I will not go gently into that good night

[dsc]

I realize that after tonight's showing it is likely that Dean is all but leaving the campaign. But I am someone who voted for Simon in Illinois and Tsongas in Ohio. Thus I am not adverse to voting for candidates with no chance of winning.

Dean treated us like adults which may well have been his downfall. He treated us like adults when he told us that middle class tax cuts would have to wait. He treated us like adults when he told us that even though he was against the war we had to stay in. He treated us like adults when he told gays and people who may not like gays the same thing on gay rights.

Words can't express the disappointment in seeing these results. It isn't only that my candidate lost, I have voted for more losers than I have winners. It is the how and why of my candidate losing.

Dean wasn't perfect but only the utterly and willfully blind would say he hadn't been targetted and destroyed by the press. An utterly sensible statement about Saddam's capture, which was proven spot on, was spun as bizzare. Sharpton, whose campaign was run by a man who helped Bush steal the 2000 election, attacks Dean on his 6 member cabinet and it is covered nationwide, without any mention of the size of the cabinet nor the percentage of Vermonters who are black. Dean's supporters are characterized as NAZIs, homosexuals, slobs, agoraphobic, and the idea of them being beaten up by thugs is laughed at (all but the first on national TV and the first in the NYT). A speech which was perfectly sensible was made out to be the rant of a crazy man and played over 500 times in one week. This is what being targetted looks like folks. This is what an out of control press looks like.

It also was the loss of candidate who actually spoke for me and my rights. His last rally in Wisconsin was a textbook example. No laudry list for us but a specific set of points. I have handed out a lot of literature over the years for candidates and only Dean's actually included positions on my rights that were clear and unambiguously stated. This loss is personal for me. Kerry has a good record, but like on so many other issues as of late, he is running from it. I don't see Kerry giving a SOTU address which asks people to give me my basic rights. Not only could I see Dean doing that. I have seen Dean doing that in places like Iowa, NH. and WI.

Then there is that ad. Just like the plausibly deniable Horton ad in 1988, we see the plausibly deniable Osama ad now. I will go to my grave convinced that at the very least some people who are now backing Kerry are responsible for that ad and that Kerry doesn't care one whit. Our party is supposed to be better than that. In 1988, one of Dukakis' aides torpedoed Biden, he got fired. Has Toricelli had a word said to him or a dollar returned? How about those unions which gave that money?

I will vote for Kerry but frankly with no joy in my heart. I am a bitter partisan. There is no sense in pretending I am not. If after all of this, these people were wrong about what candiidate could win, it will be both ironic and tragic. To those people who fought so hard to get us an electable candidate, you had better be right. We deserved better than we got. We at least had better get rid of Bush.

[SharonAnn]

1. Me too! You said it well.

Dean is the candidate I'd been waiting for all my life. Honest, straightforward, clear thinking, and concerned about the citizens of the United States.

I'll vote for Kerry if he's nominated but he's a poor substitute.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

6. I just read those very same words on the Kerry blog

"I'm a yellow dog democrat, meaning I'll vote for a yellow dog over any republican, but Kerry is the candidate I've been waiting for my entire adult life. You can either respect the fact that some of us DO find this guy exciting, or you can sit there and stomp your feet because he's not a rock star.

I could give a crap. I've got a battle to wage against the worst president that I've ever seen..."

Posted by peter noteboom at February 17, 2004 10:40 PM

http://blog.johnkerry.com/cgi-bin/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=1196

[Feanorcurufinwe]

13. The Eye of the Beholder

[dansolo]

2. Maybe we won't have to vote for Kerry

With a strong showing by Edwards in WI, there could be a huge anti-Kerry backlash on Super Tuesday. I am a Dean supporter, but I will gladly vote for Edwards in November. I can't say the same about Kerry.

[aquart]

11. Well, I can.

Whoever is on the Democratic ticket in November has my vote and that includes the dead cat, Bill.

But my vote doesn't drift. I will vote Dean in the primary if I can see his name on the ballot.

[Mick Knox]

3. Well... if you put it that way.. lucky he lost...

If we did all that to him..so easily and so quickly.. squishing him all by ourselves.. imagine what rove woulda done.

[Guaranteed]

19. The Democrat's fear will crush Kerry, too. nt

[Jacobin]

4. The vaunted "electability" of Kerry is yet to be tested.

and yes, it will be a bitter pill if those in the few states who apparently determine who our nominee will be believed the press mantra and ran out to vote for him like lemmings running off a cliff.

"lesser of two evils" is hard to take after having Dean gunned down by the media and his own party.

