. It should energize us. It gives us a clear view of what we are facing - a small pool of the moneyed elite. But we have the vast base, the netroots and the grassroots, who Meet Up and Move On and who collectively have made their voices heard today.
Join the chorus. Donate NOW. Let's break the cap on $7 Million Monday and show Bush Corp, Inc. that it's not money, it's men, and women, united to reclaim democracy. Let's take our country back.
TODAY!
audio: Howard Dean thanks the netroots http://www.audblog.com/media/5612/18169.mp3
Governor Dean has some special words of thanks for all his netroot supporters - click the link to hear his words! (MP3 format) Transcript:
There are only 6 hours left until the deadline - so there's still time for you to donate to the campaign! $7 Million Monday is almost over and we have only $250k left to go! That's only $40k an hour - we can do this!
There are only 6 hours left until the deadline - so there's still time for you to donate to the campaign! $7 Million Monday is almost over and we have only $250k left to go! That's only $40k an hour - we can do this!
open thread: $7 Million Monday http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1090&px=1179278
Got something to say? Share your thoughts about this historic day with the rest of us. This is $7 Million Monday and the netroots will not be silenced!
rampage! http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1090&px=1179278
Dean is mentioned in two segments on NPR's Morning Edition. Dean is featured in Doonesbury. Andrew Sullivan - of all people - says Dean would be better than Bush for the country's fiscal health. Josh Marshall's attention has been drawn away from the Texas redistricting by a "thunderclap" over the head of the Democratic Party.
And the Bat rises - acknowledging at long last that today is $7 Million Monday!
Quickly - we only have until midnight - get your donation in and be counted! The Dean Nation All-Star team has raised $1,105.42 out of our pledge goal of $10,000 and I know that we can do better! Just click the link above and you'll see our Dean Nation contribute page where you can add your voice to the growing chorus - the roar of the netroots, taking back America!
UPDATE: Howard Dean will personally phone 5 randomly-elected contributors today! Join us and donate NOW!
And the Bat rises - acknowledging at long last that today is $7 Million Monday!
Quickly - we only have until midnight - get your donation in and be counted! The Dean Nation All-Star team has raised $1,105.42 out of our pledge goal of $10,000 and I know that we can do better! Just click the link above and you'll see our Dean Nation contribute page where you can add your voice to the growing chorus - the roar of the netroots, taking back America!
UPDATE: Howard Dean will personally phone 5 randomly-elected contributors today! Join us and donate NOW!
It's $7 Million Monday! http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1090&px=1179278
Kos of The Daily Kos succinctly summarizes the New Reality:
(and Mighty Joe, too, of course). TODAY is $7 Million Monday. Let's get that bat to pop its cork and break 7 Million Dollars by midnight tonight.
We are the netroots. We are not "obscure bloggers" and our Meetups are not the pretensions of an elite caste. We are the American People. And we want our country back. We want it back TODAY - on $7 Million Monday.
Join us and show the world that it's the power of the common man that makes America an inspiration to the rest of the world. Join us TODAY and make a statement that political power resides with We the People, not K-Street.
This is the campaign to Take Back America - TODAY.
Ooh. It's time for all the anti-Deanies to rise up in anger. Really, you guys should be angry at your chosen candidates for running thus-far inept campaigns, poking fun at Dean for "wasting his time" talking to "obscure bloggers" and dismissing meetups as something out of the Star Wars cantina. Oops, turns out that all those things were important after all.
Who would've thunk it?
It's a new world, and Dean was the only one to catch on.
(and Mighty Joe, too, of course). TODAY is $7 Million Monday. Let's get that bat to pop its cork and break 7 Million Dollars by midnight tonight.
We are the netroots. We are not "obscure bloggers" and our Meetups are not the pretensions of an elite caste. We are the American People. And we want our country back. We want it back TODAY - on $7 Million Monday.
Join us and show the world that it's the power of the common man that makes America an inspiration to the rest of the world. Join us TODAY and make a statement that political power resides with We the People, not K-Street.
This is the campaign to Take Back America - TODAY.
Why it is so critical to contribute NOW! http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1090&px=1179278
Let's not get too giddy and think Dean's nomination is now inevitable. Read what Hotline's Republican analyst Mike Murphy has to say:
Dean is the only candidate rising meaningfully in early state polls. He is raising decent money. He has the heat in the race; love him or hate him he is the candidate people are talking about. His anger shtick is selling; Democrat primary voters want a Bush-Fighter. The others are lagging behind. Sure, they can tell you how they are going to win, but they aren't doing it. Show me any triple, let alone home run, hit to date in this race by The Official Invincible Front-Runner Kerry. Explain to me how Graham gets nominated. Is Edwards still in the race? Where is Gephardt getting stronger? Where is Lieberman's money?With your help, they won't be able to stop us. Let's Take Back America, Today.
I think this race will boil down to a two-man contest of Dean versus one of the others. . . . a snarling Stop Howard movement is now well afoot, with means, motive and plenty of murderous intent.
History will be made today (YES! GOING FOR $7 MIL) http://www.blogforamerica.com/
Just got the mailing from Joe Trippi...
"Today will be historic and we will be posting reports every half-hour on our progress, as we make this one day push towards $7 million by midnight tonight. Check our progress regularly throughout the day at:
http://www.blogforamerica.com
(as well as right here! stay tuned!)
"Today will be historic and we will be posting reports every half-hour on our progress, as we make this one day push towards $7 million by midnight tonight. Check our progress regularly throughout the day at:
http://www.blogforamerica.com
(as well as right here! stay tuned!)
Dr. Dean Treats Patient on Campaign Trail http://www.notgeniuses.com/archives/000140.html
Sunday, June 29, 2003
Back from NH http://www.grassrootsfordean.com
This weekend a bus load of Dean supporters left NYC for New Hampshire to volunteer for the campaign. Below is a portion of my reflection on this experience, the rest can be found on my website:
I decided to start writing this blog out on paper long hand (yes, I am a revolutionary) on the bus back from New Hampshire with New York for Dean and to transcribe it when I get home (only after showering). I think we had a very successful weekend. While the other campaign offices we saw appeared empty and closed (except one young gentleman in the Lieberman office in Manchester who did a full body double take when he saw a bus plastered with Dean for America signs drive past), we were out knocking on door after door after door. We were told that we hit over 5,000 in two days (3,300 the first day in Manchester and the rest the next in Nashua).
No, the trip was not glamorous. We slept on short, thin, and probably less than clean exercise mats at the Manchester YMCA. All we ate was pizza. We were thrown out of the Y 1/2 hour after they woke us up - that's right, no shower time!!! Oh, and the bathroom on the bus smelled like... well, you know. Also, we never got to a destination without getting lost and turning around three times.
There were, however, many upsides... Follow link above to continue
I decided to start writing this blog out on paper long hand (yes, I am a revolutionary) on the bus back from New Hampshire with New York for Dean and to transcribe it when I get home (only after showering). I think we had a very successful weekend. While the other campaign offices we saw appeared empty and closed (except one young gentleman in the Lieberman office in Manchester who did a full body double take when he saw a bus plastered with Dean for America signs drive past), we were out knocking on door after door after door. We were told that we hit over 5,000 in two days (3,300 the first day in Manchester and the rest the next in Nashua).
No, the trip was not glamorous. We slept on short, thin, and probably less than clean exercise mats at the Manchester YMCA. All we ate was pizza. We were thrown out of the Y 1/2 hour after they woke us up - that's right, no shower time!!! Oh, and the bathroom on the bus smelled like... well, you know. Also, we never got to a destination without getting lost and turning around three times.
There were, however, many upsides... Follow link above to continue
Fund-Raising Puts Dean in Top Tier http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/30/national/30DEAN.html?ei=5062&en=8bca433c557f1d41&ex=1057550400&partner=GOOGLE&pagewanted=print&position=
From Monday's NY Times:
Howard Dean announced yesterday that he had raised close to $9 million this year, establishing himself as a top-tier candidate in the Democratic presidential field. The figure stunned his rivals and transformed Dr. Dean from a maverick into a more traditional contender.
Much of the money was collected over the Internet, his aides said, leaving little doubt there are now ways to solicit contributions other than the telephone calls and elaborate fund-raisers that are the stock and trade for most mainstream candidates.
Dr. Dean's aides said he would report raising at least $6.2 million in the three-month period that ends at midnight, on top of $2.6 million he raised over the first three months of the year. Dr. Dean announced the figure 36 hours before the filing period ends, timing the release for a slow-news Sunday afternoon.
"We are thrilled," Dr. Dean's campaign manager, Joe Trippi, said. "Right now our new goal is $6.5 million by midnight tomorrow."
The other campaigns said yesterday that they would wait until the fund-raising period was over before releasing their results.
"He'll beat everybody," Steve Elmendorf, a senior adviser to Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, said of Dr. Dean.
Dr. Dean's strong showing seems certain to cause a problem for some congressmen who are running for president — in particular, Mr. Gephardt and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, who had weak financial showings in the first quarter. Mr. Gephardt and Mr. Lieberman were looking to strong showings in the next report to erase any concerns among Democrats about their viability.
Several Democrats said that Dr. Dean's success posed a particular problem to Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, since the men have been competing for many of the same voters and since it could undercut Mr. Kerry's effort to present himself as the front-runner.
Mr. Kerry's campaign manager, Jim Jordan, disputed that analysis.
"If their fund-raising projections are accurate, then perhaps it makes it a two-candidate race," Mr. Jordan said. "If so, it makes it clarifying and helpful to us."
Dr. Dean's advisers said that as of a week ago, he had raised just $3.2 million. They said contributions had increased sharply over the last week because of his announcement speech on Monday and the online vote by the organization Moveon.org, which served to enlisted a lot of new supporters, many of whom made contributions.
Mr. Trippi also said that Dr. Dean had been helped by his appearance on the NBC interview program "Meet the Press" on June 22.
Dr. Dean's appearance on that show, in which he was unable to answer some questions and appeared to change his position on some issues, drew widespread criticism among Democrats. But his aides suggested that as far as Dr. Dean's supporters were concerned, it might have proved an old show business nostrum: There is no such thing as bad publicity.
"My own theory of it is when Howard Dean says things like, `I don't know the answer to that,' the echo chamber in Washington says: `Oh my God; he doesn't know the answer!' " Mr. Trippi said. "But the guy at home says, `Hey, someone who admits he doesn't know the answer. We haven't seen that before!' "
Dennis Miller attacks Dean http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=638&ncid=579&e=2&u=/nm/20030628/en_nm/politics_bush_miller_dc
W's new sidekick at a Bush fundraiser in LA, according to Reuters:
He had a special barb for one candidate, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who has questioned the Iraq war, comparing him to Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister who followed a policy of appeasement of Nazi Germany in the years before World War II.This is the sort of ridiculous comparison that can only help Dean, by drawing more attention to him and getting people to see what he really has to say. I can just imagine W listening to Miller and thinking, "Neville who?"
"He can roll up his sleeves all he wants at public events, but as long as we see that heart tattoo with Neville Chamberlain's name on his right forearms, he's never going anywhere," Miller said.
momentum
in 7 days:
The vast, untapped potential of the grassroots should be clear the money collected so far represents an average of $130 per person, from only 7% of his potential donor base!
Already we've raised $100,000 in just a few hours Sunday morning! If we work together we can make the 7 Million Monday a reality.
- 4,000 people joined Meetup
- 21,000 people donated $2.8m
- 23,000 unique visitors to Dean Nation
- 140,000 people voted for Dean in the MoveOn primary
- 264866 people say they would enthusiastically support Dean against Bush
The vast, untapped potential of the grassroots should be clear the money collected so far represents an average of $130 per person, from only 7% of his potential donor base!
Already we've raised $100,000 in just a few hours Sunday morning! If we work together we can make the 7 Million Monday a reality.
goal: 7 Million Monday http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/000520.html
Yup, that's right. The bat reads $6 million dollars. Note that this is the total for the quarter, not just the amount raised since Friday. Joe Trippi posted to the official blog about this jaw-dropping figure, but didn't post here, so I'll excerpt:
The bat only goes to $6.5m as a goal, but we can and we must help Dean reach the $7 million mark by Monday. Sunday and Monday need to be $500,000 days.
Already the Dean Nation all-star Team has raised almost $800 towards our own $10,000 pledge goal - and we can do better.
We need to make June 30th "7 Million Monday" ! So please, dig in and do what you can - donate to Dean today!
That is a surge in contributions of $2.8 million in just eight days. Of the $2.8 million over $2 million has come from Internet contributions -- including our first $500,000 day on Friday June 27th.
To put this in perspective the McCain for President campaign had a surge of $2 million in Internet contrbutions -- but that happend in the days after Sen. McCain's victory in New Hampshire in January 2000.
The bat only goes to $6.5m as a goal, but we can and we must help Dean reach the $7 million mark by Monday. Sunday and Monday need to be $500,000 days.
Already the Dean Nation all-star Team has raised almost $800 towards our own $10,000 pledge goal - and we can do better.
We need to make June 30th "7 Million Monday" ! So please, dig in and do what you can - donate to Dean today!
Q2 Predictions - Who will raise what?
I think the big story of Q2 will be Dean. The second story could very well be why the others (Kerry, Edwards, Gephardt, Lieberman) didn't break their Q1 numbers. Candidates unable to show momentum from Q1 to Q2 are in serious financial trouble. Traditionally Q1 leads to a larger Q2 followed by a smaller Q3 where the frontrunner continues to grow and most opposition tapper down signifigantly because of the dry summer months. Let's see what the others say.
Post a comment with your predictions on the field.
Post a comment with your predictions on the field.
Dean tops $6million... let's keep at it!
From the official Dean Blog, "As of last Sunday morning, June 22, the Dean for America campaign had raised $3.2 million in this quarter. Since that morning--beginning with the Sunday Meet The Press interview, through our announcement of candidacy, continuing with our victory in the MoveOn primary and through Saturday June 28th--we have experienced an unprecedented surge in contributions, and have now crossed the $6 million dollar mark."
Let's get Dean to the $6.5 million mark! We have just under 2 days left before the reporting period ends at midnight on June 30th. Do your part!
1. Make a contribution yourself - CLICK HERE
2. Email everyone you know and ask them to give $25.
3. If you run a blog or a Dean support group website, join Dean Nation's All-Star Team and link to our donation page!
Why not shock the world and hit the $7,000,000 mark? Kerry, Edwards and Gephardt better hope they reach what they raised last quarter... a candidate unable to build on past successes is a candidate with no momentum. Governor Dean has big mo and is certain to capture an even brighter spotlight with these kinds of numbers!
Saturday, June 28, 2003
clarification regarding federal matching funds
Several people have been posting in the comments and the Zonk Board that the federal matching funds are for each donation, up to $250, so that you should donate in increments. This is false. Zephyr from the campaign clarifies:
An individual may donate up to $2000, but only the first $250 is matched dollar for dollar.
Secondly, and more importantly, the donations must be accompanied by your occupation and employer information. These fields are included in both the online contribution form and the printable form (.pdf format). This information is required by the FEC, and the donation is matched by the FEC only if that info is included.
As of this writing, Dean Nation has met $498 of our $10,000 pledge goal . There are only two days left in June before the FEC deadline, so please donate now!
The FEC doesn't care how you give it--the sum total of contributions is all that matters. Every dollar, however, given, up to $250 is matched.
An individual may donate up to $2000, but only the first $250 is matched dollar for dollar.
Secondly, and more importantly, the donations must be accompanied by your occupation and employer information. These fields are included in both the online contribution form and the printable form (.pdf format). This information is required by the FEC, and the donation is matched by the FEC only if that info is included.
As of this writing, Dean Nation has met $498 of our $10,000 pledge goal . There are only two days left in June before the FEC deadline, so please donate now!
Democrats raise $1.7 million http://wvgazette.com/section/APNews/News/ap0869n
from the story:
Funding the DNC is a critical issue that has largely been overlooked. Note that the candidates, including Dean, all do recognize that the DNC fundraising is critical to defeating Bush, regardless of who is nominated.
