Alan Green's Review of Winning Back America

Alan Green, senior editor at the Center for Public Integrity has this to say about Howard Dean's book, Winning Back America, posted today on AlterNet.org:

Dean's book aptly complements his campaign style: Skip the finesse and pummel readers with lines as compact as left jabs. There's no setting of scenes or wasting time on the likes of metaphors or adjectives; instead, Vermont's former governor offers unblemished biography, followed by pages of Why I Want (and Deserve) to be President. He's not Raymond Carver, but Dean's less-is-more approach has its moments: He condenses his feelings about religion into 83 words, and his aversion to buying clothes requires but a single, memorable line: "My suits are like my friends: They're with me for the long haul."

This review originally appeared in The Dragonfly Review of Books, part of of Dragonfly Media.

ABC News: Oops! A Mea Culpa on the "Dean Scream" Coverage

Is it possible that the Media can admit to a mistake? It may be too little, too late, but ABC News' Diane Sawyer actually showed what it was like in the crowd when Gov. Dean gave his now infamous "Dean Scream":

We collected some other tapes from Dean's speech including one from a documentary filmmaker, tapes that do carry the sound of the crowd, not just the microphone he held on stage. We also asked the reporters who were there to help us replicate what they experienced in the room.

Garance Franke-Ruta, Senior Editor, American Prospect: "As he spoke, the audience got louder and louder and I found it somewhat difficult to hear him."

Dean's boisterous countdown of the upcoming primaries as we all heard it on TV was isolated, when in fact he was shouting over the roaring crowd.

And what about the scream as we all heard it? In the room, the so-called scream couldn't really be heard at all. Again, he was yelling along with the crowd.

Neal Gabler, Senior Fellow, Lear Center USA: "When you're talking about visuals, context is everything. So, you've got a situation in which you have what I'd call the televised version of reality, which is not the same as the actual reality in room. You know in a situation like this, no one takes responsibility."

Comments from network executives:
CBS News: "Individually we may feel okay about our network, but the cumulative effect for viewers with 24-hour cable coverage is -- it may have been overplayed and, in fact, a disservice to Dean and the viewers."
-- Andrew Heyward, President - CBS News

CNN: "We've all been wrestling with this. If we had it to do over again, we'd probably pull ourselves back."
-- Princell Hair, General Manager - CNN

Read the entire transcript and see the video here.

John Perry Barlow: The Counter-Revolution Has Been Televised

If you don't read anything else today, read this article! Writer John Perry Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, brilliantly explains why Howard Dean so threatens the status quo, including the Media and Washington. Some excerpts:

Politics as usual was working like God's wristwatch in Iowa, where the RNC and various Republican PAC's outspent many of the Democratic candidates on negative TV ads aimed exclusively at Dean. But more damaging, in my opinion, was the remarkably open bias that the traditional media seemed to display against Howard Dean in their presentation of the news itself. I don't watch much television, but what little I've seen in the last month indicated to me that Dean was being systematically slimed.

Then we had the yawp heard round the world. Dean gave a valedictory to his supporters in Iowa that was no more feverish, in my opinion, than many rally exhortations I've heard over the years, even from such sober fellows as Dick Cheney. Countless football coaches deliver such yells every fall week and yet are lionized by their fans. But, according to the big media, Dean's "yee-haaa" was the sound of political hara-kari. You would have thought they'd caught Dean in bed with either a live man or a dead woman. They belabored him for his shout as though he'd done something truly heinous, like, say, leading America into a major war under false pretenses, or robbing the poor to feed the rich, or dramatically curtailing civil liberties.

Howard Dean has hardly retired from the race, even though he will be running uphill from here. And it may be that the traditional media have done us a favor by beating some of the smug snot-nose out of us. One of problems with the groups that form on the Internet, the readers of this blog being something of an exception, is that they often end up being self-reifying fields of ideological homogeneity. We create our own ideological ghettos which seem much larger to us than they are.

Some of us want a president who is straight about his real reasons for sending our kids off to die and kill other kids, a government that is of, for, and by more people than will fit on the Forbes list, and a military that isn't simply a private security force for the Fortune 500. We want to give our grandchildren something more than a crushing debt and a country too stripped of resources and opportunities to pay it off. The stakes seem high to us.

But if we feel that way, and many of us do, we will have to knock on doors and persuade the folks inside to turn off their televisions and talk about what's really going on, just as we will have to turn off our computers occasionally to have such exchanges. If we are to restore democracy in America, we will have to get out amongst 'em and engage in it. I believe our arguments are persuasive, but we have to present them in person to the people who don't already believe us.

Read the entire article here.

Meet Roy Neel

The new CEO of the Dean campaign, Roy Neel, writes a great introduction on Blog for America:

My job here is pretty simple: help the staff regain the momentum we had prior to Iowa. What Joe Trippi and the team was able to do over the past year is phenomenal, unprecedented in presidential politics. Your interest and commitment is a tribute to all that great work. But I’m not here to do Joe Trippi’s job- we have different skills and backgrounds. I’m hard at work with the staff today, looking for ways to streamline the operation, make the best use of our money and staff and most importantly, Gov. Dean’s time. I’ll be back in touch with you as this process moves forward.

Read the entire blog posting here.

CNN's Mark Shields: Democrats Owe a Debt to Dean

Nationally known columnist and CNN moderator, Mark Shields thanks Governor Dean for waking up the Dems and giving them a backbone:

By now, the average American must have seen the Howard Dean "concession" rant after his third-place finish in Iowa a couple of dozen times.

For some, that bizarre performance is all they know -- or feel they ever need to know -- about the former Vermont governor and his campaign for the presidency. That is a shame, because the Dean candidacy has already profoundly changed American politics for the better.

Howard Dean has already altered the national political debate of this presidential year. More importantly, Dean has redeemed his party from the debilitating squalor of its narcotic dependence on soft money by showing the nation a better and cleaner way to finance elections.

Dr. Dean nearly performed a vertebrae transplant on his rivals, with challenges like, "Most importantly, I want my party to stand up for what we believe in again," and, "The deal I'm going to make you is this: If you make me the Democratic nominee, I'll make you proud to be Democrats again," and, "If you're going to defend the president's tax cuts and if you're going to defend the president's war, I frankly don't think we can beat George Bush by being Bush Lite."

