Dean says Obama ran as reformer, then surrounded himself with DC insiders. [View All]

[madfloridian]

Howard Dean and Ari Berman the author of Herding Donkeys, held a gathering at Burlington at the place where Dean's campaign began. He had some words of advice for Obama and the party.

A video is included at the WCAX link.

Here is more about the discussions there.

Howard Dean can still pack a room. His supporters crowded into the back of a downtown Burlington café to discuss how a midterm defeat for the Democrats will shift the balance of power in Washington -- and how the party could bounce back.

"Most of you from Vermont know me. I'm not exactly a raving liberal even though everyone thinks I am," said Dean.

..."In 2008, with Dean as chair of the Democratic party, President Barack Obama implemented this 50 state strategy and won. But Dean now says the president's switch to a more top down approach is hurting him.

"The president is a reformer," said Dean, "He ran as a reformer. So what's the first thing he does? He hires as his most senior people, people who have spent their entire careers in Washington. You explain to me how people who've spent their entire careers in Washington are going to change what goes on in Washington? It didn't happen."

And he says that's part of what went wrong for the Democrats in the midterm elections. Voters were disappointed with the extent of reform.

"We've got to get them to believe in politics again and right now the only person who can do that is Barack Obama," said Dean.

I find myself more and more thinking just how foolish we Deaniacs were in 2003 to think we could make a difference. And trust me, we really thought we could bring change to the party. Our group that made up his campaign here was most certainly not very liberal when we started out. We had our share of moderate Republicans and right-leaning Independents.

We tolerated being called fringe activists by party leaders, we got used to being shunned locally by the party establishment.

Looking back I see all the messages that we and others have tried to send for the last few years as our party kept going right....really were ignored.

Some of us still try to point out that the hard right turn is going on, but it still is not being heard.

Our home insurance went up over $50 a month this year, and we are supposed to be thankful we were not cancelled as so many were.

Our health insurance...well the bad news is still coming in. My insurance for sure will go up over $80 a month. Not sure yet on hubby's, but we suspect an over $100 a month increase.

They tell us there is no cost of living increase for seniors, but right there..my friends..is $230 a month increase. Maybe more to come yet.

I was just reading at Huffington Post about the deal Obama made with Big Pharma as the cost of being able to say they passed a health insurance plan.

Here is only part of it.



Compromise and deal-making...some of us are seeing the very expensive price of that right now.

Bernie Sanders was also at the Dean, Berman event. He was right as usual.

"I think compromise makes sense. But when the job of the Republicans in life is to see he gets nothing through, their job in life is to be the 'party of no,' their job is to say he's going to be a one term president and not cooperate, I think he's got to draw a line," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont.

Time to draw the line now. Stop the dismantling of education..do something about the 2 or 3 years that seniors will see no COLA in Social Security, stop right now and speak out about the two ding-a-ling chairs of the deficit commission who are going around and laughing up their sleeves about the pain they are planning for seniors.