Is a Dean - Clark alliance now permanently off?

[quinnox]

For months at DU there was talk about a Dean Clark alliance, mostly by Dean supporters. Is this now a no deal thing, because I don't foresee Dean saying nice things about Kerry if and when he withdraws from the race.

[incapsulated]

1. hahaha!

uh, yeah. I think that's safe to say.

[retyred]

2. Gee

I would've thought the "I won't be dean's Dick Cheney" statement would've quelled the alliance thought machine by now, but there are still those that somehow can't let go of the need to add a glimmer of electability to dean.

Clark has made his choice, "Please let it go!"



retyred in fla
“Good-Night Paul, Wherever You Are”
So I read this book

[nightperson]

3. Hasn't Dean

always, always said he will support the eventual nominee? Who do people think he is?

[Adelante]

4. HAHAHAHAHA

:7

I needed that.

[stickdog]

5. Clark has shown himself to be quite adept at

taking orders.

[retyred]

20. As well as going with the winner

Thumbs up to Clark.


retyred in fla
“Good-Night Paul, Wherever You Are”
So I read this book

[Bucky]

6. Unfortunately for Dean, Clark wants us to win in November

God bless the Dean people for trying tho. We need that never give up, never surrender attitude. I think we need Dean outside the system keeping us all honest. This is what Nader used to do until it drove him crazy. No worries about Dean there. Any man who lives with Judy Dean is going to love livin' in the real world too much to go off the deep end.

[Turkw]

22. Dean wants us to win also, and will support the nominee, that does not

mean that he has to drop out now. I am still a Clark supporter, but have no more animosity toward Dean or his supporters than I do Kerry and his.

I have a LOT of animosity to the idea that a few states and a handful of delegates and the race is over. If Dean somehow, and with the media it will be hard, becomes the nominee, Clark will gladly help him. Dean will gratefully accept help from Clark and Kerry if this happens.

Neither Dean nor Clark are going away from the Party, I will for a while though. Both of these guys and their supporters have a lot to offer.

[Kahuna]

7. Yeeesss! There never was one.. It was a Dean..

wet dream. Period.

[maddezmom]

8. never bought into the notion :)

but to answer the question, I'd say yes.

[indigo32]

9. is there some reason you're bringing this up today?

obviously we can all see Clark endorsed Kerry.

[HuskerDem]

10. Getting called a republican a few too many times

will alienate a person......... and their supporters.

[displacedtexan]

11. Thanks for the belly laugh!

I needed that!

[Clark4Prez]

12. I still like Dean

I still like Dean, I think that he enabled everyone to feel comfortable attacking Bush. Its been a weird political environment where criticizing the president is considered unpatriotic.

Dean was unafraid to be called unpatriotic or anything else. Even though I now support Kerry, I have to say, thanks a lot, Howard Dean. You reminded us that we have the power to take back this country. For that, we are forever in your debt.

[funky_bug]

13. I hope not entirely

The Clark/Dean bashing was all but put to rest. There was solidarity, and it was nice. I still like Howard Dean, and you won't catch me saying a bad word about him. We gave to his campaign, and we're glad he's still running.

I am quite disappointed with some of my new-found Dean pals though. There was a lot of "rah rah go Clark we love you guys" stuff going on for awhile, UNTIL the endorsement rumor started. Then, amazingly, these same people who said they loved Clark were all, "terribly disappointed he sold out" and "we knew he was a phony all along" and so on.

My question, to my Dean-supporting friends is this: Were you really ever? Or were you just playing the vulture game? If you were playing the vulture game, I'll give you credit for seeing into the future and knowing my guy was going down.

Fair-weathered friends make me carefully think my decision to jump on board the Kerry MO. I've been pretty adamant about not liking Kerry... I don't like the NCLB thing, or the IWR thing...

But I like Clark. I trust Clark. I believe in Clark. So if he feels so strongly toward Kerry, then I'll go with that. I sure hope those Dean supporters who were once my friends, remain genuine. Something makes me think though, that I was being played.

[indigo32]

15. I will not call Clark a sell out

he's doing what he thinks is right.

[funky_bug]

17. That's absolutely fair

I appreciate that. I've had a lot of flack thrown my way today, and it was quite disheartening. I've been private messaged off DU at my yahoo address, and addressed directly here at DU. The theme: "I'm so disappointed in you."

Hello???? I've supported Wes through thick and thin for the last five months. What on earth makes you think I'd stop supporting him now? Do I wish he'd have supported another candidate? I won't be so presumptuous as to say that I know how Wes thinks, what he feels, and what his motivations are. I haven't always been kind to Kerry on this board, and I'm not going to be his cheerleader now. BUT the bashing endeth. Until I get past the "getting to know you stage" of the Kerry campaign, I'm going to be a nice, polite little girl.

I'm a Wes Clark Democrat. He gets my vote, and his vote is apparently transferable to Kerry.

[indigo32]

19. All I gots to say is that

this whole thing is making people C-R-A-Z-Y...
why would people bother you that way.
I've always operated on the assumption that you catch more flys with honey than vinegar.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

14. Moot

point

[jpgpenn]

16. Why would there have ever been an "alliance"

Dean and Clark are like oil and water.

[maddezmom]

21. the idea was floated here at DU

don't think Dean and Clark had the same idea.

[Turkw]

23. A lot of their supporters have problems with the way the party is being

run, there are area's of common ground. Why not? I don't think Clark hates Dean, or visa versa. If they both thought an alliance would help the country and party, they would try it.

[Straight Shooter]

18. They both burned that bridge very early on

For reasons of their own

[Tom Rinaldo]

24. Speaking for myself

I always knew I was speaking for myself and not them. Dean kept right on calling Clark a Republican even after many supporters of both men started mending fences. But that was not the point. I know some raised the idea of carefully coordinated campaigns, and I thought at the time that that was pie in the sky, these guys were running at full tilt with strategies in place, and they were competing with each other for every advantage.

In the short run I thought we could make it easier on all of us if we showed greater respect as supporters, across campaign and candidate lines. Were Clark or Dean to become the nominee, it would make it easier to unify for one thing is what I was thinking. Plus it freed us all up to campaign FOR who we believed in rather than having to constantly defend our guys on this board from each other.

Clark did not want to support Kerry for the nomination. He wanted to BE the nominee, but he decided that was impossible, and I am sure he thought that was the case for Dean also. Any alliance is a sense was temporary for this campaign, because eventually Dean Clark or someone else was going to become the nominee, not both Clark and Dean together.

In the longer run though, I think it would be positive if many of us stayed in touch with each other after the Primaries are over. There are some common threads of vision and belief, and there is a top down oriented Democratic Party that must still be dealt with. When the smoke clears, I hope we can begin discussing that more seriously, whether the nominee is ultimately Dean, Kerry, Edwards, or someone else.