Be Like Dean! John Kerry's voters ask their candidate to act ...

[sfecap]

Be Like Dean!

John Kerry's voters ask their candidate to act like the other guy.
By Chris Suellentrop

Posted Tuesday, July 29, 2003, at 3:35 PM PT

DES MOINES, Iowa—When I arrive at John Kerry's campaign headquarters Saturday afternoon for a "Kerry Country BBQ," the candidate's staff is buzzing about a tall young blond man who has arrived for the event. They want to prevent him from getting anywhere close to the candidate. Before I came to Iowa, I was conditioned to think of Howard Dean as the unpredictably exciting, insurgent candidate and to think of Kerry as the aloof, preprogrammed establishment contender. This is my first taste of what the differences look like up close.

(snip)

At the two Kerry events I attended this past weekend, voters kept encouraging the Massachusetts senator, in effect, to be more like Howard Dean. After Friday's Kerry speech, a voter walked up to him and told him the Democrats must quit being passive. "Oh, I'm not passive," Kerry soothed. Today, he does something similar when an angry voter complains about the Leave No Child Behind bill. "Oh, I am so furious about it," Kerry says matter-of-factly. These are questions Dean wouldn't even be asked.

As I'm leaving the event, I run into a Kerry campaign worker. He stops me and asks me about Dean and what he's like. He says he'd really like to hear him speak, but it's not kosher for staffers to go to other candidates' events. Maybe if he goes in plain clothes, he muses. Everyone talks about what a great speaker Dean is, he says, but how does he interact with people? I tell him I was impressed.

The more I tell him about Dean, the more crestfallen he seems to get. Without mentioning Kerry, I tell him that Dean never appears to be trying to walk out of a room. He interjects: "That's a real problem we have, because Kerry's a senator, so he needs to be back in Washington. Dean's basically unemployed, so he can spend all day hanging out with three people." It's only a feeling I get, but I can't help wondering if he signed up with Kerry because he thought Kerry would win, and now he's questioning his decision. As I head out to catch my plane, I think that the girl on his right appears to be consoling him.


http://slate.msn.com/id/2086320/

[tpub]

1. I would like Kerry to learn from Dean, not act like him

His campaign can, and probably already has, learned something from Dean's website, Meetups, grassroots organizing and fundraising. It's something to emulate. I hope that when Kerry really gets moving in the fall, we will see more of this type of campaign from him.

[MercutioATC]

2. Kerry's doing fine, and so is Dean

I think they should be themselves. Let us all decide next year whom we want as a candidate, but let us do based on who the candidates really are.

[molly]

3. This is the best part

"Without mentioning Kerry, I tell him that Dean never appears to be trying to walk out of a room. He interjects: "That's a real problem we have, because Kerry's a senator, so he needs to be back in Washington. Dean's basically unemployed, so he can spend all day hanging out with three people."

[sfecap]

6. LOL....

n/t

[w4rma]

20. IMO, the next part of that paragraph is better, molly

It's only a feeling I get, but I can't help wondering if he signed up with Kerry because he thought Kerry would win, and now he's questioning his decision. As I head out to catch my plane, I think that the girl on his right appears to be consoling him.

[blm]

4. I'd rather be hit with a brick in the head

than have Kerry sound like a shoot from the lip, sound biter like Dean. I want a change in the white house to an elegantly spoken intellectual who has a progressive vision and is tough enough to achieve it.

Suellentrop is still playing the mediawhore.

[sfecap]

5. Now...would you think that

if Suellentrop wrote "Be like Kerry...." :-)

[blm]

7. Are you familiar with Suellentrop?

There would always be a poison pill somewhere in the piece. This is part of the Rove plan to use the Dean campaign to shoot at Kerry. They don't want him to survive the primary.

Add Suellentrop to Fineman, Orin, and American Spectator

[sfecap]

9. So...the Kerry campaign will use him

to shoot at Dean?

Waitaminnit! The Kerry campaign already IS shooting at Dean!

