Understanding the Dean Juggernaut

[HFishbine]

For those who find Dean's popularity incomprehensible, this article may be of help.
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The Aura of a Winner

1. Dean will raise more money in the year before the election than anyone else seeking the Democratic nomination, and that historically in the modern era is (with one exception) the iron-clad predictor of who wins in both parties.

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6. At the same time, some of Dean's explanations for his alleged inconsistencies and flip flops are actually pretty convincing.

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7. Dean's core supporters don't care about Sunday show gaffes and pratfalls, New York Times editorials, or what Terry McAuliffe or the Dingells think.

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9. Dean's willingness to cede control to volunteers in the states for planning events and executing political activities is an act of confidence and strength, and has directly resulted in his drawing unprecedentedly large crowds and building genuine grassroots support.

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12. Governors do well as presidential candidates, and the members of Congress who are running against Dean still for the most part haven't learned not to talk like they are from Washington ("We CAN get Breaux-Gilchrest out of conference!!!! We can DO it!!!! And then passed by both chambers!!!"). Dean talks like a real person, and voters like that.

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17. All of the other five major candidates think they can and should be in the end the Dean Alternative, and each has enough hold on key state and national support that they have no incentive or desire to get out of the race and consolidate beyond one of the others. The pro-war candidates in particular are splitting a piece of the pie that is large, but it is still a SPLIT piece.

more: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/TheNote/TheNote.html

[Padraig18]

1. Excellent!

:)

[Bombtrack]

2. He latched onto the anti-war movement at it's height

and thanks party to his continued lies about Clark's war position he still maintains most of that initial tapping of that root.

And I'm pretty sure a signifigant fraction of his "success" is being fueled by the right in many different ways

[tsipple]

13. Clark Wasn't Helped By a Lieberman Supporter

That Democratic candidate (and Lieberman supporter) who swears she was told by Clark to vote "Yes" on the Iraq War resolution.

Clark was apparently on the fence re: the Iraq Resolution vote. Which is OK, I guess -- it's OK to be undecided or ambivalent on certain issues -- but apparently Dean, Kucinich, Braun, and Sharpton got that one right in the minds of most Democratic primary voters.

[Larkspur]

15. You need to read points 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10

5. Fair or unfair, the media has not held Dean to the same standards as the other major candidates. Wes Clark's entry into the race sucked up a lot of publicity and took the spotlight off of Dean at the one moment when critical mass was being reached.

6. At the same time, some of Dean's explanations for his alleged inconsistencies and flip flops are actually pretty convincing.

7. Dean's core supporters don't care about Sunday show gaffes and pratfalls, New York Times editorials, or what Terry McAuliffe or the Dingells think.

8. People actually listen to Dean talk at his events.
...

10. Most Washington Democrats who are scared out of their wits about Howard Dean as their nominee have never been to a Dean event and don't have a genuine understanding of WHY he has succeeded this year.

[Eloriel]

16. Amen to No. 10

And that goes for a lot of DUers as well, who suck up the ignoramus point of view on Dean and think it's gospel truth.

Eloriel

[MercutioATC]

22. He "latched on" to the antiwar movement when it was in the 30's

When Dean first started speaking out against the (then) possibility or war, support for the war was running in the mid 60% approval range. How, exactly, are you defining "it's (sic) height"?

[mandyky]

3. My favorite and also my pet peeve

with the party machinery that seem not to like him -

10. Most Washington Democrats who are scared out of their wits about Howard Dean as their nominee have never been to a Dean event and don't have a genuine understanding of WHY he has succeeded this year.

[Cha]

4. Thank you, Fishbine!

I'm bookmarking this for future reference!

"4. What doesn't kill Howard Dean only makes him stronger"

[HFishbine]

8. Better Copy and Paste

The content at that page changes.

[Cha]

9. Ouuh! Thanks!

[Renew Deal]

5. Dean will resemble the Hindenburg...

bye the time this is over.

[Padraig18]

6. Wishful thinking. n/t

[ThoughtPolice]

7. All the Freeps and Repubs want Dean -

They seem to think it will be a McGovern repeat.

I say give 'em what they want.....

as the old saying goes - be careful what you wish for, it might come true!

Want to see some Repubs go nuts? Watch what happens if Dean wins the election! lol

[Cha]

10. Welcome to DU!

"18. The people who work for DeanforAmerica have FUN, from the interns in Iowa to the senior stuff; the staffs for the other campaigns don't always remember to do that."

"Governor Dean addresses students at Central High School in New Hampshire. He campaigns in Vermont and Maine on Saturday. He will announce the results of the campaign's online poll regarding whether to accept federal matching funds on Saturday afternoon at 12:00 pm ET in Burlington, Vermont. He has no public events on Sunday."

Nice to know "the note" is following Dean's schedule~ :D

[pruner]

12. The Note follows all the candidate's schedules

each day it begins with an hour by hour breakdown of who's gonna be where, and what they're gonna be doing there.

[w4rma]

11. You guys underestemated Reagan. You guys underestemated Bush, Jr.

You guys are underestimating Dean.

[Larkspur]

14. This explains the phlag phlap at the Rock the Vote debate

and look for further attacks to happen at future debates.

3. None of the other candidates can overtake Dean in the fourth quarter — they can theoretically do damage to him (although, outside damage with the Chattering Class, we doubt that too), but they can't cripple him. There just aren't enough people paying attention yet.

Trying to damage Dean's campaign will be the goal of Gephardt, Kerry, Edwards, Clark, and Kucinich in the 4th quarter.

[Renew Deal]

18. Scratch Clark out of that.

He has not gone after Dean at all. Though he owes Dean for lying about his record.

[ozone_man]

17. 12. is the the reason Dean will win.

12. Governors do well as presidential candidates, and the members of Congress who are running against Dean still for the most part haven't learned not to talk like they are from Washington ("We CAN get Breaux-Gilchrest out of conference!!!! We can DO it!!!! And then passed by both chambers!!!"). Dean talks like a real person, and voters like that.

[pruner]

19. Walter Shapiro (USA Today scribe) mentioned this on American Journal

he said that Dean talks in plain language about buying the chemical & nuclear stockpiles of the former Soviet Union while Kerry et al use congressional parlance (e.g. Nunn-Lugar Act).

[Rose Siding]

20. #8 piggybacks that one

8. People actually listen to Dean talk at his events.

It fits with not hearing what the talking heads say over what Dean says himself and spurs letters of correction to the media. They, in turn, (the print media anyway) give accuracy more priorty.

It's even encouraging to see that the Note has picked up on this.

[eileen_d]

21. #8 is complete fluff, IMO

Can it be proved that people actually listen to Dean talk at his events, or that people don't listen to other candidates talk at his events?

As far as governors being good candidates, sure -- they don't have votes like the IWR coming back to bite them in the ass. But personally I'm shopping for a good president, not a good candidate.

[sangha]

23. All but #1 and a piece of #12 are ridiculous

but the funniest is:

7. Dean's core supporters don't care about Sunday show gaffes and pratfalls, New York Times editorials, or what Terry McAuliffe or the Dingells think.

Yeah, you never see Dean fans posting "Dean, Dean, Dean, Dean"