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Your man, and your campaign, is taking a lot of heat lately. It is coming from everywhere. A lot of it comes in the form of reasonable debate, a lot of it doesn't. Much, though not all, of the temperature rise can be boiled down to two facts. One: Dean is the front runner now, and with that status goes increased scrutiny. Two: Politics is an elimination sport. Sudden death time is approaching. No one wants to get knocked out of the playoffs.
I am not saying those two reasons explain why there are strongly felt differing opinions between the candidates and their suporters. There are as many reasons for that as there are people holding opinions. I am saying that the two above reasons represent the major changes in the overall situation from only a couple of months ago.
The candidates start laying it all on the line right about now because this run for the Presidency for almost all of them is the culmination of their entire life's work. They all believe in their own abilities passionately, that goes with the territory. Their staffs are professionally motivated to bring out all the biggest guns now because, not only do they in all likelyhood believe in their candidates, but their resume will reflect how good a job they did here in the biggest show in politics, and it will be largely graded by how well their candidate scores.
The Republicans are not the only ones who play hard ball politics. Maybe they throw at the head of batters a little more often, but everyone throws brush back pitches. It's like the National Hockey League without a penalty box. No goals are called back because of a penalty. If you score it counts, even if your team was off side.
Joe Trippi does not have a reputation as a Choir Boy. That is precisely one of the main reasons why he is so highly regarded as a Democratic Party Campaign Manager. A lot of people have confidence that he would be ready to face Karl Rowe in the Fall. There are a lot of people who do not like watching Professional Hockey. They don't enjoy seeinga hard body check into the boards. They prefer the grace of figure skating. What the candidates and their staff are all doing up there on the ice in New Hampshire in the few remaining weeks before the primary is not about figure skating.
The media for the most part starts keying in on the races right about now, before this it was mostly hard core political junkies and passsionate partisans who cared. Our collective interest doesn't sell many papers, or give a network much of a bump in the ratings. Controversy sells, and now is the time when the larger public is most likely to be interested in political controversy. Now is when both gotcha sound bite media coverage dominates the air waves, AND multi page newspaper investigatons into the inconsistencies of so and so's prior positions on issues make it into print.
As to us volunteer supporters of the people we believe will make a true difference, for both our own futures and the nation, well we kick it up several notches right about now also. Things are coming to a head. Emotions ramp up and become more raw. Retaliatory postings, back and forth, here at DU become more common. Everyone finds something to be angry about, and the effects of that anger make someone else angry. Virtually every one of the supporters of candidates other than Dean, and I suspect the other candidates themselves, would give their eye teeth to trade positions with you folks. I would gladly accept any up tic in trash thrown at me and my man if it came as the result of his having gained the position of clear favorite to win the nomination. I accept that that is the way it works. I don't expect human nature to change, and I don't expect the unwritten rules of fierce competitin to change either.
For what it's worth Clark gets a lot of fire also. You know that. A few of you light your full share of matches. There are things that some of us, people supporting various candidates, try to do from time to time to ground the emotions somewhat, and defuse the escalation of conflict between all of us who should be solidly united in our determination to dethrown George W. Bush. From time to time we may even drop the olive branch and throw a punch or two in what is perceived at the moment to be self defence. We can all try to do better, to be more civil, to be more fair. And even if we do try, sometimes we will fail at it. It is just the nature of the competitive Beast.
But don't lose sight of the ball. Don't be lured into a "bait and switch", like Bush substituting Hussein for Bin Laden as the gravest threat. Don't replace Bush with Clark, Kerry, or Gephardt, or any of their supporters. Obviously I say the same to Clark supporters about Dean and the rest. Intellectually I think we all know better, but emotions are another thing completely. Pretty soon, a matter of a few short months at most, and there will only be one Democrat running to replace George Bush. That Democrat will either beat George Bush or we will face four more years of Bush's threat to our Democracy.
People in the Dean campaign understand more than most the power of positive thinking, of solidarity and unity of purpose The Dean campaign may have more grass roots activists right now than anyone else, but you don't have all of them, and everyone will be needed to defeat Bush. It will not be easy to unseat his Junta. We will all need to FEEL like we are on the same team come September, not merely "know" it. Don't burn bridges. I say that to fellow Clark supporters also. Don't burn bridges. We will need those to tie us together very soon. I am not naive enogh to thnk we can avoid all real anger between us over the next few months, but see it for what it is a product of, temporary righteous pasions, and don't draw sweeping conclusions from it. We all have much more in common than what divides us.
If the overwhelming majority of us believe that peace is still possibly between the Palestianians and Israel after all that has happened there over the long decades, we surely can get past the bitterness that flares up during this intense time of intra mural Democratic competition. The overwhelming majority of all of us here are very sincere about our convictions and concerns, despite some very strong differences between us. Those differences have always existed in the large coalition that makes up the National Democratic Party. When push comes to shove we count on Joe Liebermans vote in the Senate on dozens of issues each year. When Democratic Party unity fractures, the Republicans win. It is that simple.
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