Seven of the nine Democratic presidential candidates attended the fund-raiser at a Washington hotel, with 750 people who paid at least $1,000 apiece; comedian and author Al Franken was the host. Another 750 young Democrats met at a nearby restaurant later in the evening at a cost of $50 apiece.
Candidate Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, poked fun at his own tendency to shoot from the hip and apologize to his rivals later.
"I am delighted to have all the candidates in one room so I can issue a blanket apology should one be needed later in the campaign,'' Dean said, as the crowd burst into laughter.
...
Democrats are trying to remain competitive under the new rules of the campaign finance law that bans the unlimited soft money the party used to receive from corporations, unions and wealthy donors, said Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
"It's a challenge, there's no question,'' said McAuliffe, a veteran fund-raiser who has worked at updating DNC donor files and improving direct-mail fund raising. "We're going to have the biggest six-month direct mail effort in the party's history.''
McAuliffe said the party is "in the best financial shape we've ever been in,'' with $6 million.
Republicans already have a huge early advantage, with the Republican National Committee outraising the DNC by more than 3-to-1 in the first three months of the year. Bush's re-election campaign is halfway toward raising $20 million in a two-week push intended to intimidate Democrats; the goal is $200 million or more. In a single night Monday in New York, Bush raised $4 million.
Funding the DNC is a critical issue that has largely been overlooked. Note that the candidates, including Dean, all do recognize that the DNC fundraising is critical to defeating Bush, regardless of who is nominated.
Friday, June 27, 2003
Dean says Bush's policies leaving nation, troops at risk http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/06/27/state1959EDT0129.DTL
Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean said Friday that the Bush administration's energy and fiscal policies were putting U.S. soldiers and the nation's security at risk.
"This president, because of his economic policies, is a threat to the security of the United States of America," Dean said during a campaign stop in San Diego. He said Bush's economic policy was driving the nation deeper in debt and weakening crucial programs.
"Not only will we undercut Medicare and Social Security, ultimately we will undercut our ability to adequately defend ourselves if this president's fiscal policies continue the way they are," he said.
Speaking before 500 people at a City Club of San Diego luncheon, Dean said that the American people may have been misled by the president into going to war. He said either the U.S. intelligence community were mistaken about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, senior White House advisers withheld information from the president or Bush himself "did not tell us the truth."
"The truth is it's a good thing to have Saddam gone. But the other truth is that we went to war without knowing the facts, that our service people are dying now because we went to war without knowing the facts," Dean said before a largely partisan crowd.
The former Vermont governor said the lack of evidence that Saddam's regime possessed deadly weapons proves he was right to doubt Defense Secretary's Donald Rumsfeld earlier assertions about Iraq's weapons program.
"Where are those weapons, Mr. Secretary?" Dean asked during remarks that lasted about 15 minutes...."
UPDATE (Aziz): It's even worse than that - see Daily Kos for more information on how Bush and the GOP are putting the screws to soldiers andtheir families on the home front. Dean needs to incorporate these facts into his rhetoric, because there's a solid chance to appeal to military voters.
"This president, because of his economic policies, is a threat to the security of the United States of America," Dean said during a campaign stop in San Diego. He said Bush's economic policy was driving the nation deeper in debt and weakening crucial programs.
"Not only will we undercut Medicare and Social Security, ultimately we will undercut our ability to adequately defend ourselves if this president's fiscal policies continue the way they are," he said.
Speaking before 500 people at a City Club of San Diego luncheon, Dean said that the American people may have been misled by the president into going to war. He said either the U.S. intelligence community were mistaken about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, senior White House advisers withheld information from the president or Bush himself "did not tell us the truth."
"The truth is it's a good thing to have Saddam gone. But the other truth is that we went to war without knowing the facts, that our service people are dying now because we went to war without knowing the facts," Dean said before a largely partisan crowd.
The former Vermont governor said the lack of evidence that Saddam's regime possessed deadly weapons proves he was right to doubt Defense Secretary's Donald Rumsfeld earlier assertions about Iraq's weapons program.
"Where are those weapons, Mr. Secretary?" Dean asked during remarks that lasted about 15 minutes...."
UPDATE (Aziz): It's even worse than that - see Daily Kos for more information on how Bush and the GOP are putting the screws to soldiers andtheir families on the home front. Dean needs to incorporate these facts into his rhetoric, because there's a solid chance to appeal to military voters.
June 30th http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1090&px=1179278
The Q2 deadline is June 30th, and all donations up to $250 are matched, dollar for dollar, by the federal government. Dean desperately needs to build on the incredible momentum of the past week - we have won the MoveOn primary, broken the 40,000 mark on MeetUp, and seen more coverage of our candidate in the major media than in the entire previous year combined!
The Million Dollar Challenge is only $100,000 shy of the ultimate goal. And we here in Dean Nation can do our part - by contributing through the Dean Nation All-Star team, we can meet our pledge goal of $10,000. Please donate whatever you can afford - and add a penny for the internet.
Imagine - if Dean breaks the million dollar mark in two days. Imagine - if we in Dean Nation can raise $10,000 dollars collectively for Dean. Imagine - if we, at the nexus of Dean's netroot support, are able to make such a powerful statement! 10,000 powerful statements, in fact...
We have over 2,000 daily visitors a day. If only half of those visiting donate $10 each, we will meet our All-Star pledge and move Dean $20,000 closer to the Million Dollar Challenge (including federal matching funds).
We can do this. We must do this. Please, donate now, donate tomorrow, donate before June 30th. We are making a difference. We are taking our country back!
UPDATE: Dean for America has raised $600,000 in just 24 hours!! The new goal at-bat is 2 million - and Dean Nation has already raised $500 towards our own pledge goal of $10,000. June 30th is now only two days away - please, join in our collective effort and let's show the campaign the real power of the netroots!
The Man to Beat http://www.msnbc.com/news/932201.asp?0cl=c1
Eleanor Clift gets it:
IT'S NEARING THE end of the second quarter filing period, and Democrats will measure who's up and who's not by how much money they raised in the last three months. The buzz is that Howard Dean will post over $4 million. Two rival camps privately predict that Dean will come close to $6 million.
There is panic in the air. Democrats on Capitol Hill see Dean and his anti-war populist campaign as "McGovern Redux." They worry he'll lead the party into a repeat of Democrat George McGovern's 49-state loss to Richard Nixon in 1972. It's not that the war in Iraq was that popular with Democrats. If the congressional resolution empowering President Bush to invade Iraq had been a secret vote, many more Democrats would have voted no. But lawmakers fear the unknown, and they don't know Dean the way they know the other contenders in the race. Plus he's running a campaign against them, and the way they have accommodated a popular president.
Democrats have won the White House only twice in the last thirty years. Both times it was by somebody who was not part of Washington. Governors don't speak Washingtonese. Whatever you think about Dean and his cranky assault on the Establishment, you can't avoid the fact that he fits the pattern. Thanks to a little strategic thinking and a lot of luck, the former Vermont governor is positioned as the only outsider in the race at a time when Democrats have given up on insider politicians. Dean says that when he travels around the country, he finds that Democratic voters are almost as angry at Democrats in Washington as they are at Bush.
Dean appeals to the idealism in the party. His theme -- "Let's take back the country" --echoes Jimmy Carter's campaign call a quarter-century ago for a government as good as its people. Like Carter, Dean is not someone you would immediately peg as charismatic. But his edgy personality is reminiscent of John McCain, and his blunt talk gives him a Trumanesque appeal of the little guy who fights back. When Dean first spoke out against the war in Iraq, he did so in a political climate of 70 percent support for the war. Analysts saw it as political suicide. "How many electoral votes are there in Iraq?" Dean was asked at one political gathering. "None," he fired back. "They're in Iowa."
The centrist wing of the Democratic Party is fighting hard to head off Dean. In the upcoming issue of the "New Democrat" magazine, an editorial headlined "Why we fight" lays out the case against a Dean candidacy. Without having read the piece, which is embargoed, I presume it rests on Dean's opposition to the war as exposing the party's longstanding weakness on national security. Not long ago, the Democratic Leadership Council, the Vatican of the New Democrat movement, pointed to Dean, a fiscal conservative, as an example of a successful governor in the DLC model. The DLC's change of heart appears principally based on differences over the war with Iraq. After siding with Bush, the DLC and the pro-war Democrats have a lot at stake in defending that position regardless of the deteriorating situation on the ground in Iraq and the growing concerns about whether Bush misled the country in the run-up to the war.
What Dean's critics find especially galling is how he is weathering his poor showing on "Meet the Press," the premiere Sunday talk show. Host Tim Russert quizzed him on U.S. troop strength around the world, caught him in Gore-style exaggeration on an anecdote about a teenage girl seeking an abortion, and questioned whether he had the "temperament" to be president. Dean appeared uncertain even when his facts were OK, and he seemed annoyed at being grilled. By all accounts, it was a terrible performance. "If he was Gephardt, he'd be out of the race," says a Democratic strategist. But the next day Dean presided over a hokey official announcement of his candidacy, which drew a large press contingent and got him on all the news shows. "The rules don't apply to him," says the strategist. "He operates in a different universe. His supporters say, 'That mean Tim Russert,' and they send him another $200 on the Internet."
The terrible logic of the Democratic nomination is that anybody who runs left enough to get the activists can't win a general election. Dean has the centrist credentials to maneuver his way back to the center, where he's probably more comfortable anyway. His health care plan is relatively modest, and he supported the carrying of concealed weapons in Vermont. But Democratic officeholders have a fear of the unknown, and when they look at Dean, they see an angry liberal who will send them into the wilderness for another 25 years. Savior or spoiler, Dean has gone from a second tier candidate to the man to beat.
bumper stickers back in stock http://www.cafeshops.com/deanforamerica/
I've received an avalanche of email asking about this, so here's a public anouncement. Bumper stickers are now back in stock (general Dean stickers, regional, and crossovers).
Bulk discounts on merchandise is available for meetup organizers, please email azizhp at yahoo dot com for more details.
Bulk discounts on merchandise is available for meetup organizers, please email azizhp at yahoo dot com for more details.
IssueWatch - Fair Trade http://www.cfr.org/publication_print.php?id=6072&content=
The media has been guilty of misrepresenting the discussion about globalization for a long time. Very few parties involved in the discussion support a viewpoint that could be considered “anti-globalization.” Almost all the participants in the global trade debate recognize that greater trade around the world is not only a reality, but it can benefit everyone involved. However, those who promote “fair trade” policies recognize both sides of global trade transactions must benefit for a healthy world economy to be the end result.
Gov. Dean discussed fair trade in his speech this week at the Council of Foreign Relations…
Share your thoughts on globalization and fair trade. Also, how do you feel about the mass media distorting this discussion?
Gov. Dean discussed fair trade in his speech this week at the Council of Foreign Relations…
“…We must recognize the importance of spreading the benefits of economic growth as widely as possible. The growth of multinational corporations and the globalization of the economy have helped create wealth and economic growth. But we must make certain that people in the developing world are full and equal beneficiaries in this growth and are not marginalized by it.
As long as half the world's population subsists on less than $2/day, the U.S. will not be secure. Poor states and failed states provide breeding grounds for disease as well as recruits and safe havens for terrorists. A world populated by "hostile have-nots" is not one in which U.S. leadership can be sustained without coercion.
We want a trade and development policy that does not enrich the minority but will empower the majority.
In addition to supporting the growth of fair global trade we must use our foreign assistance monies strategically to support the rule of law, combat corruption, help the most needy and assist governments in creating democracies and developing infrastructure and human resources in their countries. We must bring still more energy to the cooperative battle against HIV/AIDS, which in too many countries is undermining security and tearing the heart out of economies, communities, and entire generations….”
Share your thoughts on globalization and fair trade. Also, how do you feel about the mass media distorting this discussion?
Jake Tapper defends Dean's MTP perfomance in NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/27/opinion/27TAPP.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Have you ever been pleasantly if mildly surprised by a movie the critics have panned? I had just such a feeling when I watched, two days late, a recording of Howard Dean's now infamous appearance last Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Dr. Dean, the Democratic presidential candidate and former Vermont governor, has gotten notice for bringing some energy to the dismal Democratic ranks. But after his appearance his candidacy was immediately suffused with bad buzz. "If Dean wants to have any chance of getting into the White House, he needs to learn some basic facts about our country," said Joe Scarborough of MSNBC. Even The Associated Press reported that Dr. Dean "did not help himself with an uneven performance."
But many of Dr. Dean's answers seemed perfectly reasonable. His response to Tim Russert's pop quiz about the number of soldiers on active duty — he said one million to two million; the answer is 1.4 million — seems acceptable, especially at a time when the number is in flux. His answers about the solvency of Social Security were glib. But they were no more dishonest than any other candidate's.
Dr. Dean did seem perturbed during some of the program, and many of his answers — especially an evasive response about whether Canadian same-sex marriages should be accepted in the United States — showed he is all too aware of the political consequences of his self-proclaimed boldness. But his appearance was no disaster.
video: message from Joe Trippi http://svr29.edns1.com/~pickle29/media2/TrippiThanks_100k.mov
A message of thanks from Joe Trippi to all of us - link above goes to high-bandwidth version, click here for dial-up.
(via Heath of DeanTV.org)
(via Heath of DeanTV.org)
Governor Howard Dean M.D. Statement on Passage of Medicare Prescription Bills http://www.deanforamerica.com
From the Dean Campaign...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 27, 2003
Governor Howard Dean M.D. Statement on Passage of Medicare Prescription Bills
“I am disappointed that attempts by Democrats to improve legislation to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare have been defeated.
“The bills that have emerged from the House and Senate are flawed, driven by Republican ideology intent on privatizing Medicare. The Senate bill, though better, will only get worse in conference with the House, where Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas has made clear that the real Republican agenda is to ‘end Medicare as we know it.’
“America’s seniors like Medicare as they know it. They want it improved not drastically altered and left to whims of the healthcare marketplace.
“Both bills fragment the buying power of the 40 million seniors on Medicare and relinquish the leverage that would force drug companies to reduce their costs.
“They reflect a false premise that private health plans are better and more cost effective at delivering health insurance to seniors. History shows that privatizing Medicare forces seniors to face increased out-of-pocket costs, limited choices of plans and doctors, and a confusing, complicated benefit structure.
“Private plans provided coverage to seniors before Medicare – and only the healthiest and wealthiest seniors were insured. Republicans seem determined to return America to that same flawed system.
“It is essential to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare. I appreciate that this desire has led many Democrats in the Senate to support the bill. Creating this benefit must be a top priority for our elected officials.
“However, because these bills move Medicare towards privatization, I cannot support them. We can and must do better.”
Nader might run as a Republican http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030619/ts_alt_afp/us_politics_nader_030619140209
It is critical that Dean makes the case to supporters of Nader and the Green party. Only united can the common agenda be achieved - and the bitterness must be left behind. Dean's performance in the MoveOn primary has demonstrated his broad appeal, but there is a lot of work yet to be done.
Complicating matters is Nader himself, who has been notoriously coy about his plans for 2004:
It's a measure of Nader's detachment from reality that he would even consider running as a Republican - and proof that it's the campaign, not the policy, he seeks to influence. The best scenario is that the Greens endorse Dean. So, make the case - how do we convince a Green that Dean and not Nader is their man on the issues? Comments from actual Greens - both supporting and against Dean - are especially welcome. Let the dialouge begin.
Complicating matters is Nader himself, who has been notoriously coy about his plans for 2004:
For 2004, a second Green Party presidential candidacy may be in the works.
"It's too early to say," commented Nader.
Green party official John Strawn confirmed that Nader is among several potential candidates for the next election.
"Many folks are actively promoting particular candidates, Ralph being one of them," he said.
Nader says that if the Greens reject him, he might choose to run as an independent, or possibly even as a Republican, which would pit him against George W. Bush in the primary.
It's a measure of Nader's detachment from reality that he would even consider running as a Republican - and proof that it's the campaign, not the policy, he seeks to influence. The best scenario is that the Greens endorse Dean. So, make the case - how do we convince a Green that Dean and not Nader is their man on the issues? Comments from actual Greens - both supporting and against Dean - are especially welcome. Let the dialouge begin.