:-)

[blm]

11. Puhleez....

They're happy that Dean is taking all the media attention, and being labeled as the "too liberal" candidate. Everyone predicted that Kerry would get labeled the "Massachusetts liberal" and now, thanks to Dean attacking the others as Bushlite, Kerry is being called a moderate, even though he's well to Dean's left. Hahaha.....The irony is that Dean started his campaign running as a centrist and to be the alternative to the liberals who were running.

The Kerry campaign is keeping its own schedule. Come September.....

[CWebster]

21. Ah yes, tis a bad, bad bad thing to be labeled as a liberal

So what lengths should one run from being tagged it, with fear and loathing? Vote to support the cocky punk's fantasy and boast of macho military prowess with every breath to meet the rethug projection of being tough on security?

You're just triangulating, John, trying to beat Smirk at his own losing nationalistic jingo--and sacrificing your own identity and integrity in the process. You trod the same losing path as Gore, you allow advisors to dictate who you should be, and shame you for what and who you are.

[blm]

22. Nope....but if your opponent puts on a mask

of liberalism that really doesn't fit him and gets pounded for it, you may as well let him take the beating. Blame Dean and his lies. He called good liberals "Bushlite." and did so repeatedly and LOUDLY. If any of it comes back to hurt him, well, he deserves the hit.

By the way...when did the BIGGEST compromising GOP asskissing centrist of all time start to turn people on? When he smelled the antiwar $$$$$$ and started saying what you wanted to hear?

[CWebster]

25. Nope

Kerry's team is attempting to smear Dean with the "liberal" label as well. Check out the latest issue of the "New Republic". With each passsing day I have less and less respect for Kerry.

[blm]

53. HAHAH...Bushlite, Bushlite, Bushlite...

Dean will rue the day.

[MercutioATC]

12. Do you seriously believe that the GOP would shot at Kerry with Dean?

Please....

Why pick another first-tier candidate (who's in a very close second place in the first primary/caucus states) to pick off Kerry? Wouldn't the smart Rove move be to push another candidate with less fundraising ability or support within the Democratic party?

The second you listen to anything Rove says, you're lost. Who in the hell cares what Rove thinks? He's the oposition, remember?

All Democrats (or anybody else who is tired of what this administration is doing to us) should support whomever they feel speaks to them in the primary and whomever stands the bast chance of beating Bush in the general.

But please....stop listening to Rove....

[blm]

14. They picked him back when

he was in the second tier. You think he has Fineman, Orin, the American Spectator, et al, featuring him consistently while taking shots at Kerry, because they really want Dean to beat Bush?

[DrFunkenstein]

19. Suellentrop Has Been Riding The McFun Bus A Little Too Long

He is Dennis Hopper to Dean's Brando.

"It's 12:30 p.m. on Friday, and I'm riding on "McFun," the Dean van named for its personalized license plate. It's a big Ford E-350, festooned with Dean placards and bumper stickers, a loaner from a Dean supporter named McGuire who uses it to haul around his seven kids. Up to now, I've been following McFun in a van driven by a Dean campaign intern."

"Dean pauses. 'I mean, you have to make your own judgment. I don't get to see myself on television, so I don't know. On the talk shows, I'm not strident. When I'm giving speeches, I get very passionate. Although, as you move into the general election, probably I'm going to be talking …'

He stops himself quickly, likely realizing that Democratic candidates aren't supposed to concede that they lurch left in the primaries, then run back to the center once they get the nomination. 'You know, I'm probably not going to change a lot, because what we're doing is working,' he continues, back on message. 'And I think if you try to mold yourself to be somebody you're not, that's when you lose.' Oh well."

I suppose that was the inspiration for Suellentrop's next piece..."Kerry Tries To Mold Himself Into Someone He Is Not."

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

33. Uhm, another

:tinfoilhat: conspiracy.

How many is that now?

[blm]

40. Same one....

the same that Tom DeLay started...build up Dean to divide the Dem party. They control most of the mediawhores.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

45. Dean and Delay are in bed together?

The other conspiracy was the DLC attacking Dean (but not really) and in reality supporting him. That idea has lost impetus on this board.