Read the entire article here.

Guest Blogger Richard Raznikov: A Little Perspective

Author Richard Raznikov goes back to the late 60s to find parallels to today's political campaign and paints a "what if" scenario for the coming months:

It's got to be tough to swallow, the media anointing John Kerry the Democratic nominee with such ill-concealed joy, and the numbers out of New Hampshire, however they may be interpreted, are not good. However, this may be the time for a little perspective.

In late 1967, the country was up to its elbows in a stupid, horrifying war. Still, with virtually universal media acquiescence, the general public continued to support it by margins of nearly 3-1. Lyndon Johnson was regarded as unbeatable for renomination, especially since there were few meaningful primaries and no clear way to circumvent the party apparatus which would control the Chicago convention. Kennedy wanted to run but feared he'd split the party and could not win in the process. Gene McCarthy, with considerably less to lose, agreed to run. McCarthy was, essentially, boring, gray, and powerless. He had little personal warmth or appeal other than as a sort of surrogate father-figure to kids whose own families were torn in generational battles over cultural differences and the war. In January, 1968, with the first primary only two months away, opinion polls in New Hampshire showed McCarthy with a bare 11%. Then came the Tet Offensive. While most Americans still claimed to support the war, there was a rising tide of animosity toward Johnson and a feeling that things were not going as well as they should.

What happened next was one of those moments in time when a sense of discontent reaches critical mass. It was enough to turn the election upside down and change all of the careful calculations of the pros.

There is now a long road ahead before the Democrats nominate, and there is a war in Iraq -- and in Afghanistan -- which, though still popular, has all of the earmarks of a disaster in the making. True, the media is not as free as it once was, but we have the Internet. True, Bush is more personally popular than was Johnson, but it does not stem from personal affection. As the primaries are held against the backdrop of the entire Iraq adventure, even Bush's ability to coerce or instigate events may not avail him if SOMETHING HAPPENS. And if the war becomes less and less comfortable for the public, and if the disclosures surrounding 9/11 continue, and the Bush claims of success in Iraq are further undermined, then it is entirely possible that the war itself will become the defining issue of the race. Under such circumstances, Howard Dean will look better and better to most Americans.

The nomination, therefore, and the election, are not in any real respect already decided. We need to remember that a confluence of fortuitous events in a time of national emergency is not out of the ordinary. It would be wise, perhaps, to anticipate now the scenario which could nominate and elect an anti-war Democrat, and to design plans around it.

Richard Raznikov
Fairfax, California

Dated Dean, Married Kerry?

After the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire primary, the Kerry campaign likes to say "Dated Dean, married Kerry". Dean bloggers have added the final line:

Dated Dean
Married Kerry
Woke up next to Bush.

We hope not! For those who've dated and given your heart to Dean, yet are considering another candidate because the Press has made you afraid that Dean was somehow unelectable, give Dean another chance. Do the research on the truth behind the stories you read or see in the Media.

Dean on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Howard Dean appeared on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night. You can watch the entire episode here.

From Fair to Foul, Press Coverage on Dean's Speech

In a Columbia Journalism Review article, Bryan Keefer tracks the change in reporting on Dean's Iowa concession speech. At first reporting was fair, and included the context of the crowd's roar (LA Times: "his gravelly voice [was] barely audible over the din of applause inside the '70s-style disco hall"). But coverage eventually turned nasty:

Gov. Howard Dean's passionate post-caucus speech to his supporters last Monday may become a turning point in his political career -- not only because of the speech itself, but also because of the way in which the news media has shaped the coverage of the speech. While at first the campaign press generally reported the speech fairly, over the last few days several members of the media have indulged in cheap shots at Dean disguised as hard news reporting. In the process, the coverage, even amongst the same reporters, has gotten notably nastier, giving a negative cast to the speech -- and, as we have noted before, even going to so far as to question the candidate's mental health.

We have all seen this phenomenon before; this is the stage in the process at which the tale itself begins to wag the newshounds. So, sure enough, we now have some reporters writing pieces devoted solely to the storyline that they have helped to create.

Read the full column here.

Guest Blogger Richard Raznikov: The Real Issues the Media Ignores

Is this just another story about the press being unfair to Howard Dean? Not at all. Marin County, CA author/attorney/activist Richard Raznikov blasts the press for its reckless twisting of the facts:

In its rush to attack Howard Dean, the mainstream American media are doing the American people a dangerous disservice. While Governor Dean is certainly open to criticism -- as is any other candidate, including, obviously, George Bush, Jr. -- the nature and tenor of this criticism, echoing demagogic attacks by the likes of Joseph Lieberman and a disappointingly shallow John Kerry, not only misquotes Dean but attempts to use selective and distorted materials to portray him as “reckless.” And now, of course, his election-night imitation of Howard Beale (the news anchor in “Network”), has been seized as proof of this. Yet, a clear-headed examination of these charges casts doubt not on Dean himself, but on the motives and character of those who are making them.

One prime example is Dean’s demand that Bush and Company cease trying to hide reports of the Senate Committee on 9/11 which show, by reference to known CIA documents, that Bush and his administration had repeated warnings, prior to 9/11, that Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda were preparing to hijack domestic airplanes, and that their targets were expected to include significant national structures. The media -- and Kerry -- have seized on Dean’s simply raising these questions as legitimate subjects for investigation as an example of his “recklessness.”

But who is really being reckless? A candidate for President who urges complete disclosure of the facts or a President who tries to keep them secret and a media which is complicit in this attempt?

Again, Dean’s statement of the obvious -- that we are no safer from domestic terrorism with the capture of Hussein than we were before -- is criticized by such whining losers as Lieberman who wonders “how in the world” he can say that, and the media jumps on board. Yet, Iraq has never posed a domestic threat to the United States, while al Qaeda continues to evade our attempts to disarm or weaken it. And when Dean, in making the simple observation that any person charged with a crime, including Hussein or bin Laden, is entitled to a fair trial before guilt is assumed and sentence passed, he is accused to being unpatriotic.

It must be asked: who is being unpatriotic? The candidate who reminds us that our legal system and Bill of Rights are the best and surest ways to keep us free as a people, or those who, for political gain, would undermine that system and those fundamental rights in an irresponsible grab at cheap political headlines?