Dean Wins MoveOn.org Primary in Landslide http://www.deanforamerica.com
SAN DIEGO—While campaigning in California today, Governor Howard Dean, M.D. released the following statement regarding his victory in the Moveon.org primary:
“On Monday, I stood in Burlington, Vermont and said that my campaign—our campaign—was built on ‘mouse pads, shoe leather, and hope.’ Today, we see just how far that combination can go: We have won the Moveon.org primary by a landslide.
“We want to thank everyone who helped make this victory possible. To the volunteers and Dean supporters across the country, thanks for all of your work. To the 139,360 who supported me, thanks for casting the first votes to take our country back. You have demonstrated that you really do have the power.
“This primary was participatory democracy at its finest. This week’s vote was not about money—other campaigns devoted far more resources to this primary than ours did—and it was not about special interest groups buying access to government. This primary, the first online primary of the modern age, was about individual Americans influencing the process directly. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans researched this race, voted, and told their friends to vote.
“This is a milestone that will be remembered. It is moments like this that will help restore American democracy to the ideals upon which it was founded—ones that make the processes of government accessible to every American.
“We are excited to move on bolstered by the many thousands this process has brought to our campaign. We are taking the country back—one voter at a time.”
“On Monday, I stood in Burlington, Vermont and said that my campaign—our campaign—was built on ‘mouse pads, shoe leather, and hope.’ Today, we see just how far that combination can go: We have won the Moveon.org primary by a landslide.
“We want to thank everyone who helped make this victory possible. To the volunteers and Dean supporters across the country, thanks for all of your work. To the 139,360 who supported me, thanks for casting the first votes to take our country back. You have demonstrated that you really do have the power.
“This primary was participatory democracy at its finest. This week’s vote was not about money—other campaigns devoted far more resources to this primary than ours did—and it was not about special interest groups buying access to government. This primary, the first online primary of the modern age, was about individual Americans influencing the process directly. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans researched this race, voted, and told their friends to vote.
“This is a milestone that will be remembered. It is moments like this that will help restore American democracy to the ideals upon which it was founded—ones that make the processes of government accessible to every American.
“We are excited to move on bolstered by the many thousands this process has brought to our campaign. We are taking the country back—one voter at a time.”
Dean wins MoveOn poll, but not endorsement http://moveonpac.org/moveonpac/report.html
Dean won the MoveOn poll, earning 43.9% of the vote. Kucinich earned 23.9% and Kerry 15.7%. Tis means that Dean doesn;t get the official endorsement - but we are very close. It looks like Kucinich is playing a spolier role to Dean for the progressive vote, which in unsurprising but still a major problem (and Dean certainly can't make any "electability" appeals to Kucinich voters!).
It is also interesting to look at the results from the multiple-choice poll:
This is actually the more important number - 86% of those who voted in the MoveOn primary would also support Dean. It's very probable that there will be more MoveOn primaries in the future and it's clear that Dean has demonstrated that he has the ability to win. Even without MoveOn's official endorsement, the exposure to the broader audience has strengthened him at teh expense of virtually every other candidate... except Kucinich.
It is also interesting to look at the results from the multiple-choice poll:
| BRAUN | 155628 | 50.54% |
| DEAN | 264866 | 86.02% |
| EDWARDS | 172076 | 55.88% |
| GRAHAM | 153045 | 49.70% |
| KERRY | 231830 | 75.29% |
| KUCINICH | 210164 | 68.25% |
| GEPHARDT | 163110 | 52.97% |
| LIEBERMAN | 132447 | 42.01% |
| SHARPTON | 109249 | 35.48% |
This is actually the more important number - 86% of those who voted in the MoveOn primary would also support Dean. It's very probable that there will be more MoveOn primaries in the future and it's clear that Dean has demonstrated that he has the ability to win. Even without MoveOn's official endorsement, the exposure to the broader audience has strengthened him at teh expense of virtually every other candidate... except Kucinich.
Stepford Democrats http://www.chronwatch.com/featured/contentDisplay.asp?aid=3266
An intriguing article from ChronWatch.com observes how Dean dominates the debate, and has reversed the pundits:
There is some amusing role reversal going on in the press. ABC.com describes Dean’s recent Meet the Press appearance, ''Besides being evasive, Dean left himself vulnerable from the left, right, or both on the military, gay marriage, Social Security, and more. He looked thin-skinned, unprepared, stuttering.''
More conservative voices, The New York Post’s Deborah Orin for instance, praise him. ''If you think Dean won’t sell down south, he is sort of pro-gun and the NRA likes him. Yet that doesn’t seem to irk his liberal backers. He’s become the Teflon Dean among liberals.''
Look for this to change if Dean gets the Democrat nod. Old-line liberal outfits like ABC, who would like to see a more traditional (John F. Kerry) candidate, will reverse field faster than Roger Staubach. Quirks now observed with amusing contempt will become statesmanlike virtues. Conservatives will find fault with his diversity of viewpoints. This promises a fine donnybrook for political observers.
...
Nothing can be taken away from Howard Dean. Through sheer force of will, he dominates the debate. The others are like puppets. They hop to and fro, puffing out their medals, shaking their wattles at the television cameras. They are his Stepford shadows.
Republicans love anything that moves their opponents left. The premature clinking of champagne glasses could prove distracting. No doubt such premature celebration will vanish if Dean begins to surge. Republicans know how to run scared. They have had a lot of practice.
Thursday, June 26, 2003
Join the "Dean Team All Stars!"
There is now another way to help Governor Dean's campaign raise money in your sleep. You can now join the "Dean Team All Stars" and raise money online for the campaign.I've created the image in this blog entry for those who'd like to add a link to their Dean Team All Star page on their website or blog. Every Dean supporter or regional Dean group with a site should sign up for this option. If you'd like help adding this image to your site as a link once you've joined the Dean Team All Stars just let me know.
UPDATE (Aziz) : I've registered Dean Nation as a donation "group" to the Dean campaign. By donating money to the campaign through this link, we DeanBloggers collectively get (symbolic) credit for raising funds. I've set a pledge of $10,000 for the Dean Nation Team to meet - so we have a long way to go!
If the Dean campaign offers any tangible prizes to groups that raise the most money. we will hold an auction on this blog for those prizes to raise even MORE money :)
RNC Attacks Dean http://gop.com/Newsroom/Releases/June03/Gillespie062603.htm
Good news! The top story on the Republican National Committee website is the following:
Ed Gillespie, Senior Advisor to the Republican National Committee (RNC), today issued the following statement:Pair this with Rush Limbaugh's near obsession with Dean and you might start to think the Republicons are scared of having to run their frat boy against the Doctor.
“Democratic presidential candidates continue to find political expedience in appealing to the anti-war activists in their party. Howard Dean positions his opposition to the war as an act of ‘political courage’ and says he was ‘right all along,’ and other presidential contenders are following his lead.
“But what are they ‘right all along’ about? Their policy is this: when presented with the widely shared conclusion that a dictator with a history of using weapons of mass destruction is developing more, in defiance of an international order, the United States will not act until after such weapons have been used - perhaps, even, against us.
“That is a policy destined for failure, or worse, tragedy.”
former McCain advisor looking to join a campaign... http://www.tnr.com/etc.mhtml?pid=503
The New Republic magazine backed McCain strongly during the Republican primaries. So it's with nostalgia that they report that McCain is definitely not running in 2004. However, their misery might well translate into Dean's fortune - when it comes to McCain's campaign advisor, John Weaver:
we all know there's only one candidate in the field that can invoke the legacy of McCain's campaign... there are some interesting quotes from Weaver in an attack piece published in NRO last year that really are tantalizing:
stripped of Lowry's highly-selective moralizing about Big Money, Weaver sounds like the kind of advisor who's looking for more Straight Talk. Let's see whether he can recognize it in Vermont.
But while McCain may be sitting out the '04 race, the same probably won't go for Weaver. Although he has been waylaid from politics for a few months due to illness, Weaver is working almost full-time again, and sounded eager to work on another presidential campaign. (For a Democrat, that is: Weaver changed parties last year.) Weaver hasn't signed up with any campaign yet, but it sounds as if he will. For that we're glad. We just wish his candidate could be McCain.
we all know there's only one candidate in the field that can invoke the legacy of McCain's campaign... there are some interesting quotes from Weaver in an attack piece published in NRO last year that really are tantalizing:
If John Weaver really thinks Big Money politics is corrupt, one would think he'd go out of his way to avoid becoming a Big Money Washington consultant. It is on this principle that, say, televangelists don't cavort with strippers, or when they're caught doing it, at least act really embarrassed.
Weaver, however, is not embarrassed. His excuse is that he's the only honest man in Washington. "It's the difference between people who are in Washington to get something done and people who are in Washington who want to be someone," Weaver told Roll Call.
stripped of Lowry's highly-selective moralizing about Big Money, Weaver sounds like the kind of advisor who's looking for more Straight Talk. Let's see whether he can recognize it in Vermont.
Statement of Governor Howard Dean on Justice Scalia’s Dissent in Texas Sodomy Case http://www.deanforamerica.com
From the campaign...
For Immediate Release
June 26, 2003Statement of Governor Howard Dean on Justice Scalia’s Dissent in Texas Sodomy Case
“In today’s landmark Supreme Court ruling striking down the Texas sodomy law, six Justices understood that private consensual sexual conduct is just that – private. It is none of the government’s business, and it was unconstitutional for the State of Texas to make it a crime.
Justice Scalia, Justice Thomas and Chief Justice Rehnquist opposed the civil rights of homosexuals. Scalia wrote a harsh dissent filled with words that will be hateful to many Americans. He spoke darkly of “the homosexual agenda” and echoed Senator Rick Santorum by writing that laws against homosexuality further “the same interest” as laws against fornication, bigamy, adultery, adult incest, bestiality, and obscenity.
As a former Governor who appointed many judges to the Vermont bench, I value the quality of judicial temperament. Scalia’s intemperate dissent in this case shows why he should never have been appointed to the Supreme Court in the first place and why he is not fit to serve as Chief Justice should a vacancy occur. His increasingly shrill opinions have become an embarrassment to the Supreme Court.
President Bush says we need more Justices like Scalia. I say we cannot afford more Justices like Scalia, and we cannot afford four more years of the President who would appoint such Justices. “
- (30) -
Celebrate the Supreme Court ruling
The Supreme Court today struck down anti-sodomy laws. There will be events this afternoon all over the country to celebrate. Show up and hand out flyers for Dean! Here are two flyers you can use:
UPDATED FLYER: We have two updated versions of the one-page PDF of a flyer posted earlier. These versions include Dean's statement today (see below) plus the quotes from Dean on civil unions on the earlier flyer. Thanks to Jennifer for putting her graphic design skills to use on short notice! Here are version one and version two.
A more detailed two-page PDF of his views on equal rights for all.
Here's Dean's statement from the official blog:
These flyers may get even wider use than we expected. This weekend there are also eight major Pride events where Dean volunteers will be out in force this weekend. Click on the city name for more information.
Twin Cities, which is the 4th largest Pride in the nation with an expected 400,000 people. MN volunteers will have a booth & will be marching in the parade!
Atlanta, which is expecting 300,000 people. GA volunteers are having a fundraiser on Thursday, they are sharing a booth with another group during pride, & are having a post-pride party.
Other cities: Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, New York City (all week long), Seattle, St. Louis
UPDATED FLYER: We have two updated versions of the one-page PDF of a flyer posted earlier. These versions include Dean's statement today (see below) plus the quotes from Dean on civil unions on the earlier flyer. Thanks to Jennifer for putting her graphic design skills to use on short notice! Here are version one and version two.
A more detailed two-page PDF of his views on equal rights for all.
Here's Dean's statement from the official blog:
UPDATE 2:
WASHINGTON, DC - "I applaud the Supreme Court ruling in the case of Lawrence v. Texas overturning the Texas anti-sodomy law. This decision marks a significant advance toward achieving equal rights for all Americans. For too long, laws like this have divided us by race, by gender and by sexual orientation. As a Governor who worked hard to protect the rights of gay and lesbian couples, I am extremely pleased with the Supreme Court's ruling.
"Every American, regardless of sexual orientation, should be afforded the right to privacy. The Texas anti-sodomy law was nothing less than government-sanctioned intolerance and discrimination. The fact that President Bush defended the law while he was Governor shows that he is not the uniter he claims to be."
These flyers may get even wider use than we expected. This weekend there are also eight major Pride events where Dean volunteers will be out in force this weekend. Click on the city name for more information.
Twin Cities, which is the 4th largest Pride in the nation with an expected 400,000 people. MN volunteers will have a booth & will be marching in the parade!
Atlanta, which is expecting 300,000 people. GA volunteers are having a fundraiser on Thursday, they are sharing a booth with another group during pride, & are having a post-pride party.
Other cities: Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, New York City (all week long), Seattle, St. Louis
Dean supporters at Apple WWDC http://www.mikesilverman.com/2003_06_22_log_archive.html#105647219089293734
Mike Silverman writes:
How cool is that? Hey you Deaniacs out there who were at eth WWDC, please send us photos to share!
It occurs to me that Apple is a natural target for Dean supporters - after all, Al Gore is on the board of directors. Wouldn't it be interesting if Dean were to feature in an Apple "Switch" ad?
use the open thread to share your suggestions on cross-brand marketing between Apple and Dean for America!
Apple's new g5 computers are incredible machines. Physically beautiful, and capable of sustained 150 FPS at 1024x768 playing Unreal Tourney 2003. In other news, Howard Dean supporters were politicking outside the main entrance to the convention hall. They were quite creative in using Mac-themes in their signs: "Re-boot America" and "Does Bush give you a kernel panic?" were two I can remember.
How cool is that? Hey you Deaniacs out there who were at eth WWDC, please send us photos to share!
It occurs to me that Apple is a natural target for Dean supporters - after all, Al Gore is on the board of directors. Wouldn't it be interesting if Dean were to feature in an Apple "Switch" ad?
use the open thread to share your suggestions on cross-brand marketing between Apple and Dean for America!
Latest Meetup Stats http://www.demog.berkeley.edu/~gabriel/dean2004blog/worldwide_meetup_figure.pdf
Click for a full-page PDF.
Republicans for Dean
Is anyone here a Republican or Conservative who has grown disillusioned with Bush and is interested in Dean (possibly because of his state's right or gun right's stances)? If so, I'd like to talk to you and would appreciate it if you could drop me a line at eklein@ucsc.edu. Thanks.
UPDATE (Aziz): BTW, here are the requested bumper stickers ... we now have Libertarian, Green, and Republican for Dean.
UPDATE (Aziz): BTW, here are the requested bumper stickers ... we now have Libertarian, Green, and Republican for Dean.
Gallup Mapping Dean's March http://www.mydd.com/archives/000631.html
In the latest Gallup Poll of registered Democratic voters, there's still a wide-open primary, but a few trends are developing. Dean & Graham are at 7% for the first time. Lieberman got a bounce, but has been flat for a few months, as has Edwards. Gephardt and Kerry are not showing any signs of momentum or growth.
For Dean, it's not just the movement in national recognition, Graham has about the same trajectory. It's this in combination with his netroots & grassroots base, his fundraising, and his strong polling in the first two primaries.
Dean has arrived. He's a top-tier candidate for the Democratic nomination. In the words of the WaPost CW:
It's only just begun. In the coming few months, Dean will hit double-digits in the national polling. Dean's come a long way since a few of us here were arguing about Dean's chances in early 2002; but now he's on the cusp and it's time to step it up-- to do the real work.
For Dean, it's not just the movement in national recognition, Graham has about the same trajectory. It's this in combination with his netroots & grassroots base, his fundraising, and his strong polling in the first two primaries.
Dean has arrived. He's a top-tier candidate for the Democratic nomination. In the words of the WaPost CW:
Dean has improved his position greatly in recent weeks and months. Once considered a second-tier candidate, down there with the Sharpton, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Sen. Bob Graham and former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, Dean now must be considered a first-tier candidate.