Occam's Razor, blm.

[blm]

47. Why change what I said?

DeLay and Dean aren't working together and no one ever said they did, your moronic accusation notwithstanding. An article was out last March how DeLay said they would promote attention on Dean. It was cited here more than a few times. Accusing me of being a conspiracy theorist doesn't change that fact.

btw...I have said that there are GOP operatives likely working in EVERY campaign. If you don't believe it, then take a good look at who Lucianne Goldberg is. She was a GOP operative when Poppy Bush was running the RNC. They've infiltrated Dem campaigns for decades.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

59. Thanks for taking the "high road" with your response.

Morons have feelings, too.

[stickdog]

46. Dean's candidacy is all IN SPITE of the generally dismissive media whores.

Any real skilled, honest political prognisticator would have called Dean the clear frontrunner a month ago.

[SGrande]

31. THANK YOU!

:+

[stickdog]

44. That 'vision' scored big for Adlai Stevenson.

Didn't it?

[LuminousX]

58. Sounds like a poster who thinks Dean is REALLY bad...

nt

[David Zephyr]

8. "Be Like Dean" Translated: "Act Like A Leader"

These are hard days for John Kerry and Dick Gephardt for they are truly decent men who are now paying for their compromising during the build up to the War in Iraq.

Hearing comments from their own followers to "Act like Dean," must be wounding to them. I hate that these things happen, but they do.

Senators Kerry, Gephardt and Edwardsvoted to support Bush's war. Everyone knows that.

But Senator Bob Graham and Congressman Dennis Kucinich voted against Bush's war. They weren't acting like Dean, they were just doing the right thing. They stood up and were counted. They deserve a lot of respect for having done so. I certainly admire them for it.

And, I do now give Gephardt, Kerry and Edwards some credit, for refraining from attacking their opponents and staying focused on attacking George Bush.

However, Jealous Joe Lieberman, has now stooped to attacking not only Howard Dean, but Bob Graham, John Kerry and Richard Gephardt in a show of panic as his failed Presidential bid is now coming to a premature end. His gratutious attacks on his fellow Democrats are pitiful and reveal the ugly side about this man--his vanity and jealousy.

John Kerry, Richard Gephardt and John Edwards do not need to "act like Dean". It's too late for that. But they should take a lesson from from either Kucinich, Sharpton, Mosely-Braun, Graham, and yes, Howard Dean---and stand up and speak out against George W. Bush and his Administration without fear.

I am particularly taken with Congressman Dennis Kucinich's recent chant at the Urban League of "U.N. In, U.S. Out". This is a cry that all the Democrats should take up. Kudos to Kucinich for articulating what is needed now. We must internationalize Iraq immediately. Everyday that the U.S. flounders in the hell-hole that is there is lost time. Bush's pride is hurting this nation even more than it already has. John Kerry has recently spoken to this very issue strongly and deserves praise for having done so.

And to Jealous Joe Lieberman: You can't act like Dean or be like Dean, but at least act like an adult and stop being a spoiled sport and poor loser. Act like the rest of the Democratic Candidates who you can't seem to resist attacking. And if you can't do that, shut up and get off the stage. No one is listening to you anymore.

[tpub]

16. I just read the whole article and nowhere does a Kerry follower

say "Act like Dean."

That's the writer's impression.

Just to clarify...

[poskonig]

28. Kucinich articulated that well on Buchanan & Press!

That is one of Kucinich's best soundbites. "UN in, US out." DK's appearance looks more professional and less sloppy as well.

[SGrande]

30. "Act like an idiot" more like it

I was a Dean supporter and now I support John Kerry because Howard Dean lacks morals and values. He could'nt moralize himself out of a paperbag!

He went AGAINST the environment and FOR corporations

He went AGAINST working class people and FOR Politics as usualy with the medicaid debacle in which he cut medicaid by millions of dollars in vermont.

[Larkspur]

32. Dean has a 100% approval rating from the AFL-CIO

and he had it ever since he was a Vermont state rep.