In the most bizarre twist of all, perhaps, the media -- and several of Dean’s envious opponents -- ask the question whether he is “too far left” to be elected. Anyone who takes an honest and dispassionate look at Dean’s long public record, and at his forthright statements of policy and philosophy, can only conclude that he is, at most, a moderate. He has always supported tight fiscal controls and balanced budgets, something notably absent in the current spend-our-children-into-the-poorhouse administration. He supports the death penalty. He refuses to make promises of the kinds of expensive programs offered up by other candidates. He manifestly is, above all things, a political realist, a man who is interested in America remaining free and strong, and who will not mortgage our children’s futures by wrecking the environment or deficit spending on the irresponsible scale of the Bush administration.

In this election, the future of the country is truly at stake. The re-election of an extremist, right-wing President, whose ignorance of economics, wholesale violation of international standards of behavior, and assault on the most basic freedoms America and its founders had the wisdom to embody in a Bill of Rights, endangers the very foundation of the country. We are today less secure, and less free, than at any other time in our national history.

Is Howard Dean angry? Sure. The national budget surplus has been handed over to Bush’s wealthy friends. Our economy has been plundered while Halliburton gets rich. And the blood of five hundred Americans has been spilled into the desert sand in a pre-emptive war based on bold-faced lies. Meanwhile, the corporate-controlled media ask whether a candidate’s honest emotions will hurt his chances but fail to ask why Ken Lay is not in prison for cheating thousands of people of their hard-earned savings.

Is Howard Dean angry? You bet he is. And if you’re not, perhaps you haven’t been paying attention.

Richard Raznikov
Fairfax, California

Defending Dean's Scream

Dick Meyer, the Editorial Director of CBSNews.com writes a compelling commentary on why Dean's Scream wasn't anything to yell about. Here are some excerpts from the article:

I'm not being contrarian for the sake of being contrarian, honest. But I don't think Howard Dean's "I Have A Scream" performance was weird, troubling, scary, revealing or nuts. I don't think it was a big deal in any way, shape or form. I thought it was standard pump-up-the-troops campaign stuff.

What I do think is bizarre is the hubbub it caused.

One of the many character flaws common to the species 'reporter' -- one that I have in spades -- is an exaggerated pleasure in the fall of the mighty. There is some of that happening with Dean right now. I don't get too worked up about the media "making" or "creating" stories; there is no way for that not to happen in modern government and politics. But this time I do think Dean is getting a very bad rap.

I've seen a lot of politicians do a lot weirder things. I've seen Ronald Reagan completely space out an answer during a presidential debate. I've seen Bush the Elder rumble on about how moose like to rub up to the Alaskan pipeline for, shall we say, gratification. I've heard Bush the Younger speak absolutely incomprehensible, illiterate gibberish on important issues. I've seen Bob Dole get really, really mad. I've listened to Newt Gingrich's college lectures. I've seen Tom DeLay fly to Texas when a gunman entered the Capitol. I've seen Bill Clinton drag his poor wife onto primetime television to defend himself.

I wish Dean hadn't renounced the Scream. His wife said it was "silly" and I think that's about the full extent of it.

Read the full article here.

The Phony Dean "Meltdown"

Award-winning journalist Russ Baker describes Dean's "rant" for what it was in his article on TomPaine.com:

The so-called Dean "meltdown," the claims that his campaign is finished, and his forced contrition are all symptoms of how debased the political dialogue has become.

It's true that Dean yelled at his Monday night rally in Iowa. And so what? Basically, at a pep rally, he yelled like a football coach. This is described as being "unpresidential." But says who? Besides, what's the definition of 'presidential?' Isn't giving insulting nicknames to world leaders unpresidential? Isn't sending hundreds of American soldiers to die for uncertain and misrepresented ends in Iraq unpresidential—or worth considering as such? Isn't having an incredibly poor grasp of essential world facts and an aversion to detail and active decision making unpresidential?

As for Dean, one doesn't need to take sides to see that the treatment of this man is unbecoming of the media. It's also going to be seen in retrospect as colossally one-sided, not in any way balanced by comparable scrutiny or criticism of his rivals.

If anything, this affair is a kind of test. Dean seems too tough a customer to back out after such a setback. And the fact remains that he essentially still holds exactly the same constituency he did before. If his supporters keep their eye on the ball, if Dean refuses to be distracted or rattled, and if the media somehow manage to restrain their headlong rush into tabloid-land, this country may yet have a meaningful conversation on what really matters.

Read the entire article here.

Dean on Letterman

Besides the Democratic Debate, and his appearance on Primetime Thursday last night, Dean was also on the David Letterman show. Watch the video here.

Howard and Judy on Primetime

Last night on ABC's Primetime Thursday, Diane Sawyer interviewed Howard Dean and his wife, Judy Steinberg Dean. You can view the entire interview here, and also read the transcript.

On the "Iowa Yell":

Howard Dean: The problem is if you were there, I was you know, speaking to 3,500 kids that had worked for me for three weeks in Iowa, all waving American flags, all disappointed, and it was my job to make them go away from Iowa and feel like they'd done their work.

Diane Sawyer: What are you thinking when you look at this?

Howard Dean: I was having a great time, look at me. I was. I am not a perfect person, believe me, I have all kinds of warts. I wear jeep shoots … cheap suits sometimes, I say things that I probably ought not to say, but I lead with my heart, and that's what I was doing right there, leading with my heart.

On Dean's temperament:

Diane Sawyer: Mrs. Dean, does your husband have a temper?

Judy Dean: Not much. I mean, you know … we've been married for 23 years, and uh, he … he … he is very easy to get along with …

Diane Sawyer: Ever seen … temper, how often does he lose his temper around you?

Judy Dean: I can't remember the last time. He just doesn't get that angry. I mean, he doesn't. You know, he just … he's very kind, very considerate, and uh … it just doesn't happen.

On comparing similarities between Dean's and Bush's experience at Yale:

Howard Dean: I feel like George Bush is a different generation than I am. When I went to Yale, uh, the time … the three years that we changed … Yale changed dramatically. The place completely changed, from the old, you know, if you went to prep school, you went to Yale, to they wanted the top two students in every high school's class in the country. Uh, large numbers of African-American students and Latino students were admitted. Women were admitted. The place changed dramatically. It became what it is today, which is kind of a hotbed of people that are really interested in public service, and it was this whole … there's a whole generation between me and George Bush, our values are completely different. Which isn't as amazing, considering we were brought up in … in very similar ways.