He is polling second in New Hampshire and third in Iowa, where he has just launched a risky and bold advertising strategy aimed at shoring up his status as a front-runner.
No doubt about it, Dean is legit. Whether he will stay legit remains to be seen.
It's only just begun. In the coming few months, Dean will hit double-digits in the national polling. Dean's come a long way since a few of us here were arguing about Dean's chances in early 2002; but now he's on the cusp and it's time to step it up-- to do the real work.
How Dean could win - and lose http://www.dailykos.com/archives/003180.html#003180
DailyKos has been running a series of analyses on the major candidates and how they could win the Democratic nomination. Today he has posted his analysis of how Dean could win, and it's notable because he also throws in an alternate scenario of how Dean could lose. This is an essential post and comparing the two scenarios only underlies how important the fund-raising effort will be.
Kos goes into a chronological detailed list of each state's primary dates. For brevoty, I'll just excerpt the summaries. Here is Scenario 1, a Dean win:
Scenario 2 is where Dean loses New Hampshire, and cannot raise funds. In that case the campaign remains competitive but operating a a sever disadvantage. It would all boil down to Super Tuesday:
Kos goes into a chronological detailed list of each state's primary dates. For brevoty, I'll just excerpt the summaries. Here is Scenario 1, a Dean win:
Dean wins the nomination if he takes California, Connecticut, Maryland, Mass, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Hawaii and Washington. He could lose Georgia, North Dakota, and Texas, and still sew up the nomination. The "moderate's" task will be to steal at least two of those states.
Bottom line: My scenario is fairly CW, not too controversial. It assumes that the NH loser in the Dean/Kerry battle will be forced to drop out because of waning media attention. Remember, the media has every interest in culling the field as quickly as possible in order to save money. It's expensive to cover so many candidates.
Scenario 2 is where Dean loses New Hampshire, and cannot raise funds. In that case the campaign remains competitive but operating a a sever disadvantage. It would all boil down to Super Tuesday:
Super Tuesday is a money day, and it's hard to see how Dean could pull it off. His candidacy would probably die in a flood of Kerry money.
But here's the kicker -- as Kerry and Dean split the lefty vote, the "moderate" candidate has an undivided share of the centrist vote. He wins the election right here and now.
Service cuts http://www.prospect.org/webfeatures/2003/06/tomasky-m-06-25.html
This insightful article by Michael Tomasky (one of my favorite writers at The American Prospect) addresses the change in rhetoric needed by Democrats in order to address why the tax cuts are bad for America. The strategy usually pursued by Democrats is to argue that tax cuts are not "fair" - the average guy only gets $400 and the rich guys walk off with $17,000. This is, in essence, a selfish argument, and is usually accompanied by countering tax plans that are also tax-cut oriented but tilt the cuts toward the middle class instead of the rich. In doing so, philosophical ground is actually ceded to the GOP because tax cuts in and of themselves are not being portrayed as harmful, just the distribution. Unfortunately, all the major Democratic candidates (including Dean) have presented variants of this strategy.
Tomasky proposes instead a strategy based on self-interest, which is not intrinsically negative the way that selfishness is:
This is truly principled rhetoric, because it addresses the real need for government spending that states and the private sector simply are unable to assume. Without an argument founded in self-interest, any argument that "tax cuts = service cuts" is left vulnerable to the same conservative arguments against government spending and the inherent evils of the social safety net that have dominated political discourse for twenty years.
Tomasky admits that this is a risky path, but it is certainly better than the flawed selfish argument which has been proven to fail repeatedly. That failure is directly correlated to how principled the argument is.
However, I disagree with Tomasky that this shift towards self-interest might be sufficient - I agree with Jerome below that we also need to see a cut in the payroll tax as an accompaniment. Taken together, then , the main points for an ideal economic platform become:
Tomasky proposes instead a strategy based on self-interest, which is not intrinsically negative the way that selfishness is:
Again, 20 years of right-wing rhetoric has persuaded many people that "government spending" is evil -- it's welfare, food stamps, aid to foreigners, grants for degenerate art. The tax-cut argument will always win as long as people hold government spending in such low regard.
In fact, the vast majority of government spending goes toward things that bring direct or eventual benefits to the lives of middle Americans, and that most Americans say they support: defense, homeland security, Social Security, investment in the country's infrastructure, school lunches, clean air and water, scientific and medical research, highways, local law enforcement, and so on. Of the vast majority of these initiatives, three things can be said: The states can't fund them because they don't have the money; the private sector won't do them because they're not the private sector's responsibility; and individual people cannot take their $400 rebate checks, band together, and decide to go clean up the local lake or hire more airport screeners or fund Alzheimer's research. Like it or not, only the federal government can do, and does, these things.
This is truly principled rhetoric, because it addresses the real need for government spending that states and the private sector simply are unable to assume. Without an argument founded in self-interest, any argument that "tax cuts = service cuts" is left vulnerable to the same conservative arguments against government spending and the inherent evils of the social safety net that have dominated political discourse for twenty years.
Tomasky admits that this is a risky path, but it is certainly better than the flawed selfish argument which has been proven to fail repeatedly. That failure is directly correlated to how principled the argument is.
However, I disagree with Tomasky that this shift towards self-interest might be sufficient - I agree with Jerome below that we also need to see a cut in the payroll tax as an accompaniment. Taken together, then , the main points for an ideal economic platform become:
- Constantly discuss and emphasize the self-interest inherent in government spending
- Push for a payroll tax cut in the lower brackets
- Increase government revenue by increasing the taxable income of all groups, not the tax rate
The Digital Insurgency http://technologyreports.net/nextinnovator/index.html?articleID=1861
There's a long and great article on the Technology Reports website about Dean. Excerpt:
Campaign 2004 is quickly shaping up to be our very first digital presidential showdown since the birth of our republic - and the next resident of the 1600 Pennsylvania Ave could well be America’s first Digital President.
....
While many of us are asleep at night, deep within the vast expanse of cyberspace, there is a bona fide digital insurgency going on – being led by candidate Howard Dean, onetime governor of one of America’s smallest states, Vermont – lightyears, it seems, from the techno-dynamos of Silicon Valley or Alley. Dean, a physician, is running an insurgent campaign modeled somewhat on that of Jimmy Carter, himself a governor of another state not well known technological prowess, who managed to built a grassroots insurgency that took him all the way to the White House.
Clark defends Dean on Crossfire http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0306/25/cf.00.html
CARLSON: General Clark, you went up to Capitol Hill last week, and apparently were very warmly received by Democrats, a measure of how weak the current field is. I want to give you one example. Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont, on NBC this weekend, admitted he had no idea how many military personnel there are in the United States. That's embarrassing, isn't it, that he didn't know that?
CLARK: No, I don't think that's necessarily embarrassing. He gave an answer, as I recall. He said 1 to 2 million. So, I mean, when you count the active and the reservists, he's certainly in the ballpark.
CARLSON: Do you think he has the experience to be president? CLARK: I'm not going to pass judgment on that. I think that's for the American people to decide after they hear the issues and compare the candidates.
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Council on Foreign Relations speech summary
The campaign released a memo to reporters on the speech that Gov. Dean gave to the CFR today. In it, they summarized the message's key points as well as the foreign policy of a Dean Administration. The key points:
The Dean foreign policy:
- Our foreign and military policy must restore American leadership in the world. We need to turn back to policies that have America leading the world rather than pitting America against the world.
- We should not be dividing the world into us versus them, but rallying the world around fundamental principles of decency, responsibility, freedom and mutual respect.
- We must lead by example, not by force; we must continue to be the light unto the nations - setting a moral example through our behavior.
- While we must be prepared and ready to use force, it must be to defend against actual or imminent threat to ourselves or our friends and allies and, in concert with others, to deal with grave humanitarian crises.
- The Bush administration has abandoned a principle that has guided us for 225 years: that preemptive force should be used only against an imminent threat. This administration has changed that policy and made the world a more dangerous - not a safer - place.
The Dean foreign policy:
In restoring principled and multilateral American leadership, Dean's foreign policy would seek to achieve four goals:
(1) Defeat the threat posed by terrorists, tyrants and technologies of mass destruction - but by working with others, not alone.
(2) Strengthen bonds with other countries - conducting foreign policy by posse is short-sighted; our destinies are all intertwined
(3) Spread the benefits of economic growth - middle class democracies don't produce terrorists - fair trade: open up markets but ensuring protections for workers, the environment
(4) Deal with crises threatening sustainability of life on the planet - global warming and pollution, diseases like AIDS, population growth
Council on Foreign Relations speech http://www.cfr.org/publication_print.php?id=6072&content=
Sometimes, the Right Thing to Do cannot be described by a soundbite. This puts any attempt by Democrats to reclaim the title of Foreign Policy mastery from the GOP at a disadvantage, given that the media is not designed to convey ideas larger than soundbite size accurately to the American public.
However, Howard Dean recognizes that an articulate vision of foreign policy is essential - not just for politics, but for America's own sake. His speech to the Council on Foreign Relations is a boldly comprehensive and exhaustive vision, laid out with the attention to detail that demonstrates his knowledge that foreign policy demands more than mere disagreement with President Bush.
It's a long speech but it's essential reading in full. Here is the very core of his vision, however:
However, Howard Dean recognizes that an articulate vision of foreign policy is essential - not just for politics, but for America's own sake. His speech to the Council on Foreign Relations is a boldly comprehensive and exhaustive vision, laid out with the attention to detail that demonstrates his knowledge that foreign policy demands more than mere disagreement with President Bush.
It's a long speech but it's essential reading in full. Here is the very core of his vision, however:
America is not Rome. We do not dream of empire. We dream of liberty for all.
In November 2004, the American people will seek a President who is prepared to use our brave and remarkable armed forces -- as I would -- to defend against any actual or imminent threat to ourselves or our friends and allies and, in concert with others to deal with grave humanitarian crises.
They will seek a President skilled at garnering the support of allies, but willing to act -- as I would -- when it is necessary to protect and defend our country.
They will seek a President focused -- as I would be -- on the dismantling of terrorist organizations, the disruption of terrorist operations, the apprehension of terrorist planners and the prevention of terrorist efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction.
But they will also seek a President who would strive -- as I would -- not to divide the world into us versus them, but rather to rally the world around fundamental principles of decency, responsibility, freedom and mutual respect. Our foreign and military policy must be about the notion of America leading the world not America against the world.
Presidents such as Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy built and strengthened international institutions, rather than dismissing and disparaging the concerns of allies. They inspired and mobilized other countries because they believed there was no more powerful force on earth than that of free people working together.
They helped build global platforms such as the UN, NATO, and the World Bank on which free people everywhere could stand. Our greatest leaders built America's reputation as the world's leading democracy by never resting until they had given life to American ideals.
That is why I do not accept that a candidate's national security credentials should be considered suspect for opposing the war in Iraq at the time it was initiated with the limited level of international support we had, the lack of postwar planning that had been undertaken, and the failure to make the case that the threat was imminent enough to justify preventive action.
Setting the agenda, Dean won't cede an inch to the GOP http://www.prospect.org/webfeatures/2003/06/franke-ruta-g-06-24.html
Getting back to the subject of language which I addressed in my earlier post, I'd like to direct everyone to this article from the American Prospect. For the past two years, we've been told that we're unpatriotic because we've questioned the wisdom behind the Iraq intervention or the wisdom behind tax cuts for the wealthy. We've been (in some cases) spat upon, berated, shouted down, and branded as traitors or communists by the GOP Fedayeen. For too long, many of us have walked in fear, afraid to stand up and make our case against the rabid nationalism that permeates the GOP leadership. The GOP has shamelessly co-opted patriotism, our flag, and religion to further their radical agenda. Folks, it's time to remove the star-spangled blinders.
Howard Dean has been slowly but surely working his way towards reclaiming patriotism and morality for the Democratic Party. Take - for example - his speech and actions at the Wisconsin Democratic convention. (I actually wrote up a huge post for my personal blog that covered this, and of course my box crashed before I saved it - grrr! But it's more relevant than ever so here goes) By all accounts, Dean gave a rousing speech that ended with him him waving a giant American flag. This took place on the weekend we celebrate Flag Day in the state where the holiday originated. Coincidence? I'm sure Dean's flag-waving was fueled by passion, and the symbolism of his action and the location meshed perfectly.
Over at the official blog, many people have posted personal accounts of the singing of the Star Spangled Banner before the Declaration Celebration began on Monday. This is summed up in the Prospect article:
Then came the GAR speech. Dean is clearly not going to cede patriotism to the GOP. Take these excerpts, where Dean draws a line in the sand and firmly states that the GOP isn't the only patriotic party in America.
"The Americans I have met love their country. They believe deeply in its promise, our values and our principles. But they know something is wrong and they want to take action." Message: Republicans aren't the only people who love America.
"The tax cuts that are the radicals’ weapon are not about tax cuts for working people. They are not even about tax cuts for millionaires. Instead, the tax cuts are designed to destroy Social Security, Medicare, our public schools and our public services through starvation and privatization." Message: the GOP pretends to care about middle America (ooo shades of the so-called "compassionate conservatism"), but it's actions contradict this. The Democrats will continue to protect the social programs which help middle and lower class Americans.
"An America where it is not enough for me to want health care for my family – but the obligation, and responsibility of every one of us as American citizens to insure that each one of us has health care for our families." Message: It takes a villiage. The GOP thinks it takes a corporation.
Notice that he uses the words "duty" and "responsibility" multiple times. For too long, the GOP has played the "responsibility" card, yet their actions demonstrate that they don't understand the meaning of those words.
"The idea of America using its power solely for its own ends is not consistent with the idealistic moral force the world has known for over two centuries. We must rejoin the world community. America is far stronger as the moral and military leader of the world than we will ever be by relying solely on military power." Message: the GOP isn't providing moral leadership. The Democrats will. Dean plays the morality card quite well here. He reclaims the mantle of morality for all of us who are concerned with more than what happens in our own back yard. Dean sends a message that he'll provide moral leadership by inspiring other countries to strive for greatness, and he sends a message that he'll lead by example rather than intimidation and aggression.
Many people are scared to face down the GOP because they employ tactics of intimidation, and because the GOP has successfully laid a claim to patriotism. Howard Dean (and his supporters) is not scared to confront the GOP and reclaim the high moral ground. We know we're good, concerned, patriotic Americans. We also know that moral clarity is not reserved for the radicals in the White House. What, after all, could be more moral than wanting a brighter, more secure future for our children to inherit? What could be more patriotic than wanting to see America as a beacon of hope, rather than a threat? If you're looking for a candidate who's willing to stand up for ALL Americans - rather than the chosen few - Howard Dean is your man. If you're looking for a candidate who isn't scared to call the GOP exactly what it is, then Howard Dean is your man. And most of all, if you are looking for a candidate who won't let the GOP define the issues, then Howard Dean is your man.
We need a Democratic candidate who's willing to reclaim the rhetorical ground we've lost during the last two election cycles. Nobody will do a better job of staking that claim than Howard Dean.
Howard Dean has been slowly but surely working his way towards reclaiming patriotism and morality for the Democratic Party. Take - for example - his speech and actions at the Wisconsin Democratic convention. (I actually wrote up a huge post for my personal blog that covered this, and of course my box crashed before I saved it - grrr! But it's more relevant than ever so here goes) By all accounts, Dean gave a rousing speech that ended with him him waving a giant American flag. This took place on the weekend we celebrate Flag Day in the state where the holiday originated. Coincidence? I'm sure Dean's flag-waving was fueled by passion, and the symbolism of his action and the location meshed perfectly.
Over at the official blog, many people have posted personal accounts of the singing of the Star Spangled Banner before the Declaration Celebration began on Monday. This is summed up in the Prospect article:
During the singing of "The Star-Spangled Banner," before Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) spoke, the young singer's solo was joined by an at-first quiet harmony about halfway through the song. Voice then added onto voice until much of the crowd was singing with her, softly but intently. At "the land of the free," a small wave of applause and cheers rippled across the crowd. After "home of the brave," loud applause and enthusiastic shouts burst out, as if those clapping and yelling could now feel in the words of that most familiar of songs new meaning. It wasn't just their national anthem; it was their personal anthem, too, telling them, as Dean often urges, to "stand up and fight."
