In a veritable wasteland of pundits and detractors who still don't "get it" as to why Dean has growing appeal and is the front runner on the Democratic side, it was great to run across some in the press who do get it.
The question is, will the Democratic Leadership ever figure this out? Is their disconnect with their base, and in fact a large and simmering segment of the voting populace, leading them to pursue losing yet another election? Is this why the DLC's primary focus as of late seems to be to get Howard Dean?
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Get Howard Dean1/3/2004
Howard Dean is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination because he's not afraid to act like a Democrat. He talks about the things that matter to working people afraid of losing their hard-won middle class status -- their health insurance, their kid's school, their next job, the security of their retirement. And he gives it to the Republicans with the bark off. He seems happiest when he's mad as hell, and this appeals to the kind of people who vote in Democratic primaries because they're angry too.
They're angry because the Republicans are getting away with murder and the Democrats have spent most of the last three years on the ropes. This explains why the Beltway boys, John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, John Edwards and Richard Gephardt, are not doing so well in the polls and are having trouble raising cash. They're the ones who rolled over and played dead while George W. Bush looted the Treasury, turned the government over to polluters and profiteers and took advantage of 9/11 to attack civil liberties and launch a half-cocked invasion of Iraq. That Mr. Dean is actually gauche enough to point this out galls them immensely.
Mr. Dean is beating them fair and square. He has won the so-called Silent Primary, the competition for campaign contributions, by setting a record for fund-raising by a Democrat in two consecutive quarters. He's done it with an average contribution of less than $100, enlisting hundreds of thousands of dedicated supporters with a pathbreaking Internet campaign that holds the promise of bringing back grassroots organizing and breaking the stranglehold of big money in presidential campaigns.
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In their desperate attempt to stop Mr. Dean, party leaders may wind up weakening their chances in the fall. If he emerges damaged from the primaries, or falters and gives way to a weaker candidate like Wesley Clark or John Edwards, George W. Bush may be able to thank a few Democrats in his victory speech. http://www.berkshireeagle.com/Stories/0,1413,101~6267~1868013,00.html___________________________________________________________
So I wonder what energy the DLC will have left to get back to the primary goal: "getting" George W. Bush*?
The prognosis is not good.
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