Is Joe Trippi a liability?

[PSU84]

For Howard Dean, that is. He's proving to be an asset for other candidates.

[rumguy]

1. What do you mean?

I've always look on him as some kinda genuis.

[jmaier]

2. As a Clark

supporter, I wish that Joe Trippi was a liability. I'm not sure that he's up to a GE campaign but he sure has been on top of the game so far during the nomination race.

[jjmalonejr]

3. Trippi is Dean's Rove...

...a tactical/strategic genius who often goes too far.

[Skwmom]

8. Would Trippi be so successful if the corporate media

didn't build Dean up? I don't think so.

[killbotfactory]

10. Yeah... calling him a conspiracy theorist...

Unelectable... the next George McGovern... saying he apologizes too much... is way too angry... is too stupid to realize catching Saddam makes us safer... insulted southerners and blacks with the confederate flag remark... calling him a peacenik..

If only they'd build up other candidates that way... *sigh*

[Cha]

4. flamebait.

[NashVegas]

5. In Your Dreams

:)

[w4rma]

6. Is up, down? Is peace, war? Is ignorance, strength? (n/t)

[sandnsea]

7. Trippi is all Dean has

Without Trippi, Dean would be spending the winter skiing in Vermont. The trick will be if he can transform the campaign to Dean as a unifying leader instead of relying on scorched earth politics. The voters have seen that strategy with Kerry and Gephardt, I don't think they'll be fooled again if he tries to use it on Clark.

[killbotfactory]

9. Going from an * to frontrunner is a bad thing?

Huh?

[Upfront]

11. What

You are dreaming, the other candidates would hire him in a heart beat.

[savvyspy]

12. Trippi

I agree with Upfront, Trippi is as good as there is. The liability is Howard Dean's mouth constantly putting the campaign on the defensive.

If Trippi could get Dean within 150 electoral votes of Bush HE should be president.

[leyton]

13. The question is not

"Would Trippi be so successful if the media weren't building Howard Dean up?"

The question is,

"If the media has built up Howard Dean, hasn't Trippi been successful?"

[Jerseycoa]

14. How could that be?

Trippi's built an amazing campaign. Give the guy credit.

[Dems Will Win]

15. As a Professional Consultant, I can assure you that Joe Trippi is nothing

less than the greatest political consultant of all time, all history and all politics.

People actually pay me to tell them how to run their campaigns, mind you, so I know whereof I speak. Karl Rove is shaking in his boots because he knows Trippi is going to find a way to beat him by enfranchising the non-voter to the tune of 6 million to maybe 10 million new voters, as Ventura did in Minnesota.

Trippi is going to cause the greatest revolution in American politics since Andrew Jackson widened the franchise in 1828. Mark my words!

We ARE going to take our country back--just like the slogan says!!!

[NV1962]

16. Wellllll...

I'm not entirely sure about the prediction of Joe Trippi causing "the greatest revolution in American politics since Andrew Jackson widened the franchise in 1828" but... I do agree he's one heck of a campaign manager, who's worked miracles - and he keeps doing just that. Sidestepping allegiances and preferences for a moment...
My hat's off to you, Joe: :yourock:

[no name no slogan]

18. Thereby proving my premise: Dean == Ventura

That Howard Dean is NOT the George McGovern of the primaries-- he's actually the Jesse Ventura.

How? Both candidates portray themselves as "different" from other politicians, but scratch the surface and you'll see there's not really any difference at all. Their positions on the issues are not really any different than what's come before, although they're phrased a little differently.

Both of them tap into the same "rage" felt by the "radical middle": typically white middle-class voters who somehow feel they've gotten "the shaft" (despite their relatively well-off position). Both candidates offer simple plattitudes about "taking back" something they feel has been "stolen" from them, yet their respective programs reveal them to be more about heat than light, more window-trimming than REAL change.

Both have legions of supporters who project their views onto their candidate, despite official positions or public remarks to the contrary made by the candidate himself.

And, if history is any indication, both will govern indifferently, as if to thumb their noses at the "change" they promised on the campaign trail, and disappoint a lot of hopeful, naive supporters who thought they were working for someone "different" instead of somebody who happens to represent the "Democratic Wing" of the same-old, same-old.

[November 2004]

21. Excellent post!

Just excellent!

:yourock:

[Spock_is_Skeptical]

26. You are right

about that.