Then came the GAR speech. Dean is clearly not going to cede patriotism to the GOP. Take these excerpts, where Dean draws a line in the sand and firmly states that the GOP isn't the only patriotic party in America.
"The Americans I have met love their country. They believe deeply in its promise, our values and our principles. But they know something is wrong and they want to take action." Message: Republicans aren't the only people who love America.
"The tax cuts that are the radicals’ weapon are not about tax cuts for working people. They are not even about tax cuts for millionaires. Instead, the tax cuts are designed to destroy Social Security, Medicare, our public schools and our public services through starvation and privatization." Message: the GOP pretends to care about middle America (ooo shades of the so-called "compassionate conservatism"), but it's actions contradict this. The Democrats will continue to protect the social programs which help middle and lower class Americans.
"An America where it is not enough for me to want health care for my family – but the obligation, and responsibility of every one of us as American citizens to insure that each one of us has health care for our families." Message: It takes a villiage. The GOP thinks it takes a corporation.
Notice that he uses the words "duty" and "responsibility" multiple times. For too long, the GOP has played the "responsibility" card, yet their actions demonstrate that they don't understand the meaning of those words.
"The idea of America using its power solely for its own ends is not consistent with the idealistic moral force the world has known for over two centuries. We must rejoin the world community. America is far stronger as the moral and military leader of the world than we will ever be by relying solely on military power." Message: the GOP isn't providing moral leadership. The Democrats will. Dean plays the morality card quite well here. He reclaims the mantle of morality for all of us who are concerned with more than what happens in our own back yard. Dean sends a message that he'll provide moral leadership by inspiring other countries to strive for greatness, and he sends a message that he'll lead by example rather than intimidation and aggression.
Many people are scared to face down the GOP because they employ tactics of intimidation, and because the GOP has successfully laid a claim to patriotism. Howard Dean (and his supporters) is not scared to confront the GOP and reclaim the high moral ground. We know we're good, concerned, patriotic Americans. We also know that moral clarity is not reserved for the radicals in the White House. What, after all, could be more moral than wanting a brighter, more secure future for our children to inherit? What could be more patriotic than wanting to see America as a beacon of hope, rather than a threat? If you're looking for a candidate who's willing to stand up for ALL Americans - rather than the chosen few - Howard Dean is your man. If you're looking for a candidate who isn't scared to call the GOP exactly what it is, then Howard Dean is your man. And most of all, if you are looking for a candidate who won't let the GOP define the issues, then Howard Dean is your man.
We need a Democratic candidate who's willing to reclaim the rhetorical ground we've lost during the last two election cycles. Nobody will do a better job of staking that claim than Howard Dean.
Dean and FICA wages
In the recent RNC/MTP mugging of Howard Dean by Tim Russert, Dean seemed halfway to the seeing the sweet spot of the swing for 2004:
First off, Dean eludes to something that makes his idea a bit of a non-starter. The cap on FICA wages are tied to the rise of inflation, so they are raised every year. The cap for 2002, which Dean eludes to, is $84,900. For 2003, it will $89,400. By the time of 2005, the first possible budget that Dean would have control over, it'd probably already be at $100,000 (assuming Bush II doesn't drag us into a deflationary economy).
But that's just a sidenote. The problem with this is that it is going to be shaped as Dean raising taxes to save SS; similar to how Russert and the RNC frame Dean's choice of reversing the Bush tax-cuts in order to deliver national health-care and a balanced budget.
What's missing is any argument of a stimulus to the economy. Sure, you could argue that restoring fiscal responsibility will turn the corner, eventually, but not in the short-term. Facing a $500B year deficit, and decreased revenues due to the Bush tax-cuts, Dean, and the Democratic Party as a whole are going to have to offer a short-term economic stimulus package that is not deficit-producing.
Dean's already argued for the tough medicine, in raising the cap on FICA wages. Why have a cap at all? Make FICA applicable to all wages, and further, eliminate the first 15-20K from having to pay any FICA payments at all. That's right, a tax-cut.
In essence, everyone making under ~$110k (and this is single wage earners, for married couples both working, it'd be ~$220k) would recieve a tax break, with those at ~$20k annually seeing their payroll taxes eliminated, and those individuals above ~$90k (effectively ~$110k, because the first ~$20k is eliminated) and couples above $220k seeing their taxes raised.
This would stimulate the economy, as anyone's first $20K goes right into spending; and at the same time, ensure the long-term stability of social security, by raising the taxes of the top ~10% wage-earners.
This economic agenda doesn't have to be that complicated:
Candidate A, a Democrat, pledges to cut the payroll taxes of all individuals earning under $110k, and all married couples both working and earning under $220k.
Candidate B, a Republican, claims that 90% of the people don't deserve a tax-cut, defends the elite, the rich, and... loses.
I confess, I've taken Reich's idea and dumbed it down (heaven forbid), but that doesn't matter, you get the point.
MR. RUSSERT: But you would consider increasing the payroll tax?
DR. DEAN: Absolutely. You don't have to increase the amount of the payroll tax, you increase the salary that it's applied to. You see what I mean?
MR. RUSSERT: Yes.
DR. DEAN: You’ve got to look at expanding the amount of money that gets taxed for Social Security. You know, if you make $100,000 a year, the last $15,000 doesn’t have to pay Social Security tax for it.... $85,000, maybe you raise it to $100,000 or whatever the numbers are. We've got to look at the numbers to figure out what you do. You get the Social Security problem off the table first by fixing it...
First off, Dean eludes to something that makes his idea a bit of a non-starter. The cap on FICA wages are tied to the rise of inflation, so they are raised every year. The cap for 2002, which Dean eludes to, is $84,900. For 2003, it will $89,400. By the time of 2005, the first possible budget that Dean would have control over, it'd probably already be at $100,000 (assuming Bush II doesn't drag us into a deflationary economy).
But that's just a sidenote. The problem with this is that it is going to be shaped as Dean raising taxes to save SS; similar to how Russert and the RNC frame Dean's choice of reversing the Bush tax-cuts in order to deliver national health-care and a balanced budget.
What's missing is any argument of a stimulus to the economy. Sure, you could argue that restoring fiscal responsibility will turn the corner, eventually, but not in the short-term. Facing a $500B year deficit, and decreased revenues due to the Bush tax-cuts, Dean, and the Democratic Party as a whole are going to have to offer a short-term economic stimulus package that is not deficit-producing.
Dean's already argued for the tough medicine, in raising the cap on FICA wages. Why have a cap at all? Make FICA applicable to all wages, and further, eliminate the first 15-20K from having to pay any FICA payments at all. That's right, a tax-cut.
In essence, everyone making under ~$110k (and this is single wage earners, for married couples both working, it'd be ~$220k) would recieve a tax break, with those at ~$20k annually seeing their payroll taxes eliminated, and those individuals above ~$90k (effectively ~$110k, because the first ~$20k is eliminated) and couples above $220k seeing their taxes raised.
This would stimulate the economy, as anyone's first $20K goes right into spending; and at the same time, ensure the long-term stability of social security, by raising the taxes of the top ~10% wage-earners.
This economic agenda doesn't have to be that complicated:
Candidate A, a Democrat, pledges to cut the payroll taxes of all individuals earning under $110k, and all married couples both working and earning under $220k.
Candidate B, a Republican, claims that 90% of the people don't deserve a tax-cut, defends the elite, the rich, and... loses.
I confess, I've taken Reich's idea and dumbed it down (heaven forbid), but that doesn't matter, you get the point.
TNR gives Dean an "A" on Iraq - so much for weakness in foreign policy http://www.tnr.com/primary/index.mhtml?pid=504
Sure, we've all got our gripes with TNR's grading system sometimes, so we've got to give them props when we believe they get it right. John Judis searched the websites of all the Democratic candidates with the intention of finding foreign policy statements. He notes that only Dean, Lieberman, and Edwards have foreign policy sections on their websites. He observes that the Democrats would be better served if they all brushed up on foreign policy, and offers this reasoning:
I couldn't agree more, John. Thank you for the fair review. I'd also like to direct everyone to Dean's statements on national security, homeland security, and his June 17 statement about Iraq.
Why is it, one must ask, that in a recent Washington Post/ABC poll a quarter of Americans think that Iraq used WMD against American troops in the war? It's because in the absence of any discussion by the Democrats, the Republicans and the Bush administration are able to operate in an informational cocoon of prejudice, myth, and plain nonsense that they have spun. And as the Democrats should have learned in November 2002, foreign policy issues are not going to go away. They can either make their positions clear, or leave the issue to the Republicans to define.
I couldn't agree more, John. Thank you for the fair review. I'd also like to direct everyone to Dean's statements on national security, homeland security, and his June 17 statement about Iraq.
Bush vs Dean, or empty rhetoric vs substance http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030630&c=2&s=brooks
In this Nation article, clinical psychologist Dr Renana Brooks analyzes Bush's use of emotional language as a political tool. She's meticulously poured through Bush's speeches and has outlined a few techniques that Bush successfully employs. This article is extemely interesting, as it exposes Bush's language for what it is:
I'd like to contrast Bush's techniques with some text from Dean's Great American Restoration speech.
The first technique Brooks analyzes is the use of empty language. Empty language is the use of broad and abstract statements that contain so little substance that the listener is distracted and unable to examine the content of the rhetoric. Empty language is used to attribute negative connotations to other ideas, to conceal faulty logic, and reframe an arguement. She cites a few examples from Bush's SOTU speech earlier this year. One example of Bush's empty rhetoric regarding taxes is, "The best and fairest way to make sure Americans have that money is not to tax it away in the first place."
While this sentence may contain an emotional appeal, the phrase doesn't mean anything. It simply states the obvious: we'd all like lower taxes. Okay - and??? Contrast this with Dean's statement on taxes in his speech: "Companies are leaving the country to avoid paying taxes, or to avoid paying people livable wages. And corporations are doing this with the support of the government and a political process in Washington that they rent -- if not own." Dean clearly states that there's a serious problem with our tax code: companies are incorporating offshore to avoid paying income taxes and our government is explicitly supporting it. This is more specific than the ambiguous language used by Bush.
Bush also uses a technique (that he probably learned in all those business speech classes at Yale) called personalisation. This is used to focus the listener's attention on the speaker's personality. While this isn't always a bad thing, it's terrible when employed as a distraction. Bush uses it to project an image that he'll solve all our problems. "I will not forget this wound to our country or those who inflicted it. I will not yield; I will not rest; I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people." This also allows the listener to abdicate responsiblity for a problem to the speaker. Contrast this with Howard Dean, who firmly states that, "The great lie spoken by politicians on platforms like this is the cry of 'elect me and I will solve all your problems'. The truth is the future of our nation rests in your hands, and not in mine."
Brooks also hilights Bush's use of repetition, which I'm sure you're all familiar with. "Repeat it until everyone believes it."
Brooks saves the best for last, as she explains why the public is succeptible to Bush's lies due to his proficiency in employing empty rhetoric and personalisation:
It's called negative framework. I call it the language of fear, and it's backed up by other actions, such as the "terror alert system". In his speech of 9/20/01, Bush chose to scare the bejesus out of all of us, rather than sooth our fears and alleviate our concerns. "Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen." An in a policy speech from October of 2002, he stated, "Some ask how urgent this danger is to America and the world. The danger is already significant, and it only grows worse with time.... Iraq could decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a terrorist group or individual terrorists." He implies that this is a neverending crisis which we the people are powerless against. He insinuates that we must entrust him to protect us, rather than empowering us to protect ourselves.
Contrast this with this snippet from Dean's speech: "Abraham Lincoln said that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from this earth. But this President has forgotten ordinary people. You have the power to reclaim our nation’s destiny. You have the power to rid Washington of the politics of money. You have the power to make right as important as might. You have the power to give Americans a reason to vote again. You have the power to restore our nation to fiscal sanity and bring jobs back to our people. You have the power to fulfill Harry Truman’s dream and bring health insurance to every American. You have the power to give us a foreign policy consistent with American values again." If that's not empowering, then I'll eat this web page.
Brooks concludes that the way to break through to the electorate is to employ a positive vision for America:
With this in mind, the theme of a "great American restoration" is certainly positive. Some choice quotes:
"If September 11, 2001 taught America anything it is that we are stronger when we are beholden to each other as a national community, and weaker when we act only as individuals. That tragedy gave us an enormous opportunity to focus not only on our common peril, but also on our common dreams. The peril remains, but the dreams must be resurrected -- and they will be in a new American century."
And finally: "This campaign is about more than issue differences on health care, tax cuts, national security, jobs, the environment and our economy. It is about something as important as our children. It’s about who we are as Americans.
Here are the words of John Winthrop: 'We shall be as one. We must delight in each other, make other’s conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always living before our eyes our Commission and Community in our work.' It is that ideal, the ideal of the American community, that we seek to restore."
President Bush, like many dominant personality types, uses dependency-creating language. He employs language of contempt and intimidation to shame others into submission and desperate admiration. While we tend to think of the dominator as using physical force, in fact most dominators use verbal abuse to control others.
I'd like to contrast Bush's techniques with some text from Dean's Great American Restoration speech.
The first technique Brooks analyzes is the use of empty language. Empty language is the use of broad and abstract statements that contain so little substance that the listener is distracted and unable to examine the content of the rhetoric. Empty language is used to attribute negative connotations to other ideas, to conceal faulty logic, and reframe an arguement. She cites a few examples from Bush's SOTU speech earlier this year. One example of Bush's empty rhetoric regarding taxes is, "The best and fairest way to make sure Americans have that money is not to tax it away in the first place."
While this sentence may contain an emotional appeal, the phrase doesn't mean anything. It simply states the obvious: we'd all like lower taxes. Okay - and??? Contrast this with Dean's statement on taxes in his speech: "Companies are leaving the country to avoid paying taxes, or to avoid paying people livable wages. And corporations are doing this with the support of the government and a political process in Washington that they rent -- if not own." Dean clearly states that there's a serious problem with our tax code: companies are incorporating offshore to avoid paying income taxes and our government is explicitly supporting it. This is more specific than the ambiguous language used by Bush.
Bush also uses a technique (that he probably learned in all those business speech classes at Yale) called personalisation. This is used to focus the listener's attention on the speaker's personality. While this isn't always a bad thing, it's terrible when employed as a distraction. Bush uses it to project an image that he'll solve all our problems. "I will not forget this wound to our country or those who inflicted it. I will not yield; I will not rest; I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people." This also allows the listener to abdicate responsiblity for a problem to the speaker. Contrast this with Howard Dean, who firmly states that, "The great lie spoken by politicians on platforms like this is the cry of 'elect me and I will solve all your problems'. The truth is the future of our nation rests in your hands, and not in mine."
Brooks also hilights Bush's use of repetition, which I'm sure you're all familiar with. "Repeat it until everyone believes it."
In an article in the January 16 New York Review of Books, Joan Didion highlighted Bush's high degree of personalization and contempt for argumentation in presenting his case for going to war in Iraq. As Didion writes: 'I made up my mind,' he had said in April, 'that Saddam needs to go.' This was one of many curious, almost petulant statements offered in lieu of actually presenting a case. I've made up my mind, I've said in speech after speech, I've made myself clear. The repeated statements became their own reason."
Brooks saves the best for last, as she explains why the public is succeptible to Bush's lies due to his proficiency in employing empty rhetoric and personalisation:
To create a dependency dynamic between him and the electorate, Bush describes the nation as being in a perpetual state of crisis and then attempts to convince the electorate that it is powerless and that he is the only one with the strength to deal with it. He attempts to persuade people they must transfer power to him, thus crushing the power of the citizen, the Congress, the Democratic Party, even constitutional liberties, to concentrate all power in the imperial presidency and the Republican Party.
