Letter to Howard Dean

[capriccio]

Gov Dean:

You have a problem:

This from today's Bloomburg report on the upcoming state of the union:

Democrats often underrate Bush, says Gina Glantz, a Democrat who managed former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley's presidential campaign in 2000 and was a senior aide to former Vermont Governor Howard Dean in his 2004 campaign. ``He always surprises me in his ability to speak to the public in a way the public grabs hold of,'' she says. ``He has spent the last month traveling around the country to set the stage for Tuesday night. He is saying: 'Look, I am not sitting in the White House spying on people, I am out talking to people.'''

Glantz believes much of the criticism that Democrats direct toward Bush doesn't touch the daily lives of most Americans. ``People are not worried about spying or corruption'' or the nomination of Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the U.S. Supreme Court, she says. ``They are worried about being in debt, paying the mortgage, health care and good schools for their kids. Bush will say to them: 'I am strong and will make your life better.' That is what people are interested in.''

http://www.bloomberg.com/...

A Democratic operative craps on the party, frames the political landscape in purely Rovian terms and the media recycles it. End result: Voter reads it and says, "Yeah, who cares about spying, corruption, and the Supreme Court. Bush strong. Life better. Snort. Grunt. Purr."

I think it's time for you to issue a directive to all party operatives and office holders that for the next 10 months they are to hold their precious vanity about not appearing partisan in check. We at the grassroots are sick of it. Every time a reporter puts a recorder or a microphone in front of one of them, we demand that they do as you do...and that is be aggressive in advancing the principles of the party, knocking down RNC slanders of Democrats, and pushing the urgency for the country of a Democratic win this November.

DUers: feel free to plagiarize it or make your own thoughts known at the DNC