My take on electability, Dean, Clark, et al.

[Epoch]

My disclaimer: I support Dean, with Clark as second, and would love to see a Clark/Dean ticket or Dean/Clark.

So here's what I see in Nov. of 2004. If we're still bogged down in IraqNam, and the economy is going down, and the death toll reaches 1000+, so many people will be disgusted by Bush, et al, that they're gonna look for a clear alternative. After all, nameless democrat wins every time.

Either way, I do agree that with Clark we have a better shot at carrying the south. But I also see that if we hold all the Gore states, and New Hampshire, one other state (such as AZ where we are in the lead at the moment), we win. Granted, I am worried about coattails for Congress, but I see several strong candidates in Inez Tenenbaum, Peter Deutsch, any of the Illini democrats, Tony Knowles, Brad Carson, Joe Hoeffel, Erskine Bowles, and maybe Nancy Farmer...and where the hell is our Colorado candidate?!?!?!

So here it goes. I believe that both Clark and Dean are great candidates with each having strengths. I think Clark can appeal to the south for several reasons. I also think that the level of grassroots support that Dean supporters show and demonstrate is incredible. 140,000 meetup'ers, events going on every day across the country, flyering everywhere. Everyday I sign up a new Dean supporter in So. MD. And every day I run across an undecided Clark/Dean person as well. (Oddly enough, i see no Gephardt, Kerry, or Edwards people in small, rural, southern, Southern Maryland).

So why do I feel that Dean has an excellent shot. Let's look at KY and MS. The reason the REpukes won was because they registered 10,000 new republicans and knocked on 200,000 doors 72 hours before the election to GOTV. I see Dean supporters doing that every day, and come election week, we're going to be out there in force. I'm not saying that the Clark people can't do it, but I've witnessed the effectiveness of the Dean people. As Rove sends tv messages playing to people's fears, we'll be in the streets telling them our hopes.

I see The Swing State Project, and all sorts of democratic groups getting out there in full, unstoppable force to show everyone that there is a better future without Bush. Rove can play ads on tv all he wants, but what really convinces people is when you talk to them one on one. And if we do that in every swing state, we can win all of them.

So maybe this wasn't so much about Dean vs. Clark, etc. I just feel that when it comes down to it, we're gonna get more people to get out there and vote, we're gonna talk to more people, and we're gonna kick Bush out. The lines between the candidates are already blurring in the eyes of the general public. Rove will paint Clark just as bad as Dean. He is by no means immune either to the smear campaign. Just look at what they did to Max Cleland...

Instead of bickering let's just get out there and register some dem's and talk to all of your conservative dad's and relatives and show them the light! People are smarter than you think and many are tired of Bush..they just need to see that we have 10 great options to show them.

Rock Rockin' it
Yaron
p.s. registered 2 democrats today, and signed up 3 for Dean for america (all seperate of course and legal :))

[RevolutionStartsNow]

1. What a great, positive message!

Thanks for that!

I'm with you...we are going to win this, out in the streets, talking to people, registering voters, knocking on doors. The Dean campaign has an enormous advantage because we are ahead of the curve in our organization and have so many volunteers on the streets. This will pay off huge. (I think Clark inspires a similar kind of action, he's just a bit behind.) And you're right, this is how the Repubs win, it's how they won in California last month. Register voters, knock on doors, register voters, knock on doors. This has to be our mantra.

Thanks again for your message of hope! :yourock:

[Nazgul35]

2. Yes!!!

This is why I think Dean is rebuilding the damage done by soft money to the Dems....the repugs were never able to compete with us in organization and GOTV....once we go back to this...we will see a resurgence in turnout...our biggest problem in the last five elections...

As for coat-tails...do you really believe that the Dean grass rooters are not going to be out there push other dems as well? Talk about coat-tails!!!

[Padraig18]

3. We signed up 73 new voters last night

My university's Young Democrats did a 'street canvas', and we signed up 73 new, college-age voters. We got tons of questions about both Dean and Clark, too. :hi:

[democratreformed]

4. I want to say Thanks

for this positive message. I am watching the replay of the RTV debate and I was impressed with Reverend Al's video b/c it focused on registering to vote.

I think that the work that Dean's camp is doing registering voters and helping get them to the polls is indeed very important work. I think it is simply a great thing to focus on.