It's called negative framework. I call it the language of fear, and it's backed up by other actions, such as the "terror alert system". In his speech of 9/20/01, Bush chose to scare the bejesus out of all of us, rather than sooth our fears and alleviate our concerns. "Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen." An in a policy speech from October of 2002, he stated, "Some ask how urgent this danger is to America and the world. The danger is already significant, and it only grows worse with time.... Iraq could decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a terrorist group or individual terrorists." He implies that this is a neverending crisis which we the people are powerless against. He insinuates that we must entrust him to protect us, rather than empowering us to protect ourselves.
Contrast this with this snippet from Dean's speech: "Abraham Lincoln said that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from this earth. But this President has forgotten ordinary people. You have the power to reclaim our nation’s destiny. You have the power to rid Washington of the politics of money. You have the power to make right as important as might. You have the power to give Americans a reason to vote again. You have the power to restore our nation to fiscal sanity and bring jobs back to our people. You have the power to fulfill Harry Truman’s dream and bring health insurance to every American. You have the power to give us a foreign policy consistent with American values again." If that's not empowering, then I'll eat this web page.
Brooks concludes that the way to break through to the electorate is to employ a positive vision for America:
Bush's political opponents are caught in a fantasy that they can win against him simply by proving the superiority of their ideas. However, people do not support Bush for the power of his ideas, but out of the despair and desperation in their hearts. Whenever people are in the grip of a desperate dependency, they won't respond to rational criticisms of the people they are dependent on. They will respond to plausible and forceful statements and alternatives that put the American electorate back in touch with their core optimism. Bush's opponents must combat his dark imagery with hope and restore American vigor and optimism in the coming years.
With this in mind, the theme of a "great American restoration" is certainly positive. Some choice quotes:
"If September 11, 2001 taught America anything it is that we are stronger when we are beholden to each other as a national community, and weaker when we act only as individuals. That tragedy gave us an enormous opportunity to focus not only on our common peril, but also on our common dreams. The peril remains, but the dreams must be resurrected -- and they will be in a new American century."
And finally: "This campaign is about more than issue differences on health care, tax cuts, national security, jobs, the environment and our economy. It is about something as important as our children. It’s about who we are as Americans.
Here are the words of John Winthrop: 'We shall be as one. We must delight in each other, make other’s conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always living before our eyes our Commission and Community in our work.' It is that ideal, the ideal of the American community, that we seek to restore."
Only 5 More Days http://www.deanforamerica.com/slides/
Thank you for all your amazing work on getting out the MoveOn vote! Thank you for all your incredible work getting together the 30,000 person national rally on June 23rd (see some beautiful slides from the rally, along with excerpts from the speech, here). Now, we are almost to the end of this critical month of June. There are only 5 more days until the end of the second quarter fundraising filing deadline.
In the last two days, over 5,000 NEW contributors donated to Dean for America. Meetup members have started to max out--people who have never given to any political campaign are now donating hundreds of dollars to Dean for America. People who have never talked to their friends about political candidates are asking their friends to join them and donate to Dean. We have five days to take the momentum from the June 23rd event and transform it into an incredible fundraising quarter--but we need the help of every person who cares deeply about this campaign. This is your campaign. Please donate what you can now--for the first, second, or fourth time--and send an email to all your friends, asking them to join us. Thank you again.
In the last two days, over 5,000 NEW contributors donated to Dean for America. Meetup members have started to max out--people who have never given to any political campaign are now donating hundreds of dollars to Dean for America. People who have never talked to their friends about political candidates are asking their friends to join them and donate to Dean. We have five days to take the momentum from the June 23rd event and transform it into an incredible fundraising quarter--but we need the help of every person who cares deeply about this campaign. This is your campaign. Please donate what you can now--for the first, second, or fourth time--and send an email to all your friends, asking them to join us. Thank you again.
The Great American Restoration
This is the full text of Dean's "Great American Restoration" speech, delivered at the Declaration Celebration:
(see this prior post for links to video)
30,000 Americans in over 400 cities and towns gathered today to listen to Howard Dean announce his candidacy for President of the United States
Burlington, Vermont -- Today I announce that I am running for President of the United States of America. I speak not only for my candidacy. I speak for a new American century and a new generation of Americans -- both young people and the young at heart. We seek the great restoration of American values and the restoration of our nation's traditional purpose in the world.
This is a campaign to unite and empower people everywhere.
It is a call to every American, regardless of party, to join together in common purpose and for the common good to save and restore all that it means to be an American.
Over a year ago I began to travel the country in the usual way one does when seeking the Presidency.
I believed that, by running for President, I could raise the issues of health care for every American and the need to focus on early childhood development. I wanted to bring those issues to the forefront of the national debate. And I wanted to balance the budget to bring financial stability and jobs back to America.
Most importantly, I have wanted my party to stand up for what we believe in again.
But something changed along the way as I listened to Americans around this country. On my first trip to Iowa I heard people speak of a profound fear and distrust of multi-national corporations. From New Hampshire to Texas I met Americans doubting the words of our leaders and our government in Washington. Every where I go people are asking fundamental questions: Who can we trust? Is the media reporting the truth? What is happening to our country?
The Americans I have met love their country. They believe deeply in its promise, our values and our principles. But they know something is wrong and they want to take action. They want to do something to right our path. But they feel Washington isn't listening. And as individuals, they lack the power to change the course those in Washington have put us on.
What they know is that somehow 7 trillion dollars of our country's wealth disappeared. Nearly 1 in 10 retired people have had to return to the workforce because they have lost their pensions. Young people are returning to live at home after graduating because they cannot find work.
Companies are leaving the country to avoid paying taxes, or to avoid paying people livable wages. And corporations are doing this with the support of the government and a political process in Washington that they rent -- if not own.
This was the fear that James Madison and Thomas Jefferson spoke of -- the fear that economic power would one day try to seize political power.
Theodore Roosevelt said it best, "Every special interest is entitled to justice full, fair and complete....but not one is entitled to a vote in Congress, to a voice on the bench or to representation in any public office."
Today, our nation is in crisis. At home, this crisis manifests itself in this President's destruction of the idea of community. This President pushes forward an agenda and policies which divide us. He advocates economic polices which beggar the middle class and raise property taxes so that income taxes may be cut for those who ran Enron.
He divides us by race by using the word quota, which appeals to the worst in us by instilling fear that people of color might take our jobs or our places in the nation's best universities. Even the most conservative Supreme Court since the Dred Scott decision did not completely agree with the President's attack on diversity and community that includes all Americans.
He divides us by gender by attacking a woman's right to make her own health care decisions. And even by attacking young women's right to have the same athletic opportunities that young men do. He divides us by sexual orientation by supporting senators who have slandered gay Americans, and he appeals once again to the worst instincts within us, instead of that which is good in all Americans.
The tax cuts that are the radicals' weapon are not about tax cuts for working people. They are not even about tax cuts for millionaires. Instead, the tax cuts are designed to destroy Social Security, Medicare, our public schools and our public services through starvation and privatization.
Our President and too many in Washington are giving away our future so that we pass to our children not a flickering flame of freedom but the chain of insurmountable debt.
No parent would do this and America must not do this.
And so for me the long journey of a Presidential campaign has begun with the people I have met affecting me far more than any affect I may have had on them. And because of that, the reasons why I seek the Presidency have changed.
This campaign is about more than issue differences on health care, tax cuts, national security, jobs, the environment and our economy. It is about something as important as our children. It's about who we are as Americans.
Here are the words of John Winthrop: "We shall be as one. We must delight in each other, make other's conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always living before our eyes our Commission and Community in our work."
It is that ideal, the ideal of the American community, that we seek to restore.
An America where it is not enough for me to want health care for my family but the obligation, and responsibility of every one of us as American citizens to insure that each one of us has health care for our families.
An America where it is not enough for me to want good public schools and a better life for my children but an obligation, and a responsibility as citizens to insure that every child in America may go to a good public school and have the opportunity of a better life.
An America where it is not enough to protect my rights under the law but where it is a duty and an obligation for each of us as Americans to make sure every American is equal under the law.
An America where it is not enough to proclaim the words freedom, self-government, and democracy, but where it is a duty and a responsibility to participate together in common purpose with the sacrifice required of each of us to give those words meaning.
If September 11, 2001 taught America anything it is that we are stronger when we are beholden to each other as a national community, and weaker when we act only as individuals. That tragedy gave us an enormous opportunity to focus not only on our common peril, but also on our common dreams. The peril remains, but the dreams must be resurrected -- and they will be in a new American century.
President Kennedy challenged us to "pass the torch to a new generation of Americans." And so, we must issue that challenge again.
So too must we restore the deepest belief of our people that each generation has a responsibility to pass to our children a nation and a world that is better and stronger than the one that was passed to us.
As we experience the crisis of community at home, we are witnessing the effort to repudiate 225 years of American consensus on what our nation's place should be in the world.
Since the time of Thomas Paine and John Adams, our founders implored that we were not to be the new Rome. We are not to conquer and suppress other nations to submit to our will. We were to inspire them.
The idea of America using its power solely for its own ends is not consistent with the idealistic moral force the world has known for over two centuries.
We must rejoin the world community. America is far stronger as the moral and military leader of the world than we will ever be by relying solely on military power. We destroyed repressive communist regimes without firing a shot, not simply by having a strong military, but because we had a better ideal to show the world.
Every American President must and will take up arms in the defense of our nation. It is a solemn oath that cannot -- and will not -- be compromised.
But there is a fundamental difference between the defense of our nation and the doctrine of preemptive war espoused by this administration. The President's group of narrow-minded ideological advisors are undermining our nation's greatness in the world. They have embraced a form of unilateralism that is even more dangerous than isolationism.
This administration has shown disdain for allies, treaties, and international organizations alike.
In doing so they would throw aside our nation's role as the inspirational leader of the world the beacon of hope and justice in the interests of humankind. And instead, they would present our face to the world as a dominant power prepared to push aside any nation with which we do not agree.
Our foreign and military policies must be about America leading the world, not America against the world.
So how did we come to this point?
How is it that our leaders have abandoned our communities and repudiated our idealism and principles?
When confronted with a dedicated band of right wing ideologues, too many Americans have stopped participating, stopped voting, and stopped believing that they can change America.
And we in politics have not given our people a reason to vote or a reason to participate. We have slavishly spewed sound bites, copying each other while saying little. We raise millions of dollars and each year make lofty promises, while every year the struggles of ordinary Americans increase and fewer Americans vote. Our politicians, many of them good people, have been paralyzed by their fear of losing office. Our leaders have developed a vocabulary which has become meaningless to the American people.
There is no greater example of this than a self-described conservative Republican president who creates the greatest deficits in history of America. Or a President who boasts of a Clear Skies Initiative which allows far more pollution into our air. Or a President who co-opts from an advocacy organization the phrase "No Child Left Behind," while paying for irresponsible tax cuts by cutting children's health care.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
The history of our nation is clear: At every turn when there has been an imbalance of power, the truth questioned, or our beliefs and values distorted, the change required to restore our nation has always come from the bottom up from our people.
And so, while the President raises $4 million more tonight to maintain his agenda, we will not be silent.
He calls his biggest fundraisers Rangers and Pioneers.
But today, we stand together with thousands in Burlington, Vermont and tens of thousands more, standing with us right now in every state in this nation. And we call ourselves, simply, Americans.
And we stand today in common purpose to take our country back.
I am a doctor and I was proud to be Governor of Vermont:
* where we balanced our budgets
* where we made sure that nearly every child in our state had health care coverage
* where we are stewards of our land and natural resources
* where, on the first Tuesday of March every year, Vermonters gather to make decisions on matters vital to our communities
* where we hold these truths to be self evident: that all are created equal and are endowed with the inalienable rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
And, where we, like all Americans, love our country and want to see her flag stand for freedom and justice for all. That flag is not the property of the either party, it belongs to all of us.
It is from this place that the rest of the journey of this campaign continues. We will ask the American people to participate again in our common future. I ask all Americans, regardless of party, to meet with me across the nation to come together in common cause to forge a new American century. Help us in this quest to return greatness, and return high moral purpose to the United States of America.
We are the great grassroots campaign of the modern era, built from mouse pads, shoe leather and hope.
Like MoveOn.org we seek to build a community of millions and strengthen the voice of the people.
And like the founders of our republic, we seek change.
The great lie spoken by politicians on platforms like this is the cry of "elect me and I will solve all your problems."
The truth is the future of our nation rests in your hands, and not in mine.
Abraham Lincoln said that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from this earth.
But this President has forgotten ordinary people.
You have the power to reclaim our nation's destiny.
You have the power to rid Washington of the politics of money.
You have the power to make right as important as might.
You have the power to give Americans a reason to vote again.
You have the power to restore our nation to fiscal sanity and bring jobs back to our people.
You have the power to fulfill Harry Truman's dream and bring health insurance to every American.
You have the power to give us a foreign policy consistent with American values again.
You have the power to take back the Democratic Party.
You have the power to take our country back.
And we have the power to take the White House back in 2004.
(see this prior post for links to video)
freeper "strategery" http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/932797/posts
The "freepers" (posters at Free Republic.com, a rabidly pro-GOP discussion forum) discovered the MoveOn poll and in their usual fashion tried to find a way to derail it.
In the process, though, their threads on FR.com are unintentionally hilarious! For example, they are trying to vote for Al Sharpton or Dennis Kucinich in the poll - which is a waste of their mischief potential (voting for Edwards might have made a difference in pushing him to a marginal victory, for example). (Related - there actually is a Republicans for Sharpton web site now - which I think is a wonderful thing, because by drawing attention to Sharpton's brilliant critiques of Bush and articulate vision of Progressive ideals from a humanist standpoint, they only serve the progressive cause).
The sum total of votes the Freepers were able to amass - including their exacggerated claims of filing ten ballots each - is only about a few hundred. Compared to MoveOn.org's membership base of 1.5 million, this is just noise.
Curiously, some of the Freepers are voting for Dean, claiming that his "unelectability" makes him the perfect spoiler candidate. The irony of a group of so-called conservatives decrying a fiscally conservative, budget-balancing, pro-gun candidate as "unelectable" is probably beyond their ability to discern.
The funniest thing about the freepers is when their governmental paranoia intersects with their political machinations. I'll let a Freeper explain:
Don't worry, my freeper friend. When the FBI come knocking on your door, just invoke the holy name of His servant, John Ashcroft, and He will deliver ye from harm.
In the process, though, their threads on FR.com are unintentionally hilarious! For example, they are trying to vote for Al Sharpton or Dennis Kucinich in the poll - which is a waste of their mischief potential (voting for Edwards might have made a difference in pushing him to a marginal victory, for example). (Related - there actually is a Republicans for Sharpton web site now - which I think is a wonderful thing, because by drawing attention to Sharpton's brilliant critiques of Bush and articulate vision of Progressive ideals from a humanist standpoint, they only serve the progressive cause).
The sum total of votes the Freepers were able to amass - including their exacggerated claims of filing ten ballots each - is only about a few hundred. Compared to MoveOn.org's membership base of 1.5 million, this is just noise.
Curiously, some of the Freepers are voting for Dean, claiming that his "unelectability" makes him the perfect spoiler candidate. The irony of a group of so-called conservatives decrying a fiscally conservative, budget-balancing, pro-gun candidate as "unelectable" is probably beyond their ability to discern.
The funniest thing about the freepers is when their governmental paranoia intersects with their political machinations. I'll let a Freeper explain:
This is not a FReeping opportunity - this is lunacy! These people are COMMUNISTS!
THINK ABOUT IT ...!!
DO YOU REALLY WANT YOUR NAME ON A LIST ASSOCIATED WITH A COMMUNIST ORGANIZATION ...??
HOW WILL YOU EXPLAIN THIS WHEN THE DOJ OR THE FBI COME CALLING AND ASKING YOU QUESTIONS AND POKING INTO YOUR PRIVATE AFFAIRS ...??
Don't worry, my freeper friend. When the FBI come knocking on your door, just invoke the holy name of His servant, John Ashcroft, and He will deliver ye from harm.
