Will the DNC again have to call on Dean

[Guaranteed]

sometime farther down the road to the election to back them up/legitimize their voice?

Would love to hear what kinds of things you think might be coming up.

[Melodybe]

1. I didn't vote in this poll, I will only say that I hope they do

Dean's voice is too important to not be heard.

[_Jumper_]

2. Yes

Dean is going to be key in stopping liberal defections to Nader.

[Guaranteed]

3. Don't you think there will be other issues, too?

Since Dean is basically the party's legitimacy, it seems me that they're going to be calling him practically every week, or whenever something actually needs to be done.

[mitchum]

7. Party's legitimacy? Hell. Dean is the founder of the Democratic Party

those dirtbags Jefferson and Jackson stole all of the credit from him. From Him!

[Guaranteed]

9. I'm sorry...I should have said that he's the only one with

integrity.

Same thing, though.

On edit: BTW, I think he's actually eroding his integrity with this supporting the DNC thing- so don't count on them being able to go to that well too many times. He may have said that he supports the Democratic candidate, and he's sticking with that, but the problem is that that position goes against basically everything else he says.

[Kanary]

12. There you go again...

Hmmm, never did any good with that Gipper thing... :)

"I should have said that he's the only one with integrity."

Of course.... Dennis doesn't exist. Again.

sigh...

And, still, Dean was the only one who was against the IWR.

There you go again..

No wonder Dennis is wearing Aloha shirts... gotta be seen somehow...

Kanary

[Guaranteed]

13. "EXCEPT DENNIS"

Stamp it on my forehead.

[Kanary]

15. Looks good there ^_^

Bet it'll be a conversation starter. ~~chortle~~

Kanary

[janx]

20. Would you elaborate?

What "supporting the DNC thing" ?

?

[Guaranteed]

23. Dean's sticking his neck out trying to keep the Dems together

but that's only going to work so many times before he, too, becomes tainted.

[Scott Lee]

26. A daring prospect, considering the Dem powers chopped at his

Dean is an inspiration. A daring one, too.

[dorktv]

29. yes...Dean was the founder of our party and like King Arthur

only arises when America is threatened. Now why did not everyone see that? ;)

[mitchum]

6. How can a centrist stop liberal defections?

Just curious

[Guaranteed]

8. With leadership. nt

[Nicholas_J]

25. He cant

IN fact it is Dean who is credited with causing the large growth of the extremely liberal Vemront Progressive Party by driving Democrats away from the Democratic Party with his conservatism...

Rivers blames Dean for helping a third political party to flourish in Vermont that many say siphons votes from Democrats. "The Progressive Party gained some momentum during his years as governor because he was so conservative," Rivers said, although she said she still may support Dean for president


Cheryl Rivers was the head of the Vermont Democratic Party's Liberal caucus.

http://premium1.fosters.com/2003/news/may_03/may_19/news/reg_vt0519a.asp

The Democratic Party was bled of a substantial portion of its membersip while Dean was governor and is in a rather anemic condition right now.

[buckeye1]

4. This is a joke.

Right?

[revcarol]

5. The party will treat Dean folks just like they do black folks:

ignore them and their concerns and just get their votes.

TRAGIC

[Atlant]

18. Which is precisely why they won't get my vote this year. (NT)

[Merlin]

10. It is ESSENTIAL to keep Dean supporters energized.

Dean has made all the difference. Without his campaign we'd still be mired in the desultory hopelessness of the Bush era. Now there are strong signs the Bush era is over. But it's not inevitable.

Kerry absolutely must raise $200 million to beat this miserable fascist junta. To do so he will need the energetic support of former Dean supporters like me. He will have to demonstrate that he shares much of the same zeal and that his admin will not be just biz as usual.

At some point I expect to see Kerry reach out directly and positively to Dean and his supporters. There will be much talk of health care reform, and of Dean overseeing building a real system.

Dean was able to stake out a crystal clear, glowing perspective on the issues that stood in stark contrast to Bush. Kerry's moderation implicitly minimizes his ability to do the same. At some point, Kerry will need some of Doctor Dean's medicine to keep his campaign energized in the face of the onslaught he is about to be hit with.

[Guaranteed]

11. Kerry won't do that. He's going to focus on "character" issues.

He's going to try the "my dick is bigger than yours" approach to beating Bush (which is ultimately the only approach that COULD beat Bush). Neither of these guys want to talk about issues. The problem for Kerry is that he already castrated himself and he's going to lose- for multiple reasons, actually, the most important of which are of his own making.

