Rival candidates ignore call to condemn 'Stop Dean' advertisement

[pruner]

SAN JOSE, Calif. - The presidential campaign of Howard Dean called Tuesday for his Democratic rivals to condemn an ad against him that's running in key primary states. None of his rivals cooperated, instead turning up their own criticism of Dean, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination.

…

Dean's campaign was reacting to a private "Stop Dean" coalition that recently began running ads in the key Democratic primary states of New Hampshire and South Carolina. The ad shows a photograph of Osama bin Laden while a male voice severely intones: "Howard Dean has no military or foreign policy experience."

…

Joe Trippi, Dean's campaign manager, sent an "Open Letter" to other campaign managers and copied it to reporters across the country. He ripped the bin Laden ad as "the kind of fear-mongering attack we've come to expect from Republicans" and said it pandered to the worst in voters. "I'm writing to call on each one of you to condemn this despicable ad and demand it be pulled from the airwaves."

"Democrats are better than this," the letter continues. "This type of ad represents everything that is wrong with our political process today - polluting our airwaves with smears on other candidates that have nothing to do with legitimate policy differences. Ads like this are the reason that less than half of the voting population in America bothers to go to the polls."

None of Dean's eight Democratic rivals condemned the ad; if anything, their attacks on Dean only grew more strident.

…

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/7507259.htm

[janx]

1. Wait a minute. This term"Stop Dean coalition"--

is the same we've seen appearing here in DU relating to a "Stop Dean" web site, no?

I've never seen it in connection with the Osama ad until now.

[DoveTurnedHawk]

2. I FUCKING *HATE* When the Media Lumps Clark in With "Their" Attacks

"Their" attacks only grew more strident.

Clark hasn't attacked anyone, you stupid fucking biased reporter.

DTH

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. One of the few things we agree on.

Clark has remained above the fray. A position formerly held by Edwards.

[Melodybe]

34. I agree Clark is a class act.

[pruner]

6. I think Dean & Clark made some kinda "gentleman's agreement"…

whereby they would take small jabs at each other but remain civil towards each other overall.

[IndianaGreen]

14. And neither has Kucinich, or Mosley-Braun, or Sharpton

but then, the media stopped covering them a week ago!

[Cocoa]

3. give it a rest

all this stuff sucks.

[shance]

5. Why dont you give it a rest Cocoa

You are so tiring and predictable.

[Renew Deal]

9. Umm

I think you 2 agree. I would reread it.

[Cocoa]

11. on the contrary

I don't love everything my candidate does, and hate everything his opponents do.

THAT would be predictable.

[Cooley Hurd]

7. I've never seen anything quite like this...

Politics is a rough buisness, but the level of incivility between the candidates has reached an unacceptable level. The "eight hands down" PR blunder at the last debate was a goddamn embarassment to the party. Now, they all refuse to speak up and condemn what is clearly the dirtiest, most negative campaign ad of the season. An ad one would expect to come from the Repugs. But it came from someone in the Democratic party. One of our own, and it's shameful.

Fucking shameful. :grr:

[slinkerwink]

8. I really loathe the gephardt campaign.....

[janx]

13. Signs point that way now, but we really won't know who did

this until we know who coordinated the funding of the ad. And that's what--February?

[Julien Sorel]

10. WOW.

I was sure that after Trippi's powerful letter, the other candidates would quickly be cowed. Apparently I misjudged them.

Plan A didn't work, so what's plan B? I've been told by several Deanites that, unlike McGovern, Carter, Mondale, and Dukakis, Dean will be immune to such attacks because he will 'fight back;' unfortunately, all I've seen so far is this whiny 'unity letter,' while the ads play on. How does Dean plan on defending himself?
The Republicans will have at least 50 times the money this little group does to spend on such ads.

[pruner]

12. at the end of this quarter…

it's quite possible that Dean will have raised half as much as Bush did this year.

assuming Dean wins the nomination (quickly) I think it's possible that he'll match Bush's fundraising.