Letterman Top 10 list about Dean http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/top_ten/
David Letterman takes aim at the Dean Meme:
Well, I run a Dean-devoted blog, but I plan on swapping my vote for him in texas with a Libertarian in a swing state, so what does that make me? a mild crush or a dangerous fixation?
I think a better topic for a Top Ten list would be, "Top Ten ways David Letterman is an unwitting tool of the Mighty Wurlitzer"
Top Ten Signs You're In Love With Democratic Presidential Candidate Howard Dean
10. You've actually heard of him
9. Whenever he discusses plans to revitalize economy, you get goosebumps
8. Named your cats "Howard," "Dean" and "Six-Term Governor Howard Dean"
7. You'll only watch movies featuring Ron Howard or Harry Dean Stanton
6. When you hear a report on the radio about a highway accident, you murmur, "Please, god, don't let Howard Dean be involved"
5. Constantly complain rival candidate Dennis Kucinich isn't "Howardly" enough
4. Changed outfit four times before watching appearance on "Meet the Press"
3. You stand by him despite the fact his infidelities embarrassed you in front of the entire...oh wait, wrong Democrat
2. When he announced his candidacy, you didn't laugh your ass off
1. You're actually considering wasting a vote on him
Well, I run a Dean-devoted blog, but I plan on swapping my vote for him in texas with a Libertarian in a swing state, so what does that make me? a mild crush or a dangerous fixation?
I think a better topic for a Top Ten list would be, "Top Ten ways David Letterman is an unwitting tool of the Mighty Wurlitzer"
Tuesday, June 24, 2003
July 2 Meetup http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/PageServer?pagename=junemeetuphosts&JServSessionIdr007=86bv8paqx6.app8b
Things to do:
The July 2 MeetUp is coming up and the hosting kits are online. You should be getting a bundle of goodies in the mail as well, so you can look forward to that.
But the campaign still needs hosts in some more cities:
If you live in one of these cities, email the campaign at meetup@deanforamerica.com and offer to host. We need ya.
The July 2 MeetUp is coming up and the hosting kits are online. You should be getting a bundle of goodies in the mail as well, so you can look forward to that.
But the campaign still needs hosts in some more cities:
Alaska Fairbanks
Alabama Mobile, Montgomery
Arkansas Fayetteville
California Chico, Eureka, Salinas, Stockton
Colorado Fort Collins
Connecticut Norwich
Florida Jacksonville, Lakeland, Melbourne, Naples, Pensacola
Georgia Athens, Savannah
Hawaii Kahului
Iowa Ottumwa
Illinois Peoria,Springfield
Indiana Alexandria, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Lafayette
Kansas Wichita
Louisiana Baton Rouge
Massachusetts Hyannis
Missouri Jackson
Montana Helena
New Jersey Atlantic City
New York Schenectady
Oregon Eugene
Pennsylvania Erie, Lancaster
South Carolina Charleston, Myrtle Beach
Tennessee Kingsport
Washington Appleton, Bellingham, Kennewick
Wisconsin La Crosse, Oshkosh
West Virginia Charlestown
If you live in one of these cities, email the campaign at meetup@deanforamerica.com and offer to host. We need ya.
MoveOn voting has begun! http://www.moveon.org/
It's MoveOn time kids - make sure you vote - make sure you watch for that ballot - make sure you that you request one from MoveOn if you haven't gotten one yet - make sure you vote and make your voices heard.
open thread: Russert interviews Bush
Maybe Tim Russert actually thought he was being a ournalist when he interviewed Dean. Fine, ok, let's give Russert a chance to redeem himself and demonstrate his ibjective journalistic ethos - here's your chance to submit a Russert interview question for President Bush! We will take the best ones and actually email them to Russert.
BTW you may notice that Haloscan comments are gone from the main page. We are committed to SBX now, and I am still working on having someone import the HS comments into the SBX system. I'll be upgrading the SBX account shortly as well so that user info is preserved.
BTW you may notice that Haloscan comments are gone from the main page. We are committed to SBX now, and I am still working on having someone import the HS comments into the SBX system. I'll be upgrading the SBX account shortly as well so that user info is preserved.
Great Press Coverage of the Declaration
Excerpt from the Washington Post article:
Standing on the main street of this small, lakeside city, Dean hit one populist note after another as he cast himself as a champion of the middle and working classes, a sensible man who could balance a budget and enact progressive health and social policies.Excerpt from the NY Times article:
Beyond offering a new rationale for his candidacy, the speech today seemed intended to lift Dr. Dean into a new phase of his campaign: from the scrappy maverick into a serious, if not quite establishment, candidate who is viewed in the top tier of this crowded field.
Monday, June 23, 2003
video: WMUR (New Hampshire) interview http://www.thewmurchannel.com/politics/2288491/detail.html
Forget about the Meet the Press interview - if you want to introduce Dean to a potential supporter, show them this great interview on WMUR!
Neal Pollack Spoofs the MTP Interview http://www.nealpollack.com/cgi-bin/blog/do.cgi/200306222242/permalink
Excerpt:
TIM RUSSERT: Governor Dean, do you eat chicken?
HOWARD DEAN: I have eaten chicken, yes.
RUSSERT: Do you prefer white meat or dark meat?
Virtual Declaration Celebration!
update Okay folks, let's hear it. Have you posted an endorsement on your blog? If so, please link it in the comments. I'm working on mine and will post it by the end of the day. And don't forget to make a donation today (add .23 cents for the Virtual Declaration Celebration)!
update Yea, it's hard to link your entry when haloscan is wonky. C'mon folks, let's raise our candidates's profile today. I'd love to see some blog entries and donation amounts... =)
We Deanbloggers have been discussing how to increase momentum in both press and fundraising as the second quarter deadline approaches. We've decided to sponsor a Virtual Declaration Celebration. There are a few simple things that you can do to help.
First, if you have a blog or web site, write up an endorsement for Howard Dean and post it on June 23. Write about how you became aware of Howard Dean, and what positions you support. Write about why you think he's the only candidate who's willing to take on (and eventually defeat) Bush. Contrast him with the other candidates. If possible, include personal anecdotes, because those can really "humanise" a candidate and help your readers understand why you're standing up with Howard Dean. You may use the graphic below (shamelessly stolen from DeanForAmerica). Save it on your server, or as a last resort, permalink it using this url: http://annatopia.com/pics/dean/vcd.gif
Second, make a donation on June 23. Make sure you add .23 in honor of the Declaration Celebration. Whether it's five, ten, or one hundred dollars, every little bit counts. We've got to show the pundits and the naysayers that the fundraising totals for the first quarter were not a fluke. How much are you willing to spend in order to buy back our democracy from the corporations that currently control it?
Third, on June 23, craft an email and send it to everyone your address book who's interested in politics. Include a link to your endorsement, a link to the contribution page, and a link to the Virtual Declaration Celebration (I've asked Aziz to provide the permalink; will post as soon as we have it). If you do not have a blog or web site, you can still participate by crafting an endorsement and sending it to everyone in your address book (don't forget to include the donation link) on June 23. I'm also going to include a personal statement about how much I've donated. Something along the lines of, "Today, I donated $50.23 to Dean for America. I'm asking you to match my donation." By including this statement, you legitimise the plea for funds and show your friends that you're willing to dig deep into your own pockets in order to support Howard Dean. Use this url for the contribution link: http://deanforamerica.com/contribute
And finally, come back to this blog on June 23 and post a link to your endorsement in the comments section of the Virtual Declaration Celebration perma-post. And for you non-bloggers, you can post the full text of your endorsement.
Our candidate is going to get lots of publicity on the 23, which may spur the curious to seek out more information online. While Dean's got a lot of support from the netroots, I haven't seen any type of formal endorsement process or statement from many of his supporters. It's time to make those statements, and show your fellow Americans why we believe Dean is the best man for the job. Imagine what an impact your statement could have on people who are waffling, or people who are simply curious. When they see that thousands of average, everyday Americans have come together to support a strong candidate, they will take a closer look at Dean and his positions. If we're lucky, we may even win some of them over. =)
We're asking ALL our readers to participate in this project. That includes the lurkers who never post! We know you're out there... We want to hear from all of you on June 23. Let's make the Virtual Declaration Celebration a raging success!
update If you intend to participate in the Virtual Declaration Celebration, please sign up at deanforamerica's virtual declaration celebration site.
update: Changed the post time to remind everyone to ready their endorsements!
update Yea, it's hard to link your entry when haloscan is wonky. C'mon folks, let's raise our candidates's profile today. I'd love to see some blog entries and donation amounts... =)
We Deanbloggers have been discussing how to increase momentum in both press and fundraising as the second quarter deadline approaches. We've decided to sponsor a Virtual Declaration Celebration. There are a few simple things that you can do to help.
First, if you have a blog or web site, write up an endorsement for Howard Dean and post it on June 23. Write about how you became aware of Howard Dean, and what positions you support. Write about why you think he's the only candidate who's willing to take on (and eventually defeat) Bush. Contrast him with the other candidates. If possible, include personal anecdotes, because those can really "humanise" a candidate and help your readers understand why you're standing up with Howard Dean. You may use the graphic below (shamelessly stolen from DeanForAmerica). Save it on your server, or as a last resort, permalink it using this url: http://annatopia.com/pics/dean/vcd.gif
Second, make a donation on June 23. Make sure you add .23 in honor of the Declaration Celebration. Whether it's five, ten, or one hundred dollars, every little bit counts. We've got to show the pundits and the naysayers that the fundraising totals for the first quarter were not a fluke. How much are you willing to spend in order to buy back our democracy from the corporations that currently control it?
Third, on June 23, craft an email and send it to everyone your address book who's interested in politics. Include a link to your endorsement, a link to the contribution page, and a link to the Virtual Declaration Celebration (I've asked Aziz to provide the permalink; will post as soon as we have it). If you do not have a blog or web site, you can still participate by crafting an endorsement and sending it to everyone in your address book (don't forget to include the donation link) on June 23. I'm also going to include a personal statement about how much I've donated. Something along the lines of, "Today, I donated $50.23 to Dean for America. I'm asking you to match my donation." By including this statement, you legitimise the plea for funds and show your friends that you're willing to dig deep into your own pockets in order to support Howard Dean. Use this url for the contribution link: http://deanforamerica.com/contribute
And finally, come back to this blog on June 23 and post a link to your endorsement in the comments section of the Virtual Declaration Celebration perma-post. And for you non-bloggers, you can post the full text of your endorsement.
Our candidate is going to get lots of publicity on the 23, which may spur the curious to seek out more information online. While Dean's got a lot of support from the netroots, I haven't seen any type of formal endorsement process or statement from many of his supporters. It's time to make those statements, and show your fellow Americans why we believe Dean is the best man for the job. Imagine what an impact your statement could have on people who are waffling, or people who are simply curious. When they see that thousands of average, everyday Americans have come together to support a strong candidate, they will take a closer look at Dean and his positions. If we're lucky, we may even win some of them over. =)
We're asking ALL our readers to participate in this project. That includes the lurkers who never post! We know you're out there... We want to hear from all of you on June 23. Let's make the Virtual Declaration Celebration a raging success!
update If you intend to participate in the Virtual Declaration Celebration, please sign up at deanforamerica's virtual declaration celebration site.
update: Changed the post time to remind everyone to ready their endorsements!
Good AP story on the Declaration http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/06/23/national1724EDT0707.DTL&type=printable
Excerpts:
The former Vermont governor, who has evolved from a pro-business centrist to a popular candidate of the left, urged voters to overcome their "profound fear and distrust" of the political system and stand against President Bush.
"You have the power to take back the Democratic Party! You have the power to take our country back!" he said. "You have the power! You have the power!"
The fiery rhetoric brought roars from the crowd of at least 2,500 crammed into a red-brick pedestrian mall, a church steeple towering behind Dean. The crowd was five times larger than announcement events staged by presidential rivals Dick Gephardt and Bob Graham.
Hundreds more supporters watched the speech at campaign sites across the country, a sign that Dean is building a formidable, Internet-driven organization.
....
"Something changed along the way as I listened to Americans around this country," he said. "Everywhere I go, people are asking fundamental questions: Who can we trust?"
He said companies are dodging taxes and paying poor wages -- all with the support of "a political process in Washington that they rent -- if not own."
He reissued a warning from James Madison and Thomas Jefferson who spoke of the fear "that economic power would one day try to seize political power."
Not on his watch, Dean said.
The Note on Howard Dean http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/TheNote/TheNote.html
The note writes quite a bit on Howard Dean today, both in the area of his appearance on Meet the Press
As well as on his announcement today
But I thought the most interesting item for most of the readers of this blog would be the fact that the note linked to this page and cited some of the quotes from the open thread written in response to the Meet the Press appearance. The important thing for everyone here to remember is that people read this blog! We have already heard about other campaigns checking us out and it certainly isn't debatablee that the media does as well. I know I'll always give some extra thought before I post something - and I hope you'll give extra thought when you comment as well!
Those two contrasts perfectly encapsulate the riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a question that is the essence of deanforamerica.com. If Howard Dean had a "normal" candidacy, yesterday's shifting, evasive, base-alienating performance on "Meet the Press" would have devastated his prospects.
A review of his senior staff's reaction suggests they couldn't have cared less, however.
To say Tim Russert was significantly more prepared for the interview than Howard Dean would be to insult Tim.
As well as on his announcement today
Today, Howard Dean's announcement speech will be seen live by more supporters than any announcement in the history of presidential politics (we are pretty sure ?… ).
But I thought the most interesting item for most of the readers of this blog would be the fact that the note linked to this page and cited some of the quotes from the open thread written in response to the Meet the Press appearance. The important thing for everyone here to remember is that people read this blog! We have already heard about other campaigns checking us out and it certainly isn't debatablee that the media does as well. I know I'll always give some extra thought before I post something - and I hope you'll give extra thought when you comment as well!
Throw Caution to the Wind https://secure2.convio.net/dfa/site/Donation?ACTION=SHOW_DONATION_OPTIONS&CAMPAIGN_ID=1685&JServSessionIdr007=ztt2f24r78.app1b
Tonight, we live like Red-Ink Republicans!
The Dean campaign is trying to raise $500,000, so bust out those credit cards, max 'em out, and ask questions later.
Or, in all seriousness, check your account balance and give a spare $10, $25, or $100 gift to the campaign, either through the link above.
Or, if you want to credit me and my fantastic fundraising abilities, go through this link.
Remember, the announcement today was not just the official beginning of this campaign. It was the beginning of the most important week that we've had so far. We've got three days to win the MoveOn primary and a week to amaze the media with the fundraising numbers.
As my 11th Grade English Teacher always said, Let's Get 'Er Done!
The Dean campaign is trying to raise $500,000, so bust out those credit cards, max 'em out, and ask questions later.
Or, in all seriousness, check your account balance and give a spare $10, $25, or $100 gift to the campaign, either through the link above.
Or, if you want to credit me and my fantastic fundraising abilities, go through this link.
Remember, the announcement today was not just the official beginning of this campaign. It was the beginning of the most important week that we've had so far. We've got three days to win the MoveOn primary and a week to amaze the media with the fundraising numbers.
As my 11th Grade English Teacher always said, Let's Get 'Er Done!
The Great American Restoration on C-Span http://video.c-span.org:8080/ramgen/jdrive/smil/c04062303_dean.smi
Gov. Dean's announcement is now available on c-span's website.
The speech is also available in multiple formats and multiple download speeds at the official website.
The Great American Restoration
The speech is also available in multiple formats and multiple download speeds at the official website.
Last chance to register for MoveOn primary! http://www.moveon.org/pac/reg/
Today is the last day to register for the MoveOn.com primary. Whether you are a long time Dean supporter or whether you came to this site after being inspired by Dean's Declaration speech, it is crucial that you register (it's free!) so that you can vote in tomorrow's primary. Please sign up now!
Open Thread: Declaration speech
So... what did everyone think of the speech? Let's hear it!
CNN Article on Declaration Celebrations http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/06/23/dean.campaign/index.html
Very positive coverage on CNN.com
Dean is scheduled to speak at 1 p.m. EDT. C-Span 2 will be carrying it live.
