Project to help Dean by writing LTTE - Clearinghouse

[mandyky]

Every morning I google news Howard Dean and find a lot of articles and opinion pieces, many negative towards Dean. We need to counter those. I have posted some in state forums, but a central thread might be more efficient.

We can post the URL of the opinion pieces and articles that need rebuttal, the city and state (if applicable), the title and a snippet of the opinion piece, and let us know if you wrote in what you wrote.

Here's the first one that needs attention -
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/10875247.htm

After all of Howard Dean's failures, why would Democrats choose him to lead?

<snip>
(KRT) - Howard Dean as party chairman? What can the Democrats be thinking?

With all three branches of government firmly in Republican hands, the Democrats ought to be reconsidering their assumptions, reviewing their tactics and rethinking their political agenda. In short, they ought to be figuring out how to win again.

It is hard to understand the theory that Dean can lead the way as the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee. After all, the former presidential hopeful has a well-earned reputation as:

</snip>

This was in the Ft. Wayne News-Sentinel in Indiana.

[DebJ]

1. Ha ha! The second paragraph, "With all three branches..." etc

is exactly the plan!

[jody]

2. It's better to help the Democratic Party, particularly within a state.

Dean is not the sole spokesperson for the entire Democratic Party, nor should we expect miracles under his leadership. Neither Gore nor Kerry were the sole cause of we Democrats losing control of our government. It was caused by a strident few who tarred our party with slogan rich "words of mass destruction" that independent voters bought hook, line, and sinker to their own detriment.

A classic WMD was "Democrats will take all your guns". The Democratic Party tried to remove that stain by changing our platform to read as follows but it was to late.

Democratic Party Platform 2004
QUOTE
We will protect Americans' Second Amendment right to own firearms, and we will keep guns out of the hands of criminals and terrorists by fighting gun crime, reauthorizing the assault weapons ban, and closing the gun show loophole, as President Bush proposed and failed to do.
UNQUOTE

[moggie12]

3. Great post - everyone should look for these in their local papers

With Dean getting the nod Saturday, I'm guessing the Sunday papers will be full of biased articles/editorials trying to trash him and marginalize the Democratic Party. Even if people don't subscribe to their local papers, they can check on-line to see what garbage has been printed. If everyone wrote letters to the editor in support of Dean and Dem Party values, it would help a lot.

[mandyky]

4. San Francisco Chronicle asks "Can a left turn save Democrats?"

Not sure I agree Dean is taking us left.
Here's the url -
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/02/11/EDGH1B8JAF1.DTL

Submit your opinions at
http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#letters

<snip>

THE IMPENDING selection of Howard Dean as head of the Democratic National Committee has been widely interpreted as a sign of the party regulars' determination to put up a more liberal and aggressive opposition to the Republican agenda that is now dominating American politics.

There is no question that the Democrats will have a hard time taking back the White House, U.S. Senate and House of Representatives -- all now controlled by the GOP -- unless they can present a compelling competing vision.

In Dean, the former Vermont governor whose presidential campaign was a fast-rising and faster-fizzling rocket, the DNC is getting a leader who has proved his ability to stir the party's liberal base and raise money in innovative ways. His campaign gained momentum with his fiery anti-war rhetoric and assertion that he represented the "Democratic wing of the Democratic party. "

</snip>

[mandyky]

5. Lufkin Daily News (TX) - CLEMENTS: Howard Dean to the Democrats' rescue

http://www.lufkindailynews.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/2005/02/10/20050210LDNclements.html;COXnetJSessionID=CMWbyZnIMJ1PQ8Xd2QLkW0JsMou3kMdR7LgtVnd9v4KthPEVO9fP!-1687933847?urac=n&urvf=11081376917820.9801348806116812

Some one needs to clue this woman in on the "scream speech".

<snip>

But what about Dean's obvious image problem, that out-of-control political persona? Can he reform it to benefit his party?

Buy a self-help book, Dr. Dean. Screaming did not work on the campaign trail, and it will not work as party chairman. Dean must reclaim the image that he established as governor of Vermont, a political moderate who balanced the budget and supported gun rights. All things in moderation, the mantra goes.

Dean will also have to deal with that perception — true or not — that the Democratic Party is amoral, that it neglected the importance of values in this country to its own detriment during the 2004 elections.
</snip>

[mandyky]

6. Albequerque Tribune - Jeffry Gardner: Aww, Dean!

Democrats turn to failed liberal to lead their party - to the margins. Is that a howler, or what?

Tribune Columnist
February 9, 2005

http://www.abqtrib.com/albq/op_columnists/article/0,2565,ALBQ_19865_3534645,00.html

Let's give him hell!!

<snip>
One Super Bowl down, one to go.

You see, the Democratic Party is holding a little Super Bowl of its own three short days from today, as state party leaders gather to select a national chairman.

It appears former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean will command that position. This has Republicans so giddy that many are considering breaking with their staid, stuffed, white shirts and donning something daring to celebrate - stuffed pale blue, maybe.

Each story revealing Dean as the front-runner has left me in an increasing state of disbelief. Certainly Dean's allure to the far left reaches of his party makes for sweet media. But it's also sweet music to Republican ears.

The stories must be wrong, right? I mean, Dean's the guy who ran his presidential campaign into the ground in a matter of weeks. He went from standing on the bow of the USS Primaries screaming "I'm king of the world" to just screaming.

Surely the Democrats can choke down their loathing of President Bush long enough to see what a serving of Howard Dean would taste like to most Americans. Most Americans? A Wall Street Journal poll found only 27 percent of Democrats approved of Dean as their leader.

A Dean chairmanship would amount to a victory for billionaire
</snip>

[moggie12]

7. Hey Mandyky, do you have a letter you can post as an example?

See mordue's post:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=296x2440

mordue is doing a thread of letters people have sent. Between his thread of potential letters and your thread of articles that need to be responded to, it'll be easy for people to take action...

Pretty nifty!