Read the entire transcript and watch the video here.

Guest Blogger Patty McIntosh: The Truth Behind the "Iowa Yell"

Much has been said about Dean's speech to his supporters after the Iowa Caucus. What played well to the huge crowd of supporters in the room came off as slightly crazed to television viewers, especially his Yeehaaa that has been dubbed the "Iowa Yell." The television audience couldn't see or hear the roaring crowd that Dean was trying to talk over. Here's a first-hand report from Mendon, VT resident Patty McIntosh who spent almost a week in Des Moines volunteering on the "Perfect Storm" campaign:

I'm back home now from Iowa and I just wanted to toss this out there for those of you who weren't there (and for the members of the media who were not actually there as well):

What you may have seen or heard on TV/radio was edited in such a way that it sounded like Howard was a raving lunatic.

But that's only half of the story.

What the media and pundits failed to capture, almost to a one, was the crowd.

I was THERE, folks.

I was standing 20 feet from the stage.

The crowd was enthusiastic when Tom Harkin took the stage, but they went wild when Howard appeared. It shouldn't be surprising. Many of us had been there for a week or longer, waking early, standing out in the freezing cold to show the morning Iowa commuters our Dean signs, walking door to door, calling likely Dem voters till 9:00 at night, crawling the bars to get his name out and persuade a few more Iowans to our side, and even doing housekeeping chores around the Iowa HQ. We were bleary-eyed and exhausted and overwrought over not placing at least 2nd. As Charlie Brown said once, "How could we lose when we were so sincere?"

People were shouting the whole time -- shouting at the top of their lungs, whistling, and clapping, rattling cans. Some were even using megaphones.

Flags were waving, pompons were shaking, and feet were stomping to the point that the room vibrated. There were probably over 1000 people elbow to elbow in that room that night.

The crowd was so unbelievably loud I could barely hear myself think, let alone hear what Howard was saying.

Trust me -- it was DEAFENING.

The media filtered OUT the crowd -- probably done with the intention of capturing what Howard said clearly! -- but that also meant that inadvertently most of what one hears is Howard and NOT who and what Howard was responding TO.

I saw his mouth moving, but I could only guess what he was saying most of the time. He was responding to us, his supporters out on the floor, and to our shouts and our energy.

So don't trust what you read or even what you see/hear in the media.

Trust the word of someone who was actually there.

There was nothing embarrassing about Iowa -- not even the 3rd place finish.

Howard endured a barrage of negative campaign ads from Gephardt over the course of the past month. Iowans who had originally been BIG Gephardt supporters resented it and shoved Gephardt out of the race entirely. Most or all of his delegates in the caucuses went to Kerry. A few went to Edwards.

The Kerry people were pulling dirty tricks by push-polling -- a Dean supporter, Richard Hoefer of San Francisco who runs the Dean Media Team, caught them doing it ON FILM and a Kerry staffer was fired for it.

They were saying "If you knew Howard Dean was an environmental racist, would you still vote for him?"

What the hell is an environmental racist anyway? No one in the Kerry camp seemed to know, but it sounds so awful Iowans on the receiving end of those calls were saying "Well no! Of course not!" and writing Howard off as some sort of bigot (which he is not!).

Please folks -- be as skeptical of the media as you are of the politicians in this game, and urge your friends and family to do so as well. Even when they mean well, they're not always able to convey the whole context of the event.

And sometimes (though this is not true of all of them by any means)... all they care about is what sells.

Patty McIntosh
back in Mendon, VT

Criticism of Campaign Press

Cole Campbell, a former editor of the St. Louis Dispatch, has written an interesting article discussing the role of political journalists in the current campaigns. Campbell uses a column by Washington Post writer Howard Kurtz to make his point, that is, that the campaign coverage often gets it wrong:

The press had focused on Dean’s money and volunteers and Gephardt’s union backing, but paid no attention to factors that led to Kerry “roughly doubling Dean’s vote total,” Kurtz notes. “To put it mildly, you didn’t read it here first.”

These characterizations beg several questions. Who enthroned Dean and named him the front-runner? By what criteria can journalists claim he has been dealt a serious blow or dethroned? Who vaunted his grass-roots movement, and who characterized his position as “near-invincible”? (By what criteria of invincibility?) Who decides that New Hampshire is a critical test for Dean, but not others? Who will decide whether Dean passes it? Who pitted Dean’s organizational prowess against Kerry’s and Edward’s “message and momentum”? Who says – and exactly what does it mean to say things this way – that voters “began” to take a “more serious look” at “all the candidates” in the last two weeks? (What had they been doing in earlier weeks? Looking facetiously, or at only some candidates, or not at all?) And who has the prerogative to describe the candidacy of a former governor as an insurgency and the candidacy of a first-term senator, taking on the same political establishment, as conventional politics?

We know the answer: The campaign press corps. But the campaign press corps’ stories citing all these factors, causes, dynamics and developments never mentions the centrality of the campaign press corps in picking what counts and doesn’t count in explaining--or explaining away--political reality. The campaign press corps pretends it doesn’t exist, except to observe and explain. It pretends it is a political innocent.

To read the entire article, go here.

Guest Blogger Arlyn Serber: I'm Angry Too!

The press is again talking about Dean's anger. Well, guest blogger Arlyn Serber is angry too. REALLY angry. Read on to find out why:

My newspaper this morning had two headlines. "Fired-up Bush takes offensive" and under that "'Iowa yell' stirring doubts about Dean." I'm wearing my Dean button today and everyone is coming up to me, telling me Dean is too angry. Michael Moore sent me a patronizing letter telling me to not give up. Dean has done a great job of setting the agenda for the Democratic Party. Michael is backing the General, but hang in there, Deaniacs.

Okay, fellow Deaniacs, our guy is angry. The press is battering him for it. His opponents are hooting about it. Guess what -- I'm angry. No, angry is too mild a word. I'm boiling mad. I'm spitting nails. I'm outraged, horrified... Well, I don't have to bring out the thesaurus. You get the idea.