His environmental record is excellent.

And of all the candidates, Dean is the only one who knows how to balance a budget and promote social justice issues.

Dean is as tough and imaginative as Harry Truman and that's why Howard Dean will pull off the greatest political upset in American political history next year. He'll do it twice by winning the Democratic nomination and beating Bush's butt in the general election. My feminist-pagan feelings are gettin good vibrations.

[SGrande]

35. Fox guarding the henhouse is more like it

Some poster told me this forum spent about 2 months going over this that Dean's environmental record STINKS. He polluted 3 rivers to the point that no one can swim in them anymore for a lucrative contract so he could balance his budget in 1998.

This is one of my BIG issues, environment and I think you should do a little research into your Dean fellow, cause he is bad for the environment.

[Nicholas_J]

39. Who told you the excellence of his environmental record :Dean

For Vermonters who have seen Howard Dean up close and personal for the last eleven years as our governor, there's something darkly comical about watching the national media refer to him as the "liberal" in the race for the Democratic nomination for president. With few exceptions in the 11-plus years he held the state's top job, Dean was a conservative Democrat at best. And many in Vermont, particularly environmentalists, see Dean as just another Republican in Democrat's clothing.

As the son of a wealthy Long Island family (his father was a prominent Wall Street insider), Dean's used to having his golden path well greased. After dutifully attending Yale and then medical school, Dean looked for a state to launch both a private medical practice and a political career. He chose Vermont as much for its beauty as its lenient mood toward carpet bagging politicians, thus joining Brooklynite Bernie Sanders as a born again Vermonter.

Dean became Vermont's accidental governor in 1991 after Governor Richard Snelling died of a heart attack while swimming in his pool. Dean, the lieutenant governor at the time, took the state's political reins and immediately followed through with his promise not to offend the Snelling Republicans who occupied the executive branch. And Dean carried on with his right-leaning centrism for the next eleven, long years.

With his sights now set on the White House, the Dean team has been doing its best over the last year to polish up a mediocre gubernatorial record. They're also trying to position Dean as "the liberal" in the Democratic field so as to grab the much-coveted early primary voters.

And nowhere are the tall tales of Dean's liberalism more off the mark than when the Dean team begins to gush about his environmental record.

http://www.counterpunch.org/colby02222003.html

Very few people who are actually environmentalists rave about Dean. They gave him a bit of credit for saving a small but of land,
but by and large under Dean E.P. didnt mean environmental protection, but expedite permits. He saved some land, but like George Bush, refused to pay attention to making companies adhere to ernvironmental standards and laws.

He toyed with the idea of allowing dirtier coal to reduce the costs for utilities companies, and wanted a natural gas pipeline run acrosss five communities who finally fougt him to the pooint that he gave up.

Governor Howard Dean talks about coal-fired power plant

By Nancy Bazilchuk
Free Press Staff Writer

Vermont ought to consider building new electric power plants in the northwestern part of the state, even a coal-fired power plant, Gov. Howard Dean said Tuesday.

"We need (electric) generating capacity in northwestern Vermont, and we are overly dependent on natural gas," Dean said. "This is not a proposal, but this is intended to spur discussion. The whole point is to get Vermonters to think about having a power plant in their back yard. We are going to have to have one."

Dean's comments came in reaction to the rolling blackouts that hit California on Tuesday. He says Vermont is in no immediate danger of such problems but policymakers need to face the future.

http://www.vtce.org/deanoncoal.html


Dean: ‘Put up or shut up’ on pipeline, Rt. 7

Sabina Haskell Latour
Staff Writer

Bennington – Gov. Howard Dean says business leaders must back the natural gas pipeline and Route 7 improvements if they want to create good new jobs in southwestern Vermont.

“For 14 years, I’ve come down and met with business people who want more jobs in Bennington,” said Dean in a feisty interview Thursday. “Now is the time to put up or shut up.”

The two projects are part of the same economic development effort, said Dean. “We have to have a better infrastructure. If you don’t want a better infrastructure, fine. We’ll skip the jobs.”