Also scheduled to speak on Dean's behalf are Vermont Sens. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat and key ally for primary voters following the Senate battle over Bush judicial nominees, and independent Jim Jeffords, a potential siren for swing voters.
In a conference call with reporters Thursday, Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi said the candidate wants to yank control of the campaign's message back from critics "who have been trying paint us into one corner as either just an anti-war candidate or you name the flavor. .... This candidacy is much broader than that, and we will be outlining it" Monday.
"It is time to tell the whole story of who Howard Dean is and what he believes and what he has learned from people across the country that he has visited in the past year and what his vision is for the country," Trippi added.
Dean is scheduled to speak at 1 p.m. EDT. C-Span 2 will be carrying it live.
Declaration Celebration webcast http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/PageServer?pagename=23_webcast_info
Howard Dean wil deliver the Declaration at 1PM EDT - and it will be webcast via DFA.com (click the link above for details).
If you plan on watching the Declaration at home, join the Virtual Declaration signup and be counted!
Speaking of the Declaration, Today's profile of Dean in the WaPo is not as friendly as today's Burlington Free Press piece, but it does have a (sharp) sense of humor:
Those of you lucky enough to actually attend in person, please do share your experiences and impressions with the rest of us!
If you plan on watching the Declaration at home, join the Virtual Declaration signup and be counted!
Speaking of the Declaration, Today's profile of Dean in the WaPo is not as friendly as today's Burlington Free Press piece, but it does have a (sharp) sense of humor:
The former Vermont governor will announce his candidacy for the Democratic nomination today in his home town of Burlington.
In addition, The Post has learned that Dean has in fact been running for president for more than a year. This finding is based on numerous statements from Dean, including "I'm running for president," "I want to be president," "I intend to be the nominee of this party" and "I'm going to beat George Bush." Dean has made these statements at gatherings that closely resemble campaign events, dozens of which occurred in Iowa and New Hampshire.
But despite appearances, Dean has not been running for president, says Courtney O'Donnell, a spokeswoman for the former governor. Rather, "he's been having a dialogue with the American people," says O'Donnell, one of about 70 staffers who have been hired to help Dean have his dialogue with the American people. She confirms that Dean plans to formally announce his candidacy today.
Those of you lucky enough to actually attend in person, please do share your experiences and impressions with the rest of us!
Bush Cites the Cost Of Tax-Cut Repeal http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21415-2003Jun22.html
There's a more substantial article in the WaPo, discussing Bush's planned strategy of painting all the Democratic candidates as tax-raisers. Naturally, as the leading outspoken opponent of the Bush tax cuts, Dean is drawing special attention from Bush - there is a very critical section that hints at this while discussing Dean's recent Meet The Press appearance:
It is to the WaPo's credit that they do mention that income groups largely unaffected by Bush's tax cuts were omitted from the analysis. That selective filtering is expected when you ask the Administration for budget data to confront an opponent of the Administration with on network television.
It speaks very poorly to Tim Russert's "independence" that he would solicit data from a partisan source. If he were interested in honest debate, there would have been an honest accounting of the cost of Bush's tax cuts, but Russert seems more content to play Administration mouthpiece. We can safely label him as spin-free as Bill O'Reilly.
UPDATE: Looks like Russert has played RNC stooge many times before.
UPDATE 2: The drama plays out according to the script. The New York Times had a predictably harsh assessment of Dean's MTP performance.
Howard Dean, a Democratic presidential candidate and former Vermont governor, was confronted with the Treasury Department figures on NBC's "Meet the Press" yesterday. He said they do not account for increases in property taxes because of cuts in federal services and shortfalls in federal aid to education.
"The real effect of the Bush tax cuts has actually been to raise taxes on most middle-class people and to cut their services," Dean said.
The research was prepared at the request of "Meet the Press," NBC and Bush officials said. The analysis does not include single people or lower-income couples, two groups that benefit little from Bush's cuts. Four of the examples involve married couples with one or two children making $40,000 to $75,000 a year, and the other two concern spouses who are both age 65.
It is to the WaPo's credit that they do mention that income groups largely unaffected by Bush's tax cuts were omitted from the analysis. That selective filtering is expected when you ask the Administration for budget data to confront an opponent of the Administration with on network television.
It speaks very poorly to Tim Russert's "independence" that he would solicit data from a partisan source. If he were interested in honest debate, there would have been an honest accounting of the cost of Bush's tax cuts, but Russert seems more content to play Administration mouthpiece. We can safely label him as spin-free as Bill O'Reilly.
UPDATE: Looks like Russert has played RNC stooge many times before.
UPDATE 2: The drama plays out according to the script. The New York Times had a predictably harsh assessment of Dean's MTP performance.
Sunday, June 22, 2003
Meet the Press Transcript http://demog.berkeley.edu/~gabriel/dean2004blog/Dean_MTP_June_22_2003.htm
Joe Klein's article in Time Magazine http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030630-460238,00.html
Also see the Christian Science Monitor's nice overview of Dean. Excerpt from Klein article:
"I want a balanced budget," Howard Dean said, and the crowd at the Larkspur Ferry Terminal roared. "Imagine that!" Dean continued with a smile. "Here we are in Marin County, the last bastion of liberalism, hooting and hollering for a balanced budget." But the crowd wasn't really cheering for balanced books; it was hooting and hollering for Dean himself, who could come out foursquare for a healthy balanced diet and his supporters would find it deliriously rebellious. By recent Dean standards, the Larkspur assemblage — several hundred people — was meager. He's been greeted by 3,000 in Austin, Texas, and 1,000 in Seattle. But the very notion of unaffiliated civilians gathering to hear a candidate is increasingly rare in American politics, and the former Governor of Vermont has emerged as the one Democrat who can draw a crowd.
We are now little more than six months away from the primaries. The real campaign will probably begin on Labor Day, but the Democratic field seems to have organized itself into three tiers. The bottom tier is the vanity candidacies: Al Sharpton, Dennis Kucinich, Carol Moseley Braun. The middle tier is serious candidates who have yet to catch fire: Joe Lieberman (despite high name recognition in the polls), John Edwards (despite financial support from his fellow trial lawyers and some creative speeches about specific issues) and Bob Graham. At the top are John Kerry, the party establishment's favorite; Dick Gephardt, the Midwest labor candidate. And Howard Dean.
Rainbow/PUSH Coaltion forum
Rainbow/PUSH Coaltion forum is airing live now on C-Span. (4:37 PM EST).
Open Thread: Meet the Press
Feel free to comment on and discuss Gov. Dean's appearance on Meet the Press today.
Saturday, June 21, 2003
Formal Announcement of Formal Launch http://www.deanforamerica.com
From the campaign...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 21, 2003
GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN TO FORMALLY LAUNCH CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT
Thousands of Supporters at over 360 Celebrations in All 50 States Will Join Governor Dean as He Lays Out His Vision for the Future of America
A year ago, Howard Dean began visiting communities across the country as a doctor and a governor to address issues that he cares deeply about -- the need for affordable health care, the importance of protecting our country’s children, and the hope of building an American community that includes every American. As he traveled the nation, his perspective changed -- not only was he having an impact upon the people he spoke with; those people were having an impact upon him. He realized that his hopes and concerns were shared by Americans across the country, from all walks of life.
Governor Dean felt that it was time to share his experiences, his views, the lessons he has learned from the American people over the past year and his vision for the future of our country. He also knew that no matter how Washington had already defined him, he wanted to take an opportunity to speak directly to the American people about what he believes is at stake in this election.
He decided that there was no better place to announce his candidacy for president than his hometown of Burlington, Vermont, the community where his involvement in politics began, where he built his record, and where he learned that it is the people who have the power to change the world around them.
In a celebration on Monday, June 23, he will be joined by friends and family from Vermont and across America. Governor Dean will deliver a speech calling for a great American restoration -- a restoration of America’s values, principles, sense of community and the people’s faith and participation in government.
The speech will be delivered in Burlington, but will be celebrated by thousands of Americans at gatherings in every state across the country. The declaration will be the biggest event of the political season, and it will also demonstrate the first great grassroots campaign of the modern era -- a campaign built on Governor Dean’s conviction that real change in America happens not from the top down, but from the bottom up.
As of today, over 12,000 people have signed up over the internet to attend Monday’s events, but Dean for America is far more than an “internet campaign” -- those supporters will also be knocking on doors, handing out fliers, notifying Americans with no online access and bringing together friends, family and neighbors across the country for a day that will shape this election and bring the people back into the government that is rightfully theirs.
###
Friday, June 20, 2003
Dean on Meet the Press, NBC this Sunday, full hour! http://www.msnbc.com/news/MEETPRESS_Front.asp
It's 9 a.m. most places, 8 a.m. in San Francisco. Check your local listings!
Ben & Jerry. Good & Not so Good http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/06/20/kucinich.endorsement.ap/index.html
CNN covers the good and the less good with B&J and politics...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Presidential candidate Howard Dean may have his own Ben & Jerry's sundae, but one of his Democratic rivals got the endorsement of his home state's ice cream company founder.
Ben Cohen, who with Jerry Greenfield founded Ben & Jerry's Homemade ice cream in Burlington, Vermont, said Friday that he is supporting Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.
...
Dean will be honored Monday by the "Maple Powered Howard" sundae that Ben & Jerry's will be selling in honor of the formal kickoff of his presidential campaign. The sundae will be sold only in Ben & Jerry's six company-owned stores in Vermont.
Dean's "success surprises insiders" http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/6134703.htm
A great article all the way through. Excerpt:
As Dean officially launches his candidacy Monday in Burlington, Vt., he has vaulted unexpectedly into the top tier of Democratic contenders.
"I was at a party dinner earlier in the year, and I was amazed at the people holding up Dean signs," said George Bruno, a former chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party. "It reminded me of the Gene McCarthy campaign, these young people, with a freshness, an enthusiasm, an exuberance I haven't seen in politics in a long time."
Dean puts family first, takes time off from the campaign to deal with incident involving his son http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/000468.html
Straight from the official Dean blog:
"Early this morning, my 17 year-old son Paul and several friends were cited in court by the Burlington Police Department for attempting to steal alcoholic beverages from a local country club.
"When a child gets in trouble like this, it constitutes a family crisis, and I believe it's important that I be home. I have canceled my scheduled appearances tomorrow in Iowa so that I can return to Vermont and deal personally with what my family and I consider a very serious matter.
"I understand that this matter is being handled by the state's attorney and I hope the press and the public will respect the privacy of my family-- particularly of my son-- during this difficult time."
While the timing on this matter is certainly unfortunate, I'd like to point out that this is a private family matter. I respect the Governor for cancelling his Iowa trip in order to deal with this, because that gesture shows that above all, Dean's family comes first.
I'd like the press to back off of Dean and his son and allow them time to deal with this issue. Show some respect. You stayed away from Chelsea Clinton, and you are staying away from the Bush twins. Please show the same respect for Gov Dean and his family.
update Yes, I changed the tagline for this post. Why? Because I think it's an accurate statement, and it speaks to his character.
"Early this morning, my 17 year-old son Paul and several friends were cited in court by the Burlington Police Department for attempting to steal alcoholic beverages from a local country club.
"When a child gets in trouble like this, it constitutes a family crisis, and I believe it's important that I be home. I have canceled my scheduled appearances tomorrow in Iowa so that I can return to Vermont and deal personally with what my family and I consider a very serious matter.
"I understand that this matter is being handled by the state's attorney and I hope the press and the public will respect the privacy of my family-- particularly of my son-- during this difficult time."
While the timing on this matter is certainly unfortunate, I'd like to point out that this is a private family matter. I respect the Governor for cancelling his Iowa trip in order to deal with this, because that gesture shows that above all, Dean's family comes first.
I'd like the press to back off of Dean and his son and allow them time to deal with this issue. Show some respect. You stayed away from Chelsea Clinton, and you are staying away from the Bush twins. Please show the same respect for Gov Dean and his family.
update Yes, I changed the tagline for this post. Why? Because I think it's an accurate statement, and it speaks to his character.
Dean in SF http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/06/20/MN265787.DTL
Dean received a warm reception and a standing ovation from the crowd of 500 at the Marriott Hotel during a packed day of campaigning and fund raising in the Bay Area, which included meetings with supporters and a rush-hour commute on the San Francisco-Larkspur Ferry.
....
Dean hammered Bush on both economic and national security issues in his San Francisco speech, saying that "if you can't get two things right as president of the United States, then you have not served your country well."
....
Dean also spoke forcefully on the issue of Iraq and the administration's continued insistence that it will find weapons of mass destruction there in the wake of the war effort.
Asked by reporters whether the American people were lied to on the matter, Dean said, "Yes, they were."
"They were told by the secretary of defense that we knew where the weapons (in Iraq) were, and evidently, there were no such weapons," he said. "We didn't know where they were."
"We were told by the vice president that there was a high likelihood that Saddam had nuclear weapons," he said. "That turned out not to be true.
"We were told by the president that we could expect that the Iraqi troops would use chemical weapons on us, that the order had been given, that an attack by Saddam Hussein could happen at any moment. That turned out not to be true."
Buchanan & Press, later Thursday http://www.msnbc.com/news/929144.asp
PRESS: All right, Terry, Howard Dean your guy, right?
JEFFREY: You know Bill, Howard Dean’s campaign reminds me of a lot of the campaign Pat ran in the Republican primaries in 1996 and I think...
PRESS: Well you were part of that...
JEFFREY: I sure was. I sure was. I think he’s running a smart campaign. And I also think if there’s any eventuality that Democrats can win (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and I think it’s slim, one of two things has to happen. There either has to be a disaster in the aftermath in Iraq, there has to be a disaster in the economy or both. And Dean is perfectly positioned to take advantage of either of those eventualities. I don’t think they’re going to happen. I think Bush is going to get reelected, but he’s positioned to take advantage of the sorts of things that could bring Bush down in the next 18 months.
PRESS: Pat.
BUCHANAN: You know, Terry, he’s doing-he’s taken radar-our playbook with the straw poll battles, everything, the early primaries, focusing on Iowa, focusing on New Hampshire. I have to say I like Howard Dean. I like what he’s doing. I think it’s a high-risk thing for the Democratic Party. I agree with you. I think Bush looks like a sure winner. Frankly, it would be good for the Democratic Party if you got somebody out there who fought for what most of the hard-core Democrats truly believed and hope for a break to win this thing rather than going with some slim-some Xerox copy or would-be Xerox copy of George Bush.
PRESS: I’ve got to tell you I used to like Howard Dean, as you compared him to Pat Buchanan, now I’m starting to wonder about him. But no, seriously, I think Howard Dean is the John McCain of this year. Straight talk, he’s willing to take on the president, he takes on the tough issues. I think he can win the nomination. I also think he could beat George Bush if he were up against him in the fall-Carl.
JEFFERS: Bill, one thing that Terry just met-made a statement that if there is a disaster in the aftermath of Iraq. Look what we heard today. Wolfowitz went to Congress that we’re going to keep 150,000 troops, which is near peak level that we have now there indefinitely and that we might need them as long as 10 years. That’s not the program they presented to us and to the American people. That’s the beginning of the kind of effort that would be necessary to show that this policy has failed from the beginning.
PRESS: Terry, that’s why you need a guy like Howard Dean to carry the flag.
Random Slurs Make News http://www.msnbc.com/news/928506.asp
Well, MSNBC has picked up a large story where the lede is that the voting in MoveOn might be rigged.
If they want to accuse us of rigging the primary so Dean wins, we better at least win it. Right folks?
We wouldn't to look unethical AND incompetent.
So move on over to Move On and register.
If they want to accuse us of rigging the primary so Dean wins, we better at least win it. Right folks?
We wouldn't to look unethical AND incompetent.
So move on over to Move On and register.
Maple Powered Howard and Other Random Notes
Buchanan & Press, Thursday
DAVID SHUSTER, NBC CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is a dramatic departure for John Kerry, because, until now, he has essentially been criticizing the president for not doing enough to build the coalition before th