Amid the negativity, Dean gets ahead

[LuminousX]

Dean Noses Ahead

Howard Dean did something amazing this week. The tough, abrasive politician did a 180 and apologized for causing pain. He’s starting to sound as wimpy as those losing liberal Democrats he’s often associated with.
...

None of this flap seemed to have any negative impact on the biggest prize to date in the Democratic campaign: the support of the leaders of the two biggest unions. Those two decided to show some muscle to try to short circuit the process by joining forces and backing Dean.
...

The polls, which everyone likes to say mean nothing, in fact mean a heck of a lot right now. And combined with the big union endorsements, they are making it very hard for the other candidates to raise money -- something they desperately need in order to get on TV. Word is that senior Gephardt staffers have taken pay cuts and the issue of self-financing has come up again in the Kerry and Edwards camps.

With only 74 days to go until the Iowa caucuses, the pace is speeding up and the attacks are becoming increasingly shrill. Dean is now the man to beat and he has been trying to close down this process for months. The irony is that it’s now the establishment candidates who are chanting: “Let the people decide.”
====

We are getting down to the nitty-gritty and it may be time for the party insiders to start making some peace with Dean.

[liberalmike27]

1. Dean

I look at it as more of a clarification. Dean can clearly win, both the Democratic Primaries and the 2004 race. He is clearly qualified, and the fact he's being attacked by all of the Washington insiders, just makes his job easier. Kerry and Gephardt with sixtyish years, and Edwards are having to gang up on him, and are it tends to just make them appear desperate.

His point, that there is a certain group of fairly redneck poor Southernors that should reconsider which party they vote for, and stop voting based on an incorrect presumption that Democrats only help the poor blacks, and not all of the poor. I live in the South, and I do occasionally see some idiot with a Dixie glag on his truck. Sharpton and Kerry, and particularly Edwards derisive comment about not needin' no Yankee to tell us how to do things is just as divisive, and I'm sure it hurt him in the North, an area where he's already weak, along with all of the rest of them that is.

[LuminousX]

2. Here's my favorite opinion article on that whole thing

AlterNet: Confederate Flap: Stand Firm, Howard Dean

Howard Dean wants to represent angry white Confederate flag-wavers. He even quotes Martin Luther King Jr. in doing so. And in a televised debate Tuesday he refused to say he was sorry for starting this tempest.

Well, Dr. Dean, you may have clumsily launched this issue, but keep at it and keep quoting, because you're right.
...

My point here is move on. This family feud about a symbol is not resolvable at this time. But more important, we don't have to resolve it to get to the more important mission of rescuing this country from the merry band of corporatists and robber barons at its helm right now.

[caledesi]

3. Superb artilce. Thank you LX. This explains everything.

It's not about the Confederate Flag. It runs much deeper.

[ClintonTyree]

4. Our horde of Dean haters.............

can't seem to grasp this concept. They call us "Kool-Aid drinkers", but I believe that it is they who have sipped from the fountain of Kool-Aid; the belief that running the same type of candidate with the same stale message will produce different results. Dean has the stones and vision to think out of the box, and only that ability is what will be able to unseat the boy king in 2004. I'm tired of all the attacks and admit that lately I've started to fight back and post some things I'm not particularly proud of. But the constant barrage of negativity about Dean is getting to the point that I believe these people would vote for Bush over Dean, purely out of spite and hate. Howard's my man, come hell or high water.

[slinkerwink]

5. I'm with you!

:toast:

[DemBones DemBones]

8. Except for Dean, you see the Dems as

"the same type of candidate with the same stale message."

But I, and many others, see Dean as being "the same type of candidate with the same stale message," disguised as something New and Different. I am afraid Dean would be only marginally better than Bush in governing the country. (He'd be much better than Bush at speaking, and I certainly think he's more intelligent!) It really is what he would do in office that worries me.)


He started campaigning earlier than the others and his campaign has come up with very good ideas to involve people and make them feel important in the campaign. By attacking Bush, he's pleased a lot of people. But take away the snazzy campaign and the attacks on Bush and you have a guy who will tell you himself that he's a fiscal conservative ("same stale message.") I am afraid of what he might do as president to stay true to his fiscal conservative views.

I think Dean will be very strong in his defence of legalized abortion on demand. On other social issues, his positions are centrist at best. Examples follow.

Though he spoke out against attacking Iraq, he has said that he is no pacifist, not the ideal candidate for the peace movement. He supports the U.S. remaining in Iraq as an occupying force. How do you feel about that?

It's claimed that he strongly supports GLBT rights but I haven't heard him say that he's worked to advance GLBT rights, only that he signed the first legislation allowing same-sex civil unions. If he'd played an important part in getting that bill passed, wouldn't he be saying so? I heard him myself when he tried to avoid telling Larry King his position on gay marriage. Larry kept asking the question and Howard kept dodging it. (He is on record as saying he has a problem with gay marriage earlier.) How do you feel about this?

He has said many troubling things about the justice system being too easy on criminals. He opposed a federal grant being given to Vermont to help to ensure the rights of the mentally ill who were accused of crimes. (A governor turning down federal money to help the mentally ill get a fair defense and trial?) He made a number of statements about the justice system being too easy on criminals, giving them too many rights. There was one statement to the effect that the courts should be concerned with finding people guilty and putting them in prison. It was said as if he had forgotten that people are innocent until proven guilty. And he also said something like "Everyone knows most of them are guilty, anyway." Doesn't that sound a bit too much like John Ashcroft?

I can give you references if you want to look into Dean's record for yourself, as I did. I didn't start out being opposed to Dean at all. I started out supporting Kucinich long before he entered the race. I figured any of the others would be OK as a nominee. Dean got good press and I was thinking of him as my #2 choice. Then I learned from an environmental publication about some troubling aspects of his record on the environment. (Yes, he's done some good things -- but there are some troubling things, too, such as his support for Yucca Flats.) So I looked into his record more and became convinced that he should not be president.

Peace! :hippie:

[a_lil_wall_fly]

6. Tired of the disrepect toward DK

He has alot of good things going for him..and the Dean's ad in NH is wrong. I wish Dean would just admit that claim his opponents that voted for the war was a direct lie and insult to DK, AS, KMB.

[LuminousX]

7. I love your sig quote

I'm a big Dune fan.

I find it slightly ironic in the context of your post though.