[Julien Sorel]

16. OK.

So how does that answer the charges in these ads?

[Renew Deal]

19. Have another sip.

Match Bush's numbers? Is this the propoganda Dean is selling now? Drink up

[pruner]

24. the Democratic candidates have outraised Bush this year…

I don't think I'm going to far out on a limb to suggest that when Democrats coalesce around a signle candidate the amount of money they donate will continue to outstrip what Bush bring in.

[Renew Deal]

29. Interesting point

I have been wondering this too.

[msanger]

18. half a million dollars in two days

isn't a bad start of a response.

On the dean blog they have "Troll goals" - when somebody spots a troll folks all donate a dollar or two to the campaign.

Maybe the deanies will start a similar fund for TV attacks - whenever anybody runs a negative ad like this they just raise another half a million bucks. And use it to run the 30 minute "infomercial" on Dean.

[Julien Sorel]

25. So how does this answer the charges in those ads?

And I thought Dean was going to get you people donating to other candidates. Now it looks like he's going to have to spend your money simply countering negative advertising? That's defensive, and we're already underdogs in this election. A defensive underdog gets swept up in a landslide.

[pruner]

31. in the past 2 weeks Dean has raised about $1.5 million online (from bats)

and an additional $50,000+ plus for Rep. Boswell.

he's got plenty of money to refute attack ads and supporters who are willing to give money to other candidates in addition to him, not instead of him.

[Julien Sorel]

37. OK, so he has the money to refute the attack ads (I don't

really believe this, by the way, but I'll pretend), how does he refute them? Is Trippi going to continue writing open letters?

[pruner]

26. whenever a new attack ad comes out (be it from a candidate or group)…

Dean bloggers beg HQ to put up a new bat.

[Renew Deal]

15. I hate to say I told you so...

but I told you so. Or at least someone else in another thread. They have no incentive to do anything substantial about it. Look at Kerry's comment. It was a slap on the wrist. This is Dean's biggest weakness. If he can't handle it now, then he shouldn't be nominated.

BTW, I think the ad is nasty and innapropriate.

[pruner]

20. who says he can't handle it?

I think Dean's campaign played this masterfully…

in addition to raising an extra $550,000+ in 3 days (immediately following the Gore fundraiser that brought in $700,000) he got positive press out of this and caused Gephardt & Kerry to receive a fair amount of negative press.

[_Jumper_]

21. And this was just a smear

What will he do when someone runs a legitimate ad attacking his proposal to raise taxes on the middle-class?

[janx]

23. I understand and appreciate your analysis, but I disagree.

The Dean campaign handled this very well. The fact that there is silence "speaks volumes," if you understand what I mean.

The language used in the Kerry reaction (which you noticed) essentially said nothing because it used some language of the ad itself in its own defense.

[Renew Deal]

28. And

I am not saying that Dean didn't handle it. I am saying that they need to be able to.

[janx]

32. They can, Bleachers.

They're very good about rapid response. Sometimes the rapid response includes a good dose of humor besides.

[Cha]

17. I'm not surprised they aren't "condemning" the ad..

We know where they stand anyway. On DESPERATION AVENUE.

[Renew Deal]

22. That's where you will be standing

if this ad works. This is Dean's biggest weakness and reading a speech that Gore wrote doesn't make it a strength.

[janx]

27. It certainly hasn't worked so far!

It has backfired.

[KittyWampus]

30. Trippi's Next Move Is To Stamp His Foot

and look PETULANT.

[Renew Deal]

33. Petulant

is that tomorrows Clark word of the day?

[pruner]

35. Dean's been using the word petulant for months in his stump speech…

he uses it to describe the driving force behind Bush's foreign policy.

:)

[KittyWampus]

36. It Was Yesterdays "Clark Word Of The Day"

:)

[zulchzulu]

38. Funny site