Bet Dean doesn't say this in his convention speech.

[madfloridian]

It is being written by Kerry staffers, so it will not include such as this. He said this at Democracy Fest today:

SNIP..."We're going to blame Bush for 98% of what is wrong with this country lately, and we rightly should. But we also have to blame the Democrats for not standing up to Bush and we have to do something about the fact that 50% of Americans do not vote." - - Howard Dean, 07/25/04"

Not really, Howard, we are not really going to do that. You just thought we might.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. We are doing something about the non-voters

I keep voter registration apps in my car. I hand them out-with stamps. The key is to get non-voters registered.

[Myrina]

16. Registering them

... and actually getting them to show up on election day are two different challenges, though.

Any hints ? :shrug:

[MontecitoDem]

17. Definitely!

It's called Get Out the Vote!

Keep track of names and numbers of those you register and call them before election day. On election day offer to take them out to lunch after you all vote together.

Volunteer with your local Democratic party to help canvass neighborhoods for a few days leading up to election day.

Donate money to help pay for doorhangars in your neighborhood.

Show up at a local democratic candidates headquarters to phonebank. Every dem you get to the polls helps the national ticket.

There's a few ideas - hope we can all go above and beyond for the election cycle!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

22. Since I work in a small town

and see the people I've registered every day, it will be easy for me to personally ask if they've voted and then remind them to do so!

[qwlauren35]

23. Yup, the second half of the problem...

I did a lot of voter registration this year. And in talking with a friend, we've both concluded that voting is INCREDIBLY intimidating.

The process of making informed decisions about EVERY candidate is overwhelmingly difficult for most people. Not enough money is spent on helping people find the information, especially the non-partisan information, that they need to make an informed decision.

What I'd really like to see is an effort made to tell people where to get the information. Put it on TV ads & billboards, not just in newspapers. Put it in mailings to new registrants when the registration card goes out.

What gags me is that I think both sides do NOT want folks to be informed. They want people to vote all D or all R, so there's no value to them to give people access to information.

I think it will take active non-partisan groups to make a difference in this regard.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

2. Yep and I am a deputy

voter registrar which means I can register them to vote on the SPOT. No mailing in required. I just send it back to the county office and they keep the stub and can vote with that until their card arrives in the mail.

[madfloridian]

3. I was referring to the "standing up against Bush."

Yes, we register voters as well.

[Capn Sunshine]

4. 50% of Americans do not vote

Yet the Democratic Party expends 90% of their resources chasing 1/2 of 1% of them we call "swing voters."

THAT has to change.

[mdmc]

5. Dean doesn't have a speaking role at the convention , does he?

:kick:

[hedda_foil]

6. Yup, he does.

Tuesday, prime time. Be there!

[mzmolly]

9. Do we have the actual time he's speaking Hedda?

I want to be sure and catch him. :hi:

[madfloridian]

12. After Daschle, last I heard.

:hi:

[KFC]

7. Better than wasting effort on lefties in the bag

Obviously anyone left of center will vote for Kerry. (Excluding the idiot Nader fans.)

The Democratic Party needs to expend 99% of their resources chasing "swing voters". It is called winning an election.

[Pastiche423]

15. Obviously, you are wrong

Not everyone left of center is "in the bag". There is a growing number that aren't.

Yeah, don't waste time on them, then see where the numbers are in November.

[paulk]

21. and then you can feel so proud of yourself

when all that time and effort spent trashing Kerry pays off in a Bush win.

And that "growing number" can look in the mirror and wonder who that idiot staring back at them is...

[mzmolly]

8. I was talking with my sis about why people don't vote, as she has

many, many friends who don't.

She said most are sceptical and don't think the elections are honest, or that it really makes a difference in their lives.

Her fiance has a sister in Iraq, and he isn't planning on voting. :eyes:

I wonder if some people can be reached, and what it would take to reach them?

I think this is something DU-ers could work on, but the unfortunate fact is that swing voters are "voters" and non-voters are unreliable. As they say a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush ;)

No pun intended. :hi:

[mdmc]

10. wow

Dean speaking! Tuesday! Cool-io!

[bitchkitty]

24. Take them to the movies - there's

a really good documentary out now! ;)

[seaglass]

25. I think most non-voters just don't care and the majority of

them cannot be reached. When I see a story about a 57 yo woman who has suddently expressed an interest in voting this year, I ask where were you when Reagan got elected twice, where were you when the votes were being counted in 2000?

I BLAME people that don't vote. It's a two way street, politicians need to get voters motivated but voters need to be more than passive receptacles, they need to do something for themselves.

[neoSattva]

26. a note of encouragement

I was at the Kerry rally in Denver on Friday & spoke with a man in his 50's (like me). He said he hadn't voted in 30 years, but this year he's so pissed off that he's not only going to vote, but he's going to rallies. I think that there are many people like him that may just need an extra push. People know that the way our country is being run just isn't right. Even cynics know that Bush has crossed the line.

Someone on this string said they keep voter registration forms in their car to hand out. It's things like that that will make the difference. That gave me the idea to leave some registration forms at the 'subversive' coffee shops and book stores I seem to hang out in.

We all need to do whatever we can to convince the undecided, get the non-voters to the polls, and encourage each other to stay focused. It helps to give each other ideas that are easy to do.