Natural gas will offer manufacturers a “cheaper” energy source to keep high quality jobs here, he said. Likewise, a passing lane project slated between East Dorset and Mt. Tabor will provide a “high speed corridor” along the only north-south highway on this side of the state.

http://www.vtce.org/putuporshutup.html

Vermont's Comprehensive Energy Plan, adopted in 1998, cautions against clean coal technology because it cannot eliminate carbon dioxide pollution, a substance that's one of the chief culprits in global climate change.
David Blittersdorf, a wind energy expert and chief executive officer of NRG Systems in Hinesburg, said he was deeply troubled to hear that Dean was even saying the word "coal."
"That is absolutely wrong," he said. "We have been trying real hard to get the governor and the state to become aware of what renewables can do. I think people don't want to listen."
Blittersdorf said Vermont's windy landscape could easily turn enough windmills to provide 1,000 megawatts. The problem is money; because renewable energy sources aren't widely used, they're costly. The Legislature is considering a bill that would provide tax credits for investment in renewable energy technology, such as wind and solar power.
Mark Sinclair, head of the Vermont office of the Conservation Law Foundation, said the governor should consider highly efficient combined-cycle natural gas power plants rather than coal.
"It is just the complete wrong direction," he said of the governor's thinking. "CLF will take all efforts to stop the construction of a coal-fired power plant in Vermont."

http://www.vtce.org/coal.html


Pipeline route is dead, Dean says

March 7, 2000

By PETER CRABTREE Herald Staff

ARLINGTON - Gov. Howard B. Dean said Monday he could no longer support a plan to run a natural gas pipeline from Bennington to Rutland along the Route 7 corridor.

"The pipeline is dead. I give up," Dean said to applause from about 100 voters at Arlington's town meeting.

http://rutlandherald.nybor.com/News/Story/4804.html

Finally, Dean gave up his environmentally destructive plans, but environmentalists had to fight him all the way...

It too a massive pipeline fire in Bellingham Washinton to create enough imptus againt Dean's plans

[CWebster]

51. Just one quick commenti n response to your latest manifesto...

The voters elected Dean into office for a span of 11 years? They must've been deeply disatisfied with his performance, huh?

[stickdog]

48. Is that why the corporate wing of the Democratic Party is trying so hard

to destroy his candidacy?

[tjdee]

10. Doesn't that staffer get C-SPAN? Hello?

Also, that staffer is silly. John Edwards stays a long time with 'three people' too. But then, it's one reporter's perception that Kerry is 'trying to leave' or whatever.

[blm]

13. Here's another way they create controversy

>>>>
Kerry alluded to his military experience to make a subtle jab at Dean during a speech Friday night, when he said the Democratic nominee needs to be able to "answer American concerns about security."
>>>>

How does THAT become a subtle jab at Dean? Candidates have been listing what "the nominee needs to be able to do" since the beginning of politics.

[Tinoire]

17. You mean Edwards is carrying on coversations with people...

really talking to them.

You mentioned another point of disagreement I have with this over-excited starry-eyed staffer.

Do people realize we are dealing with Presidential candidates here and not rock stars? Has MTV warped people's brains this much?

Sheesh, sheesh. Someone tell Chris Suellentrop to stop writing this swill and answer my e-mail requesting clarification on a few of Dean's positions.

How old is this guy anyway? He sounds a bit immature.

[Tinoire]

15. This is comical

I find Kerry extremely distinguished. Of all the Dems, I think he's the only one with real charisma. And frankly, I don't find Dean to be such a great speaker. A good speaker so far but GREAT? The only GREAT speaker in the race is Al Sharpton. The worst is possibly my guy.

This article is a prime example of how easily we let ourselves be manipulated by clever marketers. On top of that I find the tone totally childish. Be Like Dean? So now it's not good enough to be yourself? Any candidate who wants my vote had better already be himself AND know who he is and what he believes.

People thought Gore was too "stiff" :eyes: Have we not learned?