Bush, with a grinning Cheney and a flag the size of Texas behind him, adorns my front page and claims success in Iraq and tax cuts. Yep, he's crowing about those tax cuts, how they helped the country and now they should be permanent. Aren't the 2.4 Million that lost their jobs in the last three years a little bit angry? 88% of Americans will save less than $100 on their 2006 taxes from the cut in capital gains and dividends taxes. Members of Bush cabinet will save an average of $42,000. I'm glad the economy is good for someone. Bush didn't give the State of the Union -- he gave the State of the Wealthy that are supporting him. About 1% of Americans are enjoying those taxes cuts he wants to make permanent. (Oh, oh, I am grinding my teeth again.)

I know that the 16,000 Iraqi's we've killed in the past year (10,000 civilians) are grateful to us for saving them from Saddam and the families of the over 500 US solder's killed and thousands injured and maimed in Iraq aren't angry that they were lied to about the "imminent danger". After all, the President says Saddam was a bad man and there is no difference between having WMD or wishing you had them.

So, Bush appointing Pickering after he'd been twice turned down doesn't make you mad? Running an Argentine style economy doesn't get you a little hot? Pushing the Patriot Act while under funding our local police and fire departments that give us safety in our neighborhoods doesn't boil your blood?  It doesn't bother you that 58 million acres of public land under Bush has been opened to road building, logging and drilling.

"Unless you act the death tax will eventually come back to life," Bush warns. Right, and all of you that make over $1,000,000 a year should be shaking in your boots. The rest of us should be damn angry at the lie that we're going to be better off.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm mad as a hornet that Bush's buddy Ken turned my lights out. Does he think we are all still sitting in the dark and don't know what his NeoCon policies are doing? Big business is running the country, not the people. I'm people and I'm angry.

Please, Please, Please, Be Angry too. Give them hell, Howard. I'm sending you a check today.

Arlyn Seber

Dean's Statement on Bush's State of the Union

Governor Dean made this statement following Bush's State of the Union address last night:

"Tonight, President Bush made the case only for his defeat in November. President Bush offered a stale agenda that aids the special interests and does very little for working Americans.

"The President's speech underscored the need for replacing him with a proven, experienced leader, one who has balanced budgets and made tough decisions, and who stands up for the truth and what is right."

Gephardt Withdraws - Dean Makes a Statement

CONCORD --Governor Howard Dean, M.D., issued the following statement responding to Congressman Gephardt's withdrawal from the presidential race:

"Congressman Gephardt is a great American, and his presence in this race and this debate will be missed. I stood with Dick Gephardt in 1988, and have always thought extremely highly of him. He has dedicated a great deal of his life helping America, and has consistently stood for working people and the best principles of the Democratic Party.

"I wish him the best."

Guest Blogger: Terry Leach in Iowa on the Caucus

In her final posting, Terry Leach, a volunteer from the San Francisco Bay Area, gives us another behind-the-scenes report on what happened throughout the day and at last night's Caucus:

Hello Friends:

Well... it's late. We're tired. I need to go to bed but the opportunity to write my final missive from Iowa is giving me, once again, the opportunity to process the day's events.

Dr. Dean, as you all know by now, carried one of the precious three tickets out of Iowa. Still viable, still adored by his fans (his rallies are likened by some to rock shows), but bruised nonetheless.

Let's start at today's beginning. I was swallowed up almost immediately by the impressive Latinos for Dean movement to help get out the Latino vote once I made it to the Dean Headquarters. Unfortunately for the Campaign, I was asked to make maps on Yahoo for about 200 brand new caucus goers. What should have taken two hours was of course, given my level of sophistication on a computer (or lack thereof)... dragged out for what seemed days. God help the poor folks who actually had to use my maps! Rusty Spanish and a Luddite at that! I hope the Campaign doesn't think I was a Kerry plant!

But that said, and now working in another room than I'd been in before, I was able to meet new people who, like us, had set aside their lives for a week.

For an hour, I sat alongside handsome Neil from New Zealand. Neil was there, along with several others foreign nationals, to help out the Campaign because it was, he said, in the best interests of the entire world to help Mr. Bush find his way back to Texas sooner rather than later. Neil is also Irish and lives in France part of the time. I suspect he's traveled and read more about world relations than has our current president.

Sitting next to Neil was a 14-year-old who'd traveled BY HIMSELF from Baltimore (with his parents' permission) to offer his considerable computer skills to the effort. I understand that various mothers who'd, like us, left children at home in the care of others, set about to care for Brandon from Baltimore.

I also met some lovely former Kucinich supporters which became relevant when we got the word that Edwards and Kucinich had struck up a deal to join together during the Caucus to bring down Dean's numbers. One need only read their respective records to be as dumbfounded as we were when the wire services carried this story. Edwards, the son of a mill-worker who also happened to co-sponsor the Patriot Act? The self-same Edwards who voted with the President to authorize unilateral action in Iraq?

Is this the same Dennis Kucinich who's been tearing Dean apart for offering health care coverage to only some of the Vermonters who wouldn't otherwise have it? Who demands we pull the troops out in 90 days? What do he and Edwards have in common?

You need to understand how amazing it is to work for a campaign that gets battered by the Left (thank you Mr. Sharpton for your pointed barbs... are you more disappointed in the candidates whose views are more similar to your own because they're not exactly your own?), the right, the pundits and everyone in between... except for a growing chorus of highly respected long-term politicians (Ann Richards, Senator Harkin, Senator Bradley, VP Al Gore...) and the largest grass-roots effort in Democratic history. How odd to beat up on a guy who's not only got the foot soldiers but the good-guy generals, too to take on Mr. Bush.

In any event... not one to take a Kucinich dive on principal lying down... I contacted a lovely woman very high up in the Green Party. She understandably didn't believe me at first. After calling Kucinich’s headquarters, she called me back and we strategized how to get the word out to Kucinich supporters to reconsider linking up with Edwards to stop Dean. Unfortunately, the word didn't get out to most of the caucuses and some of you may have seen the horse-trading on C-Span when the Kucinich people didn't get enough supporters to host a delegate... their precinct captain immediately instructed his then-released supporters to go to Edwards. Now, I'm not saying that Edwards wouldn't have done well in Iowa without this support... but I am wondering about the Anybody but Dean movement coming from every other camp... at what price Negative Campaigning? At the price of political risk-taking here on out? Is that what we really want from out elected officials?