[mouse7]

20. Actually, I have to disagree a bit here

I believe Trippi is getting a fair amount of credit for some ideas that the unattached, unprofessional, non-staff Dean supporters generate. The Dean campaign went WAY out of their way to allow non-staff volunteers lots of freedom to generate their own activities and events. They did this mainly so if an event crossed some line for some reason, the Dean staff was free of the potential wreckage. However, although there were far more ideas that were not so good than good by non staffers (as is true for any idea generation process), none crossed any lines so there was never any bad publicity for the decentralized efforts. There were some obvious masterpieces like Meet-ups along the way. Meet-ups were started by a Dean supporter that was never made a staffer two months before Dean's first campaign manager was replaced by Trippi. Dean's internet explosion started on the blog scene by non-staff blog writers in September of 2002. Howard Dean wrote the February DNC speech that ignited the crowd attending that event and started the whispering with that phrase "I'm from the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party."

I'm not saying Trippi's a flake. Trippi came up with meet-up people sending hand-written letters to NH and Iowa. What I am saying is that if a person starts looking like a living legend, it's more likely there more legend and rumor there than actual story.

[NV1962]

22. Whoa (2x)

Mouse7, Joe Trippi is campaign manager right? I never heard about managers having to be personally responsible for thinking up campaign winners... In fact, good campaign managers are those who identify the winners, embrace them, and then get the desired results. It's what management in general is about. Looking at Dean's campaign, I consider Trippi a "success" - but that's my opinion.

As to the 2nd issue, of the merits of campaign managers needing to pass the ideological purity tests with flying colors: with all respect, I think that's a good point, made on the wrong issue. I think it's a valid point when commenting on their role in bringing "truth into politics" in general - but a hogwash argument when applied to a discussion of whether a campaign manager is successful or not.

[mouse7]

24. Trippi is getting "invention" credit too often

I've seen Trippi given credit in the press for thinking up Dean use of Meet-Up from the point of conception forward, and Trippi accepted credit when offered. That was wrong. Matter of fact, that has happened on more than a couple of occasions.

As a manager, he's done a very good job. However, he's not the legend I see being promoted now. Dean's campaign successes are mostly due to the decentralized nature of the campaign early. A lot of ideas were tested in the field by non-staff volunteers. The ones that worked were picked up by Burlington and expanded. Dean made the decision that the campaign would be allowed to function in a decentraliozed fashion in the early months. That decision has paid off in spades. Dean deserves a lot of credit for that decision.

[no name no slogan]

17. Trippi (and "professional political consultants") are the PROBLEM

...not the "solution".

The "professionalization" of American politics is what has reduced elections to little more than horse races about fundraising and personalities. Consequently, the serious issues are downlplayed, if not ignored, altogether. This, in turn, leads to increased voter cynicism, lower voter turnout and reduces politics to little more than a spectator sport for most Americans.

I know of what I speak. I was poised my senior year of college to become one of these so-called "political consultants". I was on the fast track to a paid staff position with my state's party, and was making all the right connections. I could have walked on to damn near ANY presidential campaign in 1992, flashed my credentials, and gotten a decent job.

However, I put my head up and looked around, at my fellow "political consultant" wannabees, and was alarmed with what I saw: sycophantic power-hungry toadies who were no more out of place with a "major" campaign than in the boardroom of some sleazy corporate criminal organization. From somebody who cut his teeth on grassroots campaigns, it utterly disgusted me. So I walked away.

"Professional" politics, as it exists today, is a complete corruption of what system of government is supposed to be about. And it shows, too, if you look at the record low voter turnout numbers and the severe mistrust of most politicians among the American people.

Politics, as it stands today, is more about image, fundraising and whose "consultants" are better than about the REAL issues that face this nation. Unfortunately for us all, voters and activists in both parties seem to continue playing this game, to the detriment of our democracy.

[Dems Will Win]

19. There are consultants and there are consultants...

THe good consultants, like me and Trippi, who really care about the country, and the ego-consultants, who are just in it for the money, power and the fame.

Go with the good ones and learn to distinguish between the two kinds. Any Republican consultant is ipso facto bad, bad unless maybe they were for McCain and even then I doubt it...

[Eurobabe]

25. i feel you are right

there is something really slimey about consultants in general. one looks around the current govt. and wonders how it got this way.

reminds me of the *new economy* before the crash, with all the MBAs and the freshly-minted internet strategists. i guess politics is no different?

[dogman]

23. Depends

If he had anything to do with this questionnaire he's an idiot!http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/cst-nws-dean241.html

[Fleshdancer]

27. I want to see Trippi as DNC Chairman.

feel free to insult me for saying it.