Why I'm Rooting for Dean (Time)

[mrgorth]

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040209-586254,00.html

This is EXACTLY how I feel.

<snip>
So why do I keep coming back to the fireplug from Vermont? No, I'm not cynically trying to engineer a Bush landslide. And, no, it's not because John Kerry seems such a tired and faded figure (although that's part of it). I just think that the Democrats' sudden panic about Dean's electability is overblown and that the urge to find someone more superficially "presidential" is a trap. It won't help the Democrats in November (I don't know any Democrats who are actually excited about Kerry), and it will deny all of us a real debate about the future direction of the country.
<snip>

[auntpattywatty]

1. AMEN!

[girl gone mad]

2. I'm rooting for Clark,

but I agree with a ot of the points in the artice.

Dean woud be my 2nd choice.

[Anwen]

3. To the fireplug from Vermont!

:toast:

[blm]

4. GREAT. This is another GOP attempt to divide the Dem party using Dean

and making Dean supporters feel more aggrieved.

Typical.

This is an ANDREW SULLIVAN article, folks. Rightwing propaganda.

[ProfessorPlum]

6. I must agree with you in this instance

We shouldn't take any advice from Republicans on any issue, especially who we choose as our representative.

Having Sullivan promote Dean is a bad thing for Dean, no matter how you might agree with his reasoning.

[Anwen]

8. I thought people were cheering Novak

for something positive he said about Kerry?

(I'm not singling you out in particular, just making a point).

[blm]

9. No. I, for one, recognize it as Novak's fear of Joe Wilson

who is on the Kerry team and there is a grand jury meeting at this time hearing the case about the CIA agent outing by the White House and Novak.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ProfessorPlum]

5. Ah, jeez

Look, you have to warn that this was written by that fool Andrew Sullivan.

Here I had my hopes up that it was written by a non-insane person.

[kaitykaity]

7. No No No. This is ANDREW FREAKING SULLIVAN talking.

What a gyp!!!!!

[THUNDER HANDS]

10. well, I'm excited about Kerry

And I think we better win back Congress before we make any grand plans to change the direction of the country.

[Andromeda]

11. Good article, and so true...

there is too much made of Kerry winning the primaries. He could fall on his face in a couple of months and his nomination is not guaranteed. I wish people would start thinking instead of reacting. Right now, we don't know who is going to win the Democratic nomination and I'm getting a little sick of being told that Kerry is a shoe-in. He's not. Anything could happen between now and the convention.

There is panic about "electability" and some people falsely believe that Kerry is more electable. Never mind that he really hasn't distinguished himself in any appreciable way. He's just another pontificating blowhard who has contributed to the political instability in this country. He has a thin record with no resounding senatorial victories in recent years.

Where was John Kerry after the 2000 elections? Why didn't he protest the stolen election like he protested the Vietnam war? The silence was deafening; Kerry was AWOL like others who should have been standing up to the Bush cabal. They have been complicit in the promotion of the Bush administration's agenda while at the same time giving lip-service to the noble ideas of the Democratic party.

Kerry has been weak and ineffectual as a politician so what makes you think he will do any better as president? I have grave doubts as to Kerry's ability to take this country back.

Dr. Dean is the only candidate who has the guts to make the changes needed to improve the lives of people. Kerry is just riding on Bush's unpopularity at the moment instead of his own uniqueness which is in his own mind.

[cthrumatrix]

12. this is the message...Dean is a "change agent" who has demonstrated

his abilities to deliver on the issues....we need his leadership

[David Dunham]

13. Andrew Sullivan is a GOP whore of the worst kind

[quaker bill]

14. Nicely stated

Exactly my feelings as well.

[NNN0LHI]

16. Holy sheepshit! Using Andrew Sullivan's opinion to boost a Dem candidate?

Might as well just call Rove up and see what he thinks too.

Don

[Fleshdancer]

17. That's a very good article

I'm not fond of the author, but he said many things I've been saying for a while. Here's the best part:

And why not have a candidate who expresses liberal fervor without apology? For a very long time, the Dems haven't allowed themselves to vent about the way they really feel — about those benighted rednecks, clueless preppies, preposterous puritans and economic voodoo artists they believe are running the country. It would be deeply unhealthy for America and the Democrats to repress that any longer. A critical part of Dean — his preppy background, his pastel Christianity, his fiscal prudence, his independent, working wife — truly reflects much of the culture of the Blue States of America. Why on earth shouldn't half the country be represented in a national election?

[markus]

18. Scary author, excellent article

Sullivan has written some horendous screeds for the right, but come across on "cool" sit in the studio television as a possibly reasonable fellow, were he to allow himself to be.

There are a lot of people on the right who are the spiritual (and theatrical) heirs to the Yippies. They's about controversy to make their point. The Dartmouth Review is, in some perverse way, an heir to the underground papers of the 60s and early 70s.

The article is well reasoned, and reasonable. Perhaps he thinks, in his darkest heart, that Dean is the candidate to beat. His words, however, have the ring of an honest assessment.

Has Sullivan been blinded by the light on his way to Damascus? Is it even possible? Is Joe Scarboro's sudden decision to be the voice of the loudmouthed middle just a sudden programming change, or have the MSNBC focus groups seen a groundswell of something coming their way that bodes ill for Bush and his minions in the media?

One would only hope so, and that this bit of catharsis is genuine.

Anyway you slice it, its an excellent summation of the Dean phenonemom.

[George_Bonanza]

19. And Dean gets no positive press

Good article though, even with the sneering at John Kerry.