Because you have to ask yourself what's the number one message every candidate learned tonight... Don't be a risk-taker...

Well... I'm afraid I'm sounding bitter. I don't mean to be. A year ago, if anyone had told any of us that Howard Dean would be third in the Iowa Caucus, we'd have been thrilled. Third means you're still in the game... third means you're now a bit of an underdog... like Kerry was two weeks ago and you're going to work harder than ever. Third means... that notwithstanding all the Press working to stretch the Campaign out right up to the middle of the Spring ([CNN's] Tucker Carlson told [my husband] Tim and I this one tonight, confirming other journalists' stories) you're out there fighting harder than ever.

Dean is still leading in the national polls, in NH, in fund-raising and in several other ways that pundits use to measure viability.

What I do know is that tonight's rally with Senator Harkin and Dr. Dean was full of optimism and hope for the Campaign and for America. New voters did come out in droves. Democrats are asking questions of this Administration they'd never have asked a year ago. Young people are turning off their TV sets (but not their computers!) and are taking trains to places like Des Moines and Manchester to get involved in politics. I actually heard one Dean staffer call his mother in happy tears... not because of Dean's third place finish... but because the Campaign liked him so much, they've asked him to travel to another state tomorrow to start all over again. This same fellow has probably been wearing the same underwear for 3 weeks but he looked beautiful to me.

All this optimism is hard to convey and I apologize for my sloppy attempts this week to share with you some of Tim's and my experiences... Some of you have written and have asked about traveling to New Mexico and/or Arizona for the Dean Campaign.

I heartily encourage you to take the plunge. First, the Southwest is warmer than Iowa! And for those of you on the West Coast, it's certainly closer. Mostly... you may never have another opportunity to work with some of the finest young people I've had the pleasure of meeting over the last week. Any doubts that our young people are cynical, self-centered… you name it... will evaporate.

And... let's not leave out us gray-hairs... what a treat to have eager 19-year-olds hang on your every word!!!! Being the mother of three young adults, I've got to tell you it's been a long time since my views on say, Green-Democratic Party relations carried much weight in the Leach Household. And the folks over 70... well... they truly take the cake... the comparisons to Truman's campaigns... to the JFK years... if you're a history buff and love to meet new people... sit down in a room with folks from the age of 14 to 78... who are working 15 hours a day together to send George Bush back to Texas and see if you don't also come home feeling as though you're one of the luckiest people on the planet.

Win... lose... I say that we all win if we listen to one another's stories. There are real people hurting out there in America. More than ever. I, for one, am grateful I've had the opportunity to travel with my darling and very forgiving husband to Iowa in January to experience this Campaign and also to Melanie--such a good friend... for taking such good care of Katie, our 14-year-old who now I wish we'd taken with us.

Happy travels and thanks for coming along with us!
Tim and Terry

Guest Blogger: Terry Leach in Iowa on Phoning 1s and 2s

Terry Leach, a volunteer from the San Francisco Bay Area, gives us another report from the eye of "The Perfect Storm" campaign in Iowa in preparation for tonight's Caucus:

It's nail-biting time! I'm sure from your vantage points around the nation, that you're more aware of the shifting sands... well, snow flurries... than I am. Ordinarily tethered to a computer, fax, cell phone... my predictive skills are now restricted to the last fifty voters I called and/or the nervous chatter from my Dean friends who, every time we meet on the street, in the Perfect Storm Center, or in a restaurant, ask, "How's it going?"

I started this morning--yes, on the treadmill again--watching TV and seeing our man, the good Dr. Dean, coming out of a church in Georgia with President Jimmy Carter. My first thought was Georgia? Today? The day before Caucus night? And then I calmed down, well, running on a treadmill has a way of moderating your heart rate whether you like it or not... and I considered that notwithstanding the 3,500 instant experts who've all dropped into Iowa ready to tell the good Joe Trippi how to run this Campaign... this is the time... the day before the voting begins... to trust in the process. And besides, Jimmy Carter? The wonderful man who defined for all upcoming former presidents how to spend a lifetime after near-God status to make their time on Earth count even more than their tenure in the Oval Office? We should all be so fortunate to have the opportunity to spend a few minutes with President Jimmy Carter.

And then [my husband] Tim and I--fittingly disheveled following our work-out--ran smack into the always dapper [ABC News commentator and syndicated columnist] George Will, who was having breakfast at the next table. Any chance to make a good impression and impart upon this journalist sentient thoughts from an upper middle class Democrat were gone in an instant. I was just another tongue-tied supplicant in sweats.

Determined to make today count... Tim, a northern European at heart, in fact elected to go out for another day of frostbite flirtation and court undecided voters in North Des Moines. We understand that not counting the wind factor, Tim and his stalwart companions knocked on hundreds of doors in temperatures ranging between 5 and 10 degrees. They were especially excited to come upon a house with several Dean yard signs that WASN'T on their list!!! A houseful of supporters not known to the campaign! Gold in Caucus parlance.

Fortunately for me, I sneezed this morning. Recalling that the flu vaccine offered this year didn't in fact cover all strains circulating in the States, I came to the wise conclusion that my persuasive skills could be put to better use inside, phone banking so-called 1s and 2s. For the uninitiated, A "1" is a voter who's been identified as a die-hard fan. This person will get to the Caucus even if the roads are closed. "2s" are often 1s but haven't yet told the Campaign that they'll be there come hell or high water unless a new "Sex and the City" episode is aired.

So, feeling slightly guilty that I sent my hitherto non-political husband out into the frozen wastelands, but consoling myself that I could better serve Dr. Dean in California if I experienced all of the grunt jobs in Iowa, I joined about 100 other volunteers, all similarly and not-so-strangely coming down with something exotic, and began phone banking the very people who will make or break several political futures tomorrow night.

At my table were two women from Seattle, Josh from Baltimore, and another friend, Steve, a physician, from CA. We began calling previously identified Dean supporters, and crossed our fingers. Only to learn that as in California, even when the temperature is hovering between 5 and 10 degrees, very few people are home during the day. Now I don't mean any disrespect... but where do these folks go? It's inhumanely cold outside!!!