99 more days of constant attention. The conservatives have been doing that for the last few decades. Now it's our turn to step it up!

[MontecitoDem]

18. Our local Democratic Club is doing our own organizing

Why should we leave this up to the powers that be? We are trying to dramatically increase our local turnouts through precinct organization. It's working well - we've got over 1000 volunteers already covering almost every neighborhhod in our city! Everyone can do this work in their own neighborhoods.

I know we all wish the Democratic Party better represented our views - and to my mind there is one way to do that: infiltrate from the bottom up!

[Bombtrack]

11. I also bet he won't say that he was using the same misleading attacks

against Kerry and democrats as the republicans are now.

[madfloridian]

13. Oh, stop. They all attacked each other constantly.

Stop whining.

[mzmolly]

14. No and he probably won't mention the attacks made upon him by his

Democratic Primary contenders either.

[Bombtrack]

27. After Dean initiated the Segretti smear politics into the primary

Dean decided at the outset that he was going to go negative and never let up. And then he had the audacity to call himself a "pin cushon" when people started to return fire and/or refute his lies and misleading attacks about them, in addition to whining to Terry McCauliff, as if 1: McCauliffe was orchistrating the anti-Dean critisms and 2: there was some huge negative double standard the candidates were applying to Dean that they weren't to others, with absolutely no grounds whatsoever for either. So much of what he did just showed his utter inability to stifle his egomania and hold himself to the same standard he portrayed himself holding the other candidates to.

[mzmolly]

28. Bite me.

Dean was the most highly criticized in the race, time to quit bitching and whining, Kerry won.

BTW, Dean is working hard to see Kerry elected, bury the vitriol, it's bad for our nominee.

[Bombtrack]

29. This is a pro-Dean, anti non-Dean democrat bitching thread

I wouldn't be bitching if this thread wasn't a rehash of the same misguided pro-Dean/antiDean-opponent-bitching.

[madfloridian]

34. Yep, mzmolly, they don't have a clue what criticism was.

Did you see Dean blush when Dole gave him a left-handed compliment?
But he grinned also. Dole said it was good he gave the scream, and not too work too hard because he was very effective now. Something like that.
It was funny.

You are right, people need to stop whining so much.

[MercutioATC]

19. Actually they were valid then and they're valid now.

I give Dean credit for his unequivocal support of Kerry now, despite their differences...not that I'd ever expect any less of him.

[PVnRT]

20. Need some cheese with that?

n/t

[freetobegay]

30. I guess the Convention has you in a quandey now, doesn't it?

[madfloridian]

32. I like the way it is going.

Is that what you mean? I liked it when Dean bashed Bush on CNN this afternoon while all the way saying he was not going to do it and grinning.

I liked what Carter did. I missed Gore, but it is taped.

My goodness, you sound like you caught me being bad or something. :evilgrin: I am glad they are speaking up, and I wonder if they got a little message. Lots of calls. Reading forums.

Bet you are not pleased, though. If they start backing off, I will gripe again. I am nothing if not consistent.

[TeacherCreature]

36. WTF are you talking about?

Dean was so good Kerry started giving his stump speech.

[Seabiscuit]

31. I think Dean should

say anything he wants - including the above. We DO have the beltway Dems to blame for not standing up soon enough or often enough to Bush. There are still Dems down there who act like they believe they were voted into office for the sole purpose of being a carpet the Repukes can trample on.

And if it weren't for Dean calling them out beginning February, 2003, there'd still be a lot more spineless beltway Dems than there are now.

[madfloridian]

33. Dean even got written up at Drudge today for being all over the place.

It has been a pure pleasure to hear him on radio and TV absolutely saying the president was not truthful. He doesn't know why he was not truthful, but.....and he goes right on. Good for him, good for Carter, good for Hilary earlier.

[Seabiscuit]

35. He KNOWS why Bush was not "truthful"

Yet Dean's still adhering to his campaign strategy of not calling Bush an outright Liar, which Bush is.

So what. "Not truthful" = "Liar" in any common sense meaning of the words.

Kudos to Gore, Carter, Hillary, and Bill plus Kerry's war-buddy from Vietnam who preceeded them.

Some of the best speeches I've heard from any of them except from Gore - his last big speech, which has driven the Repukes nuts for months, where he called for Rumsfeld's immediate resignation and stated Bush had "betrayed the trust" Americans put in a President was by far his best speech ever.

What's really funny to me is that while the Dems are "bashing Bush" without personally "bashing Bush" personally, simply by addressing the *ISSUES*, i.e. that everything Bush has done and touched has turned to shit, i.e. a reverse Midas-touch, all the Dubya campaigners are able to do is put out articles and ads with personal attacks containing gross distortions. That's good news because from Iowa to New Hampshire to the end of the Dem. primaries, the voters let people know they are sick of negative campaigning tactics. The Repukes are shooting themselves in the foot because they CAN'T address the issues, just like they CAN'T admit a single "mistake", so they are getting desperate, sinking to the lowest form of political attacks - personal attacks. E.g.: witness the latest crap coming out about Teresa Heinz Kerry - not just the "shove it" BS, but watch tomorrow when they come out with a 30 year old interview where she attacks Ted Kennedy. I mean, how irrelevant can one be???