After climbing to the top, Dean discovers he's a target

[Nicholas_J]

BURLINGTON, Vt. -- After a phase of mild or veiled criticism, most of Howard Dean's rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination are now engaged in a full-scale attack on the former Vermont governor, whose fund-raising and polling have unexpectedly surpassed those of more established candidates.

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The onslaught is almost constant: Over the last five days, Dean has been forced to defend his support of Israel, his view of Hamas, his past comments on Medicare, his remarks on race, his opinion about Internet voting, his opposition to specific tax cuts, and even the origins of a statement about Trent Lott he uttered during last week's debate...


At the same time, Sharpton called on Dean to oppose plans in Michigan to allow primary voters to cast their ballots over the Internet.

"Perhaps it is due to the fact you governed a state with virtually no people of color living within its borders that you are unaware that this is a racially biased proposal," Sharpton said in a letter to Dean that was made public by the Sharpton campaign.


http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/09/14/after_climbing_to_the_top_dean_discovers_hes_a_target/

[clar]

1. Just out of curiosity

Does anyone know if Sharpton sent a similar letter to other candidates? Have other candidates supported Sharpton is this?

[DemBones DemBones]

6. Why would Sharpton send letters to other candidates?

Are any of the other candidates supporting internet voting? For that matter, have any of the others spent their entire political life in a state that is 96% white?

For example, Kerry sent Dean a letter criticizing his referring to Hamas members as "soldiers." I doubt he sent any other candidate a similar letter since only Dean made this blunder.

[barbaraann]

2. But apparently Dean's campaign has found ways to turn that

to its advantage by having people donate and respond in other ways when he is attacked. The attacks are getting so frequent and ferocious that I wouldn't be surprised if Dean collects more money than Bush and exposes the whore media for what it is! It's looking like some sort of political judo where Dean and his campaign have figured out how to use the energy of the attacker against it.

I'm more to the left than Dean but I love these tactics.

[hedda_foil]

5. Small correction.

Steph stated that the campaign organized the drive to donate to Dean every time he's criticized by another candidate. That's untrue. The suggestion was made by a supporter on the blog (in comments). Other bloggers liked the idea so one of them set up a webpage to do it. The campaign does offer the tools to anyone who wants to have their own personal donation page but those pages aren't vetted by the staff. It was strictly a volunteer initiative with no input at all from the campaign. Same with the "troll fund" where people who want to donate to the campaign when the blog is invaded by a disruptor. As a result, there aren't many disruptors at the blog. In fact, when Kerry's blog was disrupted, a Dean supporter explained how Dean's bloggers are handling it and suggested they try the same tactic for Kerry.

[LuminousX]

3. Who would believe

that the front runner would be attacked. This is amazing news.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

4. Amazing!

I suppose this is what you get, being the front runner. I'll take it, any day. So far, anyway, this has only proven to energize the Dean ranks.