I wish my candidate had what Kerry had because if there's one thing Kerry has, it's style.

Is it just me or does this article sound like it was written by a cheer-leader? I just noticed the preamble "John Kerry's voters ask their candidate to act like the other guy" and this sounds more like psyops propaganda.

Dean, Kerry, Kucinich, all of you- just be your damned selves and never mind the marketers!

[Kahuna]

18. I just saw Dean on MSGOP doing a Graham-like workday.

:eyes:

[DrFunkenstein]

23. I Wish Kerry Was More Like The Beastie Boys

It would be alot more fun to support him. But I'll settle for The Fonz!

<>

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

34. Funk, think he'll go for the trashcan jumping record?

[quinnox]

24. LOL - sounds like a young Dean acolyte

This is the kind of follower that gives Dean a bad name.

I don't know what's worse- the writing or the title of the piece which is a total lie.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

26. There's only one way to describe this article

There's only http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=hatchet%20job">one way to describe this article

[Feanorcurufinwe]

36. wow that was a short editing period

there's only one way to describe this article.

Ok that's better.

[phillybri]

41. Good call, quinnox....

All good ideas and practices are of Dean's creation.:eyes:

[George_Bonanza]

27. Bah!

Kerry should stay Kerry. If he tries to alter his personality, the weak but pervasive notion that he's too calculated, cold and stiff will surely circulate even more. Dean already accused Kerry of being "Dean-lite" when Kerry really started slamming Bush a month ago or so. Ahem, Mr. Dean, you're not the only anti-Bush candidate. If you examined Kerry's 90's record on Iraq, it was clear where he stood. And Kerry was never one to back down from Bush criticizing, from post-Sept. 11 to environmental articles in Time magazine.

[SGrande]

29. All Dean supporters can do is attack

but they can never offer a broad agenda for Americans.

That is the most shoddy Journalism Ive read in years, except for Jayson Blair :)

I mean c'mon, there are legitimate concerns and the BEST you can come up with is 2-bit journalism.

I have a Journalism and Broadcasting BS and one thing they hammer at us with regards to ethics is "you NEVER just find the one person in the room and report on it; you must be fair and you must be accurate"

[dajabr]

37. So,

write a fucking letter to the author! I don't think you'll find him here...

[SGrande]

43. come on

we were having a great conversation before, why the hatred?

[CWebster]

52. Just a little touch of

irony.

[LuminousX]

57. If I find one who doesn't attack will you admit your logical fallacy?

nt

[Nicholas_J]

38. I have heard Dean speak

A number of times...

I got to speak to him once directly, and ask a question. After I did. I was Dean certain I was speaking to a dishonest man. Gut feeling. When you reach a certain age, and heave dealt wih speaking to hundreds of people a day, when you look a person straight in they eyes while speaking to them, you can tell.

[MercutioATC]

42. We could really use you as a judge, Nick, with your superpowers

and all....

Imagine it...an end to those lengthy trials. With your age and your speaking to hundreds of people a day, your qualifications as a seer are good enough for me.

It's totally fine to say that you had a gut feeling and you don't trust Dean. Don't try to offer it as anything other than an opinion, though.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

49. Now I understand

I knew there was SOMETHING though that was personal between Nick and Dean. Figured it would come out eventually.

[LuminousX]

56. I looked into his eyes

and saw the quality of his soul.

[CWebster]

50. A note to the Kerry operatives

The more mud you sling, almost exclusively fighting dirty without having much positive to contribute about your own guy, the less convincing your arguments.

[Duder]

54. Be Like Dean!

Good take on the mood of the two campaign camps.

I checked out http://www.ninedwarfs.com/ and at least the young repug has a sense of humor.

[LuminousX]

55. Lame article

truly lacking in substance but does highlight my one 'true' belief - give me Dean's passion and verve with Kerry's legislative history.

Since that isn't possible, right now, Dean exhilirates me.

I can believe that one or two Kerry supporters may long for Kerry to land some hard blows against BushCo instead of his meticulous offensive he is engaging in now.