[Carolina]

43. so true

vaunted electability ... is yet to be tested. This primary season has really been a dismal eye-opener for me about the Party. I had already recognized the power of the media in 2000.

Now it seems the Party and the media want us to do their bidding and just in case we weren't going along, they helped assure our lemming-like behavior by telling us ad nauseum how electable Kerry is. So why do I get that same feeling in the pit of my stomach that I had about Gore who acquiesced when he should have fought. With the power of encumbency, he and his let the media get away with pegging HIM a serial liar (no Clinton-like rapid response team for him), he called off Democratic protesters from Florida, and he didn't want to offend the press bigwigs at the Washington Post despite their denigration of him ...

Kerry does not inspire and he suffers from what I call the cringe factor: that sense that Kerry like Gore cannot fight back and when confronted, will back down. Kerry's performance when the audience is Democratic primary voters is one thing, but when the media or repukes challenge his words, his record, etc. he slips into convoluted Senate speak, often a lot of ambiguous hot air.

He is not our best speaker. And his record of the past 3 years alone, gives ample ammunition to an unscrupulous opposition. We started this season with such a bang, I fear we will end in November with a whimper.

[LiberalVoice]

5. I know how you feel.

I came into this race not liking Dean. I came into it thinking that it was just a bunch of hype thrown at the sheeple by this disgusting media. But, as the race went on I started to like Dean. Actually I started to admire him. He was(AND STILL IS) the only person in the top three candidates in this race that has spoken up about all the real wrong's the * administration has been responsible for. Kerry and Edwards have been side-stepping it(Especially Kerry)

I'm sad to have to see him leave this race.

I hated the idea of ABB at first. Only because it reminded me so much of the CA governors race. All the other republicans dropped out because they knew Ahhnold had the best chance of winning.

Keep your dignity as long as you can ladies and gentlmen.

[KoKo]

7. Nicely said and thanks. No joy in my heart either, and I was looking

forward to this primary season. I agree about the Osama Ad that it was calculated and came from our own. That's the disappointment. When Dems act like Repugs...and alot of time spent hoping for a change and to see other candidates take Dean's spine and travel the path he forged is really hard to bear right now.

Plus, it feels like "Business as Usual." As if nothing was learned from
"Selection 2000" and the "Iraq Invasion and Occupation." It's as if some of us are not even seen by the other candidates. Dean and Kucinich saw us and recognized us.

I suppose we should be grateful for that favor to us. Now the party returns to quotes in the media from McAuliff and Donna Brazille. Who we are is now just ABB...ABB...ABB! I thought we might get our party back.

I'm resigned that it won't be anytime soon. :-(

[edzontar]

35. McAuliffe and Brazile and the Osama ad folks don't speak for me

I shall have to pull the lever for the nominee, even if it is Kerry, for the greater good of the nation and the world.

But it will be a case of "lesser of two evils," for sure.

Maybe Edwards, who is slightly better, can make a go at it.

We can only hope.

[Carolina]

44. On the subject of McAuliffe

and Brazille (sp?), don't you wish they would just shut the f--- up. Brazille was a poor choice of campaign manager by Al Gore and when I heard her say "limping along" with regard to the Dean campaign recently, I just wanted to reach throught the TV and slap her. With Dems like these who needs repukes. These folks are losers.

I want, no long for, feisty, take-no-prisoners people who tell it like it is. Being safe has brought us to this morass. We needed outside insurgents brought to the people by the people, and that's why Dean and Clark were special and so valuable at this crucial time. But safe insiderism killed their campaigns. FDR and Harry Truman are spinning in their graves.

[Allwaysforward]

8. i bet alot of dean supports will go green

[Maddy McCall]

9. Bush will appreciate them more than Nader will.

[dsc]

12. Nader

isn't running as a Green. If he runs it will be as an indepent. Thus if the post you responded to is correct Nader wouldn't be getting those votes.

[Allwaysforward]

14. well i met nadar or green two i guess or just any third party

[Guaranteed]

20. It's either that or stay home.

I'd like to vote for SOMEONE. Geez.

[aquart]

17. Welcome to DU. What is your evidence for that statement?

Which, I believe, is derogatory.

[Atlant]

36. Count on it. It has been made manifestly clear "we're not needed"...

Count on it. It has been made manifestly clear to the Dean supporters
that we (and our ideas) are "not needed" so I'll be acting on that in
November.

I can't say for sure that my vote will be for the Greens (because,
after all, a miracle may yet occur and there may be a Democrat to
vote for, or Nader or LaDuke may run as the Green candidates and
I won't support either of them), but the odds are very good that
my vote will not be going to the Democratic candidate this year.

