Dean, Party of One

[foo_bar]

"It's fate," she adds, "like so much of the campaign. It's fate that I saw Howard Dean speak. It's fate that I was in New Hampshire. It's fate that I got to the campaign so early and ended up with so much responsibility."
...
Suddenly Sobelson is interrupted by a wave of slow clapping that builds in intensity, the same kind of inspiration clap the Dean staff does at the office. What will happen at midnight?

"Many Dean claps, some serious Dean clapping," says Sobelson, "chanting, singing, clapping, you never know."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A8439-2004Jan11?language=printer

Ooh! A lima bean that looks just like the Leader! I'll put it with the others.

[Printer70]

1. At least he's not handing out "Dean bars"

...and other mind-numbing food that causes the faithful to defend the candidate irrationally and without facts or evidence.

[foo_bar]

3. you sure read that article fast

[SahaleArm]

4. No need to read when 'you have the power' of clairvoyance n/t

[Printer70]

10. Response to excerpt and your comment...

When Dean starts handing out chocolate bars bearing his own name, I think it would be time to start worrying. Or when he comes out with meaningless, Madison Avenue slogans like "Higher Standard of Leadership" and "New American Patriotism" that followers can chirp without comprehension- then I think its time to rein it in.

[SahaleArm]

11. You mean those candy bars that have been made since 1886?

http://www.clarkbar.com/history.html

[KittyWampus]

27. Too Bad You Didn't Post More Of It

So we could have an idea of what it was about:

snip

The unofficial rules for the young staff who work the New Hampshire primary have always been thus: By
day they are rivals, press secretaries out-spinning each other, field directors fighting for every vote, interns
standing at busy traffic corners holding their campaign posters, shouting each other down. But half an hour
from midnight, they are fellow partiers, bumming cigarettes, buying each other beers, bound by the weird
facts of their daily existence: long, long days, addiction to campaign adrenaline, month-to-month leases.

This year, however, the rest of the staffs complain that Howard Dean's people don't play by those rules.
Stop by the Strange Brew or the Wild Rover in downtown Manchester late on a Friday or Saturday night and
you're likely to find any combination of Democratic staffers drinking, letting off steam, talking about anything
other than work. But to the great annoyance of everyone else, the Dean people are almost never there.

snip

In campaigns past the comity thrived for a practical reason. Everyone knows that only one candidate will
get the nomination... So hanging out together serves as a casual form of networking, a tacit understanding
that rivalries fade and ultimately staffers for rival campaigns have more in common than not. But this year
seems different. "I've done a cursory survey of my staff," says one campaign official. "None of them would
go work for Dean. They hate the guy. His arrogance. The things he says. The way he insults us, like he's the
only one who's a real Democrat."

... Because Dean was such a long shot a year ago, he couldn't get any of the professional local operatives
to work for him, so he had to assemble a staff from amateurs and newcomers.... when he started to "catch
on and assumed a cultlike status among young people who were into politics for the first time," Duncan
says, and you get a full-blown culture clash. The result is "folks who don't see themselves in the normal
way, who are less likely to say, 'What you do in a campaign is hang out and go to bars with the other
campaign staffs,' " says Duncan, who has endorsed Dean. "A lot of them don't aspire to be political
operatives. They see themselves as different; they keep to themselves. In turn, the aspiring professionals
see them as different. And in that difference is the rub."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8439-2004Jan11.html

[QC]

2. You think that's bad? Check this out!

http://www.songsfordean.com/

[hellhathnofury]

5. That site is great. Grassroots music.

[imax2268]

8. That site is cool isn't it...

thanks for posting the link...

[hellhathnofury]

9. A sample:

MY FELLOW CITIZENS I THINK ITS FAIR TO SAY
WE COULD DO BETTER WITH THE US OF A
HERES A NEW IDEA
YOU ALL SHOULD VOTE FOR DEAN
SOME OF YOU ARE LAUGHING AND YOU THINK THIS IS A JOKE
NO LITTLE SMALL TOWN DOCTOR WILL EVER GET THE VOTE
BUT HE MADE HISTORY
WITH GRASSROOTS PEOPLE LIKE YOU AND ME

CHS 1
VOTE DEAN FOR PRESIDENT
THE PARTY PEOPLES PARTY IS THE ONE HE REPRESENTS
VOTE DEAN FOR PRESIDENT
AND YOU WON'T HAVE TO WONDER WHERE YOUR JOB WENT

V2
HERES A LIST OF HIS QUALIFICATIONS
VERMONT IS OUT OF DEBT, UNLIKE THE REST OF THE NATION
AND HE’D NEVER SPEND YOUR TAXES,
ON A WAR NOBODY AKSED HIM
HE SHUT DOWN POLLUTERS, CLEANED UP TOXIC WASTE
DEAN GOT INSURANCE, FOR EVERY KID IN HIS STATE
IF YOU’RE POOR AND YOU GET SICK
BETTER HOPE THAT BUSH AIN’T IT.

CHS 2
BR (DEAN SAYS)
WOMEN HAVE A RIGHT TO CHOOSE
RACIAL PROFILING IS DISCRIMINATION, TRUE
YOUR EMAIL DON'T CONCERN ASHCROFT
DEAN THAT YOU SHOULD SLEEP WITH WHO THE HELL YOU WANT

CHS 3

You can download the mp3 too.

[killbotfactory]

6. Gee, I wonder why the Dean staff don't hang out more...

"Woo-hoo. I bet it's Mardi Gras all the time over there. Party on, pass the organic peanut butter."

