Dean says Indiana ready to turn blue, calls GOP a party of "selfishness."

[madfloridian]

He was in Hobart last night. He is in Rhode Island tonight for two events, one at a community college in Warwick.

http://www.nwitimes.com/articles/2006/01/27/news/top_news/3544de2ff087f0b08625710300165991.txt

HOBART | Howard Dean thinks Indiana is ready to be a "blue" state. After all, Hoosiers put a Democrat in the governor's mansion for 16 years, he noted.

"This is not a Republican state," Dean emphasized to the crowd.

Damien LaVera, deputy press secretary for the Democratic National Committee, said the chairman has already helped fund state party organizers for the 2006 elections and beyond. The strategy is to quit writing-off states, or even parts of states, thought to be Republican and focus on converting voters in those areas to Democrats, LaVera said. Another part of Dean's strategy to win voters is to convince Evangelical Christians, who have become the steadfast voters for the Republican party, that they are voting for a party of "selfishness."

Taking a line from Genesis, the first book of the Bible, Dean explained the first question ever asked by anyone was, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

"In the Democratic party we won't forget that," Dean said."

[maxsolomon]

1. yeah right

you better come up with a good argument to counter god, guns, gays, & fetuses. indiana is completely in the grip of wedge issue politics.

my hippy sister & her friends aside, everyone i know in SE indiana (or "north kentucky") is an ignorant, xenophobic bigot.

[bigscott]

6. i totally agree

I spent 4 years there getting my college education and while i loved the school i despised the narrow minded bible thumping xenophobic homophobic racist people i had the distinct displeasure of meeting. There are some refreshing patches of blue in that state but by and large it will go blue when Utah goes blue

[Z_I_Peevey]

2. God, I love Howard Dean.

Go Dr. Dean! Keep telling it like it is.

[formernaderite]

9. With a sorrow sigh, I think of what a truly GREAT president he

would have made. I'm still holding out for him to run again. I know he appeals to women, but to me he's the quintessential man's man...and as an old curmudgeon...I appreciate that.

[mojogeorgo]

3. Thanks

Thanks for the post--and of course the picture.

I know it's a bit late, but I finally wrote up the transcript of Howard Dean's Honesty in Government speech, which he gave here in Columbus on the morning of January 18.

http://howardempowered.blogspot.com/

[madfloridian]

5. Thanks, will go read that. I heard what Fingerhut said.

About not needing Dean to come and tell them about honesty in government. That was outrageous.

[Vidar]

4. Love ya, Howard!

[mojogeorgo]

7. Ditto

[PATRICK]

8. Bayh has heart attack

Wow, did he clear that with the Birch?

[Southsideirish]

10. And bigotry, too, Howard -don't forget that! I never knew a repub who

wasn't a bigot - either overt or covert.

[FreedomAngel82]

11. Go Dean!

[DBoon]

12. I expect this to happen about the same time Indiana goes Democratic

[madfloridian]

13. Post Tribune calls him the Dem's chief "rabble rouser", other snideness.

http://www.post-trib.com/cgi-bin/pto-story/news/z1/01-27-06_z1_news_04.html

"On Thursday, the chief rabble-rouser for the Democrats spoke before a crowd of about 500 on topics ranging from health insurance to the economy while bashing the Republicans and Bush at every opportunity.

Every time he issued an insult, the crowd exploded, gaining energy throughout the speech. He blasted statistics about Bush, explaining that he could have done better. The median income in Indiana has dropped by $2,500 since Bush became president, Dean said.

“We could do better than that and we will,” he said. In order to improve the situation, Dean said, everyone must take the initiative."

[sarcasmo]

17. "rabble rouser" must be a new Rove talking point.

[Guaranteed]

24. Tell the rabble to be quiet, we anticipate a riot.

:P

[madfloridian]

14. Sounds like the anti-war protestors there were polite, but not in RI today

Here is what the article said about the ones there in Hobart:

"Outside the banquet hall, members of the "Northwest Indiana Coalition against the Iraq War" picketed.

"I'm out here to let him (Dean) know there are people who would be Democrats if the Democratic party could get itself together because we certainly aren't Republicans," said Jan Stewart of Chesterton.

Picketer Helen Boothe, of Dune Acres, said she wanted to impart to the Democrats that they need to be more courageous in the struggle against the war.

"We all know Howard Dean has been courageous, but the party hasn't been courageous," Boothe said"

Sounds pretty polite. I gather the ones in RI today at an event in Dean's honor were anything but polite. They were according to a post seen elsewhere...disruptive. Seems no need to do that.

[im10ashus]

15. Yeah. Right.

And I have a big bridge here in Manhattan I'd like to sell you. :-)

Seriously. I would fall right off my chair if they did turn blue. I grew up in Indianapolis and I can assure you there is a HUGE red population there. My only salvation was being in the arts scene there, which is a very small faction of the population. I live in NYC now and always feel like I am stepping back in time when I visit the family.

[karynnj]

18. I agree with you - also he was in Northwest Indiana

where I grew up - Lake County IS the most Democratic part of the state. The Calumet region had a very strong Democratic party machine that controlled the area as much as the Daley machine controlled Chicago. Dean SHOULD have got an incredible welcome here as would ______, where you can fill in with ANY Democratic name.

[im10ashus]

19. Bloomington is fairly liberal because of I.U.

And Marion County definitely went blue in 2004. But it's still a red state. Most of what's happening there is a lot of people started moving back downtown and that's helped in Central Indiana. I've always been perplexed how Indiana has had a Democratic Governor for so many years, and Senators as well, yet are always the first state to declare a Republican president on election night. I was so happy to finally move to Chicago in 1994 (now I am in Manhattan) and feel like my vote counted. It was the first time in my life I felt that way in a presidential election.

[Ex Lion Tamer]

16. If only it were so.

But I live here, and I don't see it happening until long after hell freezes over. There are still "W" and "Support the Troops" stickers everywhere. Clueless; but devoted.

Sorry governor.

[im10ashus]

20. Bless your heart.

I grew up there and can feel your pain brother. :-) Last time I was home, you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a "W" sticker or yard sign. It made me ill.

[LiberalAndProud]

22. I don't belong to any organized party. I'm a Democrat.

-Will Rogers

[madfloridian]

23. Sounds like our area of Florida.

People in South Florida hold out more hope, but not much here. I do see some attitudes changing, and there are more anti-Bush letters in the paper...but a long way to go.

[Kansas Wyatt]

21. How about Howard Dean addressing the Nation following Dimson

So, Dean can clean Dimson's and the Reich Wing's clocks.