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://dean2004.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://dean2004.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://dean2004.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://dean2004.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...
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About Nation-Building
Nation-Building was founded by Aziz Poonawalla in August 2002 under the name Dean Nation. Dean Nation was the very first weblog devoted to a presidential candidate, Howard Dean, and became the vanguard of the Dean netroot phenomenon, raising over $40,000 for the Dean campaign, pioneering the use of Meetup, and enjoying the attention of the campaign itself, with Joe Trippi a regular reader (and sometime commentor). Howard Dean himself even left a comment once. Dean Nation was a group weblog effort and counts among its alumni many of the progressive blogsphere's leading talent including Jerome Armstrong, Matthew Yglesias, and Ezra Klein. After the election in 2004, the blog refocused onto the theme of "purple politics", formally changing its name to Nation-Building in June 2006. The primary focus of the blog is on articulating purple-state policy at home and pragmatic liberal interventionism abroad.