I must say that when we spoke with dedicated Iowan Dean supporters who confirmed their commitment to attending the Caucus, our commitment to working 15-hour days in Iowa was renewed. I kept wishing I had one of those bells that those time-share people ring when another poor sucker buys a one-week trip to a place he never would go if he hadn't already sunk his money in the #$%@ time share... (Tim and I speak with some experience here). I wanted to celebrate, dance on the table... but then I remembered I was getting sick and that's why I had to work inside today. So I remained subdued.

Having recovered miraculously around dinnertime (lunch having been a chocolate bar and an apple), Tim and his red-faced companions joined me and several other Dean fans at Centro, a fine Italian restaurant. There were ten of us at our table and I suppose another six or so tables of Dean fans scattered throughout the restaurant. Peter Jennings was several tables over.

Next to our table was the Edwards Campaign. Ok. I'm being snide. I'm not really saying that all 12 of these fine-looking people are the only people in Iowa working for nice John Edwards. But we can't really find real volunteers fro the other campaigns.

The Edwards folks were terrific--they kept smiling so much at us. Gee, are southerners NICE PEOPLE. I thought they wouldn't mind when I directed our mutual wait-person to drop off our bill for $425 at their table. After all, they're so NICE.

Well, that got a good laugh and eventually, the friendliest of the Edwards' crew, Mr. Edwards' former law partner, came over to sit with Tim and I and we had a good chuckle as he slid our bill back to us. We learned that we agree on one important factoid: We are Democrats first and we will all support whomever the Democratic nominee is. Not so for the Gephardt precinct captain from Des Moines who I called earlier today (mistakenly listed as a 2 on the Dean list) who told me that he'd support George Bush over Howard Dean if Dean won the nomination.

"Really?" I asked. You hate Howard Dean so much, you'd help Mr. Bush win another four years and dismantle protections for working families altogether? "Yes," he confirmed unapologetically.

Now, I've got to ask all of you slogging through my reports... what's happened to some of these Democrats who would put their candidates over the values and ideals we've all worked much of our lives for?

Is this the reason that so many voters have stopped voting? I think so. Without being sanctimonious (or at least trying not to be), I ask you to consider that Howard Dean is offering something to the Democratic Party... not taking it away. Democratic registration has been going down, not up. Small donor contributions were considered the province of the Republican Party; not the Democratic Party. Young people were joining the Green Party... or the Republican Party... but not the Democratic Party on college campuses with significant frequency.

Howard Dean has changed all that and this Teamster would rather see George Bush given four more years than work toward the renewal of the Democratic Party. As far as I can see, the only folks with something to lose should Howard Dean win the White House... besides the far-right types... are the lobbyists and the power-brokers in Washington who rely upon a Democratic Party that must worship at the House of Large Contributions. If God forbid a President no longer relies upon the traditional sources of support... power will shift... and people who've enjoyed this power will have lost something not easily regained.

Oh--some good news for those of you not attending the California Dem Convention--my pals in California have called to tell me that Dean was the big news in San Jose. Constitutional officers Kevin Shelley (Secretary of State), John Garamendi (Insurance Commissioner), and Bill Lockyer (Attorney General) all endorsed Dean, blasting pundits who risk destroying the Democratic Party to sell papers...

Read and enjoy! And please plan to get involved in your state!

Thanks for reading and for your support!
Love, Tim & Terry

Guest Blogger: Terry Leach, Canvassing in Iowa

Northern California Dean supporter, Terry Leach, wrote this heartfelt and inspiring report on her experience canvassing in Iowa in preparation for the Caucus tomorrow evening. Terry, along with her husband, Tim, are two of the over 3,000 orange-capped "Deaniacs" who are part of the "Perfect Storm" campaign and are encouraging Iowans to weather the bitter cold and participate in the caucus (and support Dean):

Today was a kaleidoscope of experiences. I started out on the treadmill in the Fitness Room running next to a photojournalist from ABC - North Carolina, sent to cover John Edwards. The reporter wasn't much interested in Edwards' issues; this was just a story to him. He said he was getting tired of the traveling. I got the feeling he'd be happier if Edwards accommodated him and dropped out early.

Shortly afterwards Tim and I were exiting the hotel when we ran into George Stephanaopolous. He was a great sport and let us take a picture with him. He referred to us as "Deaniacs," but was very gracious when I said that I was concerned when so-called journalists used shorthand to describe a group that defied easy definition. For example, I explained that Tim and I had an SUV, three kids in the suburbs, and a Golden Retriever... I asked him whether this sort of family would immediately jump to mind when he was describing a typical 'Deaniac?' He conceded that perhaps the word was overused.

Then Tim and I met a very nice journalist from the St Petersburg Times. I asked this kind person whether he believed in the [media] echo chamber making Dean out to be angry... a gaffer, you name it... this fellow laughed and said of course the pundits didn't believe any of the garbage they're writing about Dean... it's all in the story... if Dean were to win in Iowa and NH and walk away with the nomination... the Press would have nothing to do.

"You're just joshing us," I laughed. The guy shook his head and said, "Absolutely not." Non-stories don't sell papers. What if you sink Dean in the process, we argued... "Then that's another story for us to cover," this fellow argued.

The Framers of our Constitution referred to a free and vigorous Press as the Fourth Estate... providing the necessary check and balance function to an intimidated House in the event the same Party controlled both Houses and the Executive Branch... guess the Framers never envisioned corporate consolidation in the News/Entertainment Business... You become very aware that if the newsmakers do not cooperate and make the requisite news, the news tellers... will manipulate the story and make the news that will in fact... sell papers.

Then onto the Perfect Storm Center... more crowded than ever... we could barely get through to get our packet and meet our fellow storm troopers. People are still arriving with backpacks, GUCCI luggage, and hopeful expressions.

We met up with our new friend from Los Angeles and were assigned to a new fellow canvasser--Spencer, a grad student from NY, studying international relations in DC.

We were given a solidly middle class area east of Des Moines; lots of retirees and young families. Brr... I thought it was cold yesterday... I'm getting worried! The trend... if three days is anything to prognosticate from... is not looking good! Today was serious cold to be outside for six-seven hours or so!

That said... talking to real people makes it worth it... still not a lot of people going to the Caucus... but listening to the stories of these folks breaks your hearts... take the young woman with a baby on her hip and a toddler clinging to her legs... I apologized for bothering her but she said she was grateful I came to her front door; that she'd get a sitter--a precious luxury for her--to make it to the caucus and support Dr. Dean. When I asked if her husband would also be supporting Dr. Dean she paused and then said, only if I could bring him home from Baghdad.