[Maddy McCall]

14. Well, right now he is beating bush on character issues hands-down

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x381336

Kerry Leads Bush* in Character Ratings


GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- If John Kerry emerges as the Democratic nominee for president this year, his public persona has the potential to give him an important advantage over President Bush. According to a recent CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, Kerry's ratings on a variety of personal and leadership qualities are almost uniformly superior to Bush's. This advantage may be short-lived, however, in part because Kerry is still less widely known than Bush, and thus has garnered little in the way of negatives. In addition, because this poll was taken at a time when President Bush's overall standing was near the low point of his term in office (due in part to publicity surrounding the Democratic primaries).

Gallup asked Americans to evaluate Bush and Kerry separately on eight personal characteristics and qualities. When looking just at the percentage saying a variety of characteristics "apply" to each man, the Feb. 16-17 survey found registered voters giving Bush and Kerry nearly identical ratings for their sharing of voters' values, their ability to stand up to special-interest groups, and for having a clear plan to solve the country's problems. But when factoring in the percentage saying each of these qualities does not apply to each man, Kerry outshines Bush. In other words, the ratio of favorables to unfavorables is significantly higher for Kerry on these dimensions than it is for Bush.

(snip)

Kerry's top attribute, according to the poll, is his service in Vietnam. Two-thirds of Americans believe he did his duty for the country in Vietnam, while only 11% disagree. This contrasts sharply with Bush; only 42% of Americans say that the attribute "did his duty for the country during the Vietnam War" applies to Bush, while 40% disagree.

more…
http://gallup.com/content/?ci=10780

[Guaranteed]

16. Exactly. His top attribute IS his service, by far.

But my bet is that the Bush administration will do their best to remind us of how the Democrats have been behaving for so long, how they got rolled over and over. They're going to try to create a "mass flashback" and demoralize everyone. I think they'll be successful, too.

[HFishbine]

17. Yes. As VP.

That is all.

[Larkspur]

19. The only thing the DNC wants from Dean is Dean's supporters' $ and effort

The DNC and the Kerry & Edwards campaigns are totally mercenary when it comes to Dean and Dean's supporters.

[Nashyra]

21. Thank God the candidates are much smarter than some

of their supporters on this board. Dean and Clark will have a voice in the platform and in the administration if the Dems win. They also know how politics work, well maybe Clark was a bit less in formed on "politics" but certainly not when it came to the issues. There was a time when some on this board thought that every candidate running was better than *, now that one has taken the front runner status now he is not good enough. If the Democrats lose it is not because our candidate was not good enough to beat * it was because we were not smart enough to play the political game, backing the candidate and trying to effect change AFTER we took the WH. I sure hope this board does not reflect the Democratic party as a whole or we are doomed because it certainly seems that we don't know how to win elections. But I guess that is OK for some purist and those who can't get past how unfair national politics are. Well ask John McCain how fair it is, but that did not stop him from backing the "party" so that he could accomplish his goals, "Fiengold/McCain" campaign financing reform, it might not be the best but for him it was a step in the right direction and he fought the Repukes to get it. WINNING the WH back right now and getting * out of the WH is all that counts right now, fuck principles. You can't play in the game if you can't get on the playing field.

[Larkspur]

22. I'm not a purist and Dean is working to change the Party starting now

He's in the process of transforming his campaign into a movement to help get local, state, and national Democrats elected to office as well as help those of us, like me, who are on Democratic Town Committees to get on those committees to start changing the Dem Party from the bottom up.

And unlike some clark supporters, I have said that I'll vote ABB in November, but that doesn't include financial contributions or effort. I will of course help my DTC but that's as far as I'll go helping Kerry, who can lose his mansion and all his assets before I'll consider donating to his GE campaign.

[Guaranteed]

24. You ain't getting on the field if you got nothing to play for.

The people know who our leaders are, but for some reason they think that things will be "different" this time.

Yeah fucking RIGHT. It's time to hold our party accountable.

[John_H]

27. I'm sure they have, and I'm sure he has guaranteed his help

LOL! I love the way some people assume that Dean is anything other than a loyal committed Dem.

He is, and nobody can change that no matter how hard they try to transfer their own beliefs onto him.

[lurk_no_more]

28. LOL

Good one!


And then there were none!
” JAFO”