We'll see how much the Democrats miss all of us when we're gone.

Atlant

[4morewars]

10. And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

[edzontar]

16. Whatever Howard does, I plan to cast my vote for him in PAs primary

Either it will matter or it won't.

But he has earned that and much more from me.

[aquart]

18. Exactly.

Not to mention how freaked the Republicans are at our refusal to lockstep in the primaries. Let them relax and feel a ray of hope. The better to demolish them utterly with a united front in November.

We're putting lipstick on that yellow dog and kissing him on election day.

[DebJ]

31. Thanks for the quote. I think I need to put this up on a wall somewhere

and keep looking at it, over and over. I am so down right now. Dean's voice IS my voice. The things he says are things I have been saying for years and years and years. When I first heard him, I was stunned to hear someone in politics saying EXACTLY what I have said for so long. I am as devoted a patriot as one can be....not to those in power, but to the power within the people via the magnificent system set up in this government. I am a firm balance the budget then go progressive socially to prevent problems. No one has ever reflected these positions and lived by them except Howard Dean. No one. If he withdraws from the race today, I hope he does keep an organization for change going, because becoming a part of that organization will keep me going, and I can't give up on my country after spending so many years telling others to participate.

[4morewars]

45. you are welcome

it's from a 1952 poem Dylan Thomas wrote when his dad was dying. It never fails to move me, no matter how many times I read it. Thanks to DSC for starting this thread !

[nonconformist]

15. Great Post

I agree completely.

[mzmolly]

21. Thank You DSC...

Tonight the tears are flowing here. It's the first time I've allowed myself to actually cry.

[Redneck Socialist]

22. Thank you

This year, for the first time in many, I had the opportunity to vote FOR a candidate that I believed in instead of just casting a desperate defensive vote against some scum sucking roach. I think the Democratic party is missing a grand opportunity and the country will be far poorer for it.

I too will cast a vote for Kerry this fall if we are so unfortunate as to have him for our nominee but there will be no joy in my heart.

[indigo32]

23. I understand DSC

I'm in the same place.

[NoPasaran]

24. You are right on the money my friend

I would say more but there is no more.

[hippiechick]

25. Beautiful post, thank you

:grouphug:


:hippie:

[mmonk]

26. no need to go gently

Howard's a good man and candidate. He defined so much this year.

[Armstead]

27. Yup...It's not that he lost that is so dispiriting

Dean was basically someone that told the truth that everyone knows but is too damn chickenshit to say out loud in public.

He also is a totally responsible, totally mainstream politici8an. And the number of times he won re-election as Governor should say something about "electability." The only thing "weird" about him is that he actually spoke like a person.

If the stupid pink tu-tu Democratic leadership had not tried to scuttle him from the beginning by marginalizing him, he would have been a serious contender with a fair shot.

But because he didn't say "Yes Mr. Bush sir, kick me harder" he stuck out like a sore thumb. And because he had the nerve to actually mention the dirty little secret about the corporate domoinance of America, he was branded as a wild eyed fringe radical.

This is the most shameful episode I have seen in a long series of shameful series of sell-outs by the Democratic Party poo-bahs.

I just hope Dean stays visible as a burr under the saddle for a long time to come.

[dsc]

28. kick

[dsc]

47. kick

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[stickdog]

37. Reality Check Time, Lexingtonian

Edwards can't win because of the 35 million limit.

Kerry can't win period.

Dean played the 1976 Reagan card tonight.

The day Dean gets out of the race is day we start working for 2008.

Erik Eriksen can go fuck himself. In fact, this very behavior might explain his name.

[RetroLounge]

38. Must Follow MEdia Script

[oasis]

39. Speak up and speak out to these lovers of truth telling. Then duck.

:evilgrin:

[CWebster]

30. Don't subject yourself to resignation just yet, dsc

Dean forged the path and defined the issues, Kerry may have put Bush on the defensive, but there may be an ace still in play. ;-)

[DebJ]

32. If a Democrat wins the GE in the fall, we need to hold them responsible

for the parts of Dean's message that they spit out of their mouths. I have absolutely no faith in that Kerry would do anything he says. If he comes to PA, I will go to his rally's to ask him "How can I believe you? "

[mandyky]

33. I'm right there with you!!

I know we have to have regime change in Washington, but voting for Kerry or Edwards will not be done with joy in my heart.

[reprobate]

34. I know little about Kerry but what the media has told us.

But let me just say that from what I've heard him say, I'm very much afraid that with Kerry we will get another DLC president, a supporter of the corporate bosses. His stand on NAFTA is not nearly as firm as it needs to be. etc etc.