HIPPIE DEANIES GO HOME!

[hellhathnofury]

7. I will not go home! Let's go play hacky-sack.

[slinkerwink]

12. heh, hackey-sack was fun in high school.....

[hellhathnofury]

13. No offense but at my school...

the people who play hackey-sack make the drug czar cry.

What happened to him? I haven't heard anything lately about the DEA and the war since those commercials.

[AntiCoup2K4]

30. What the hell's wrong with organic peanut butter?

Geezus, next you'll be knocking Ben & Jerry's :evilfrown:

[Clark4VotingRights]

14. What will the WP do next to lower the level of campaign reporting

even further?

Maybe a major investigative piece on the dueling claims
between campaign staff members of body odor and bad breath.

[redqueen]

18. Good idea!

You should apply as a journalist there -- you've got the instinct alright! ;)

[DoveTurnedHawk]

15. This Is a Scary Article

Particularly this line:

But this year seems different. "I've done a cursory survey of my staff," says one campaign official. "None of them would go work for Dean. They hate the guy. His arrogance. The things he says. The way he insults us, like he's the only one who's a real Democrat."

Dean is such a uniter.

:eyes:

Oh, and the cultlike clapping bit is scary, too.

DTH

[w4rma]

16. Spoken like a true Clark zealot, eh? (n/t)

[DoveTurnedHawk]

22. You Won't See Me Doing the Cultlike Stuff in That Article for Clark

I mean seriously. Don't you think that's just a LITTLE bit creepy?

DTH

[DancingBear]

23. About the clapping

it was completely spontaneous and not at all cultlike <tab>
it was completely spontaneous and not at all cultlike <tab>
it was completely spontaneous and not at all cultlike <tab>
it was completely spontaneous and not at all cultlike <tab>
it was completely spontaneous and not at all cultlike <tab>
it was completely spontaneous and not at all cultlike <tab>
it was completely spontaneous and not at all cultlike <tab>
it was completely spontaneous and not at all cultlike <tab>


:) :) :) :) :)

[bearfartinthewoods]

25. plus the isolation from other campaigns

it's sop with cultish organizations...the us/them mentality.

[John_H]

17. It's the movement, Baby!!

[bicentennial_baby]

19. Love the Simpsons joke!

:bounce:

[JNelson6563]

20. I thought this more telling:

From the article:

The unofficial rules for the young staff who work the New Hampshire primary have always been thus: By day they are rivals, press secretaries out-spinning each other, field directors fighting for every vote, interns standing at busy traffic corners holding their campaign posters, shouting each other down. But half an hour from midnight, they are fellow partiers, bumming cigarettes, buying each other beers, bound by the weird facts of their daily existence: long, long days, addiction to campaign adrenaline, month-to-month leases.

This year, however, the rest of the staffs complain that Howard Dean's people don't play by those rules. Stop by the Strange Brew or the Wild Rover in downtown Manchester late on a Friday or Saturday night and you're likely to find any combination of Democratic staffers drinking, letting off steam, talking about anything other than work. But to the great annoyance of everyone else, the Dean people are almost never there.

"Off the record, none of the Dean people are coming," staffers from three campaigns make sure to point out in the hours before the New Year's Eve party. This is not technically true. Two Dean staffers, including Delana Jones, the candidate's regional field director, who rooms with someone from Sen. John Edwards's staff, did show up early. But still the perception, expressed at one Friday night drinking fest after another, remains: "I have friends from all the other campaigns, but I don't know anyone from Dean's," says a press secretary for a rival campaign. "The Dean people don't party with us."


(and as I posted the first timethis was posted, but mistakenly in LBN)

From first hand reports I've gotten....

Indeed they are working very late into the night. While other campaign workers have knocked off and areout enjoying a cold one with folks from various campaigns, the Dean folks are still working.

Then when the work-till-the-midnight-hour campaign realizes successes, those out partying whine "They get all the breaks!"

I experienced this first hand in the business world a long time ago. What's that saying? The harder you work the luckier you are...(??) Something like that.

Julie

[Hep]

21. So true

One of my local Dean Supporters went to NH over the holidays. The Dean campaign is a 24/7 campaign. We don't have time for banal howdeedoos. Mindless chit chat around the mug. We're trying to get our guy elected. It's not something we take lightly.

And it's working!

[loyalsister]

24. "creepy" is a ridiculous overstatement

We're talking about young people full of idealism, and inexperienced in politics.

"These are young kids in the midst of their first love affair," says Dayton Duncan, a longtime Democratic activist who wrote a book on the New Hampshire primary. "They can't conceive they would ever fall in love again."

On the other hand, the more experienced workers are more realistic...

"In campaigns past the comity thrived for a practical reason. Everyone knows that only one candidate will get the nomination, and whoever he is, staffers for the other candidates might want to work for him. So hanging out together serves as a casual form of networking, a tacit understanding that rivalries fade and ultimately staffers for rival campaigns have more in common than not."

Let's put this in perspective please!

[JNelson6563]

26. see? dupe from yesterday

When folks were whining that Dean's people don't go out and party with them. Too busy working. :-)

Julie

[Hep]

28. I think it's a "Saturate DU" Ploy.

n/t

[foo_bar]

32. I searched on the headline first

I apologize if this is a dupe. Do you have a link to the original?

[dajabr]

29. cryingshame kick (nt)

[chimpymustgo]

31. It's quite a sad story, actually.

I hope these folks will be able to adjust to the real world when the campaign is over.