I hope I'm wrong, but I'd sooner see Edwards in there, at least from what his public positions have been.

[mopinko]

40. no grownups need apply

this phrase says it all-
"Dean treated us like adults which may well have been his downfall."
nobody wants to be a grown up. the whole power stucture falls if we start expecting our elected officials act like grownups.

[harper]

41. Excellent post, dsc

I agree completely. I have friends who just love Kerry, but I'm not on board yet. I don't see how a billionaire Yale man from Mass. can win a national election. Plus, his NAFTA vote and his IWR vote just leave me cold. And yes, I've heard his convoluted explanations for both of those votes and I don't buy it. I think he (and most of the other Dem's in congress), stuck their fingers in the air to see what way the wind was blowing and voted accordingly. I backed Howard Dean because I feel he has more backbone that that.

I'm just heartsick at the way Dean has been destroyed by the press. And their backing and anointment of Kerry just makes me distrust him even more. I think we are being set up to lose in Nov and it just drives to crazy that more people don't see it.

Oh well, I hope I'm wrong. But there is widespread disillusionment with Bush among independent voters and I think the Democratic establishment is wrong if it thinks Kerry is the man to attract those voters. We are missing such a great opportunity.

[WonderGrunion]

42. You're one of the best

I'm not giving up on Dean yet, most reports say that he is suspending his run for the presidency but staying in the race. Never forget that getting Howard Dean in the White House was only one part of taking our country back. I hope that dean will keep the blog open so that he can still support congressional and regional candidates that share his vision of a new Democratic party.

This is just the first hike up the mountain. We may not have reached the peak this time, but we learned many valuable lessons and have many lasting friendships from the meet-ups, caucuses, and primaries. We shall go forward from this day still fighting for the things that matter to us. the very same things the Repukes, media, and DLC still do not "get"

I will continue to be a supporter of Howard Dean and hopefully will still get to represent him at the Democratic National Convention.

I am a Howard Dean Democrat.

I want my country and my party back!!
(Even if it's one representative at a time)

:dem:

[denverbill]

46. Well put DSC.

My hope is that Dean doesn't stop campaigning, personally.

It's time to start taking the Democratic Party to task and forcing it to stand for something.

Are we simply a Republican lite party?
Will we support the outsourcing of America to the lowest bidder?
Are corporations people?
Will NAFTA stay in place?
When will corporate welfare end?

I was really glad to hear Edwards speaking strongly about NAFTA and outsourcing.

I was just looking at the 2000 Democratic Party platform. When in the hell did a party platform become a friggin book? Jebus, you look at party platforms in the 1800's and early 1900's and they would easily fit on one page. How the hell can Democrats expect support from a nation of idiots who can't stay focused on a TV show for more than 10 minutes if they can make their point on a single piece of paper. Why in the hell don't they learn from the Contract with America?

[slinkerwink]

48. I am going to fight like hell to take my party back....

[Davis_X_Machina]

49. It looks like...

...it's K Street NW's country, the rest of us just get to live in it.

[John_H]

50. If the Osama ad worked, as you say, can you explain why?

Is it that a majority of voters are not as smart as you and therefore could not see that Dean really has enough experience to beat buch on national security? Or is it that many reasonable people doubt that dean has enough national security experience to beat bush?

[dsc]

51. The Horton ad worked too

Sadly people can be swayed by sleazy ads that is why they are run.

[mandyky]

52. I've been a Deaniac too long -

since the DNC winter meeting last year - and I'll remain a Deniac. If my vote is needed to change regime from shrub to Democrat, I'll be there, although not joyfully.

I will work with Howard Dean and fellow Deaniacs to regain control of Congress for Democrats. But go quietly??? Not bloody likely. As Howie says Yeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!

[Rowdyboy]

53. I know where you're coming from...

In 1976 I started with Fred Harris, then went to Mo Udall. In 1984, Reubin Askew; 1988 Bruce Babbitt, then Al Gore; 1992 it was Bob Kerrey; this year I've gone from Gore to Graham to Clark to Edwards.

I've voted for many candidates who have lost, but I've never voted for a loser. From the names you give us, neither have you.

[goobergunch]

54. Thanks for posting this

:yourock:

[David Zephyr]

55. I Hear You.

Perhaps you vote for Kerry in a battleground state will suffice for my not voting for him here in California which he will win anyway.

I understand where you are coming from and feel, for the most part, the same way.

But, I know you too well to know you'll never go quietly into the night, DSC.

You are a good man indeed.