And then there was the modest house with a large RV in the driveway and an elderly man tinkering in the garage. Tim and I called out, "Hello!" and this nice man waved and encouraged us to come closer. He stressed that he was not a Dean supporter but that his grown son who had moved home recently was. We all agreed that no matter who won, we'd work together to send Bush home to Crawford in November and then this very proud man became tearful and asked us what we knew about the Depression. He had to compose himself and apologized profusely, saying that he was very scared about the future of this country... that he'd lived through the Depression and he loved his country and felt that Bush was the worst possible president he'd ever lived through... though not supporting Dean, he thanked us profusely for caring so much to tromp through the cold to get out the word... Tim and I were very affected by this kind man's sudden loss of composure. We surmised that his son had lost his job, lost everything...

Everywhere we go, we see evidence of generations living together... perhaps one has lost a job or a parent can no longer stay home alone. Everyone is worried about the economy here... everyone is worried about the possibility of losing health care coverage and the high cost of health care coverage if they're lucky enough to have coverage.

When people ask me, "Yes, I'd support Dean, but can he win in the midwest?" you've got to trust us. These are not flashy people. Almost no European or Japanese cars on the roads. The only way that I can see that these folks attempt to outdo their neighbors is in their front yard Christmas decorations... world class... but these people are worried. Worried sick. Worried about their kids' getting/keeping decent jobs... worried that the quagmire in Iraq will worsen and make us even more unsafe at home. Several Iowan GIs have been hurt lately... the folks behind the storm doors talk to us about this.

I think that a Dean may have even more of a chance in an Iowa... think about it; when we need a good dose of denial in California, what do we do? Wine sip in Napa? Check out the whales off the coast of Mendocino? Ski in Tahoe?

Where do these folks go to get away? If such a lovely getaway exists, Tim and I haven't seen it; their worries are all around them; closed up storefronts, empty restaurants, two generations living in one small house and so forth...

Oh--I've got to lighten this up... last night, 10 of us had dinner in the Marriott restuarant and right next to us was Fred Barnes and some other famous person from Fair & Balanced Fox News who I didn't recognize. GREAT Vicki Cosgrove had carried in her life-size Howard Dean cardboard stand-up and stood it right by the Fox News table... we had quite a hoot over that and Tim even got a picture of Fred Barnes and the good doctor together...

Tonight about 50 of us Dean supporters went to a brewery/pool hall and made a lot of noise... but truthfully--after 7 hours in the arctic cold... we all hit the wall around 9 and slithered out of there. We all were wondering where the Kerry, Gephardt, Edwards folks go to eat/drink after working all day and then it hit us... there are over 3,000 of us... maybe a hundred or so of the rest of them together... There are orange hats everywhere you go in Des Moines... I imagine it will be much quieter after we all go home!

So far, Tim and I have come about 10 minutes late to every rock star showing... Joan Jett and Jeanine Garofolo came to cheer on the troops at the Dean Perfect Storm center 10 minutes before we got there... Al Gore was by earlier... we're the almost-rans!!! We almost had dinner next to Tom Brokaw but the restaurant couldn't fit us all in... oh well... If any journalist were dong his/her job... it would be very clear that WE ARE the story... the thousands of us who dropped out of our lives to endure freezing temperatures to help create a new, invigorated Democratic Party... and not the journalists who are intent on prolonging the story... even if the destruction of the Democratic Party is collateral damage to the temporary sale of more papers...

Well... there's always chocolate...

Much love... a thawing out,
Terry Leach

Braun Drops Out and Endorses Dean

Carol Moseley Braun, a former senator of Illinois, announced today that she is ending her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, and offering her full support to the campaign of Howard Dean. Jodi Wilgoren and Kirk Semple write in the New York Times:

Carol Moseley Braun dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination today and endorsed Howard Dean, giving his campaign a lift four days before the Iowa caucuses.

"Howard Dean is a Democrat we can all be proud to support," Ms. Moseley Braun said in a nationally televised statement, and urged her supporters to throw their weight behind him.

Ms. Moseley Braun, a former senator from Illinois and a former ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, failed to garner much money or support in polls and was not particularly active on the campaign trail in recent days.

In her statement today, she said that she had not been able to surmount "funding and organizational disadvantages" in her campaign, and said that "continuing would not have been fair" to her supporters.

Her endorsement of Dr. Dean adds another nationally recognized name to his list of supporters as he finds himself in an extremely tight Iowa race with Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts and Senator John Edwards of the North Carolina.

Go here to read the entire article.

Keen on Dean

In an article in today's New York Times, Michael Janofsky explores billionaire George Soros's support of the Democratic presidential candidates:

After months of criticizing President Bush and contributing millions of dollars to organizations that oppose his policies, the philanthropist George Soros said on Monday that he believed three of the Democrats running for president — Howard Dean, John Kerry and Gen. Wesley K. Clark — could generate enough support to defeat Mr. Bush in November.

"There is no doubt about Howard Dean's abilities and qualities for being president," Mr. Soros said after giving a speech at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace sharply critical of the administration's foreign policy. "Other candidates are also qualified. I'm also a great advocate of Clark and Kerry."

All three, he said, had views very similar to his own. "I'm not picking one particular candidate," he added, "but I am keen on Dean."

To read the article, go here.

O'Neill Book Reveals Truth About Bush's Iraq Plan

In his new book, The Price of Loyalty, Ron Suskind worked closely with former former Treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill. In the book, O'Neill reveals many bombshells. Richard W. Stevenson writes in the New York Times today:

President Bush was focused on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq from the start of his administration, more than seven months before the terrorist attacks that he later cited as the trigger for a more aggressive foreign policy, Paul H. O'Neill, Mr. Bush's first Treasury secretary, said in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

Mr. O'Neill, a former chairman of Alcoa, served in the Nixon and Ford administrations and was close to Vice President Dick Cheney and Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman. Mr. O'Neill had a rocky tenure as Treasury secretary. His departure came after he made it clear he differed with the White House over the need for more tax cuts. In his typically blunt style, he made no effort at the time to pretend he was not angry and hurt over being forced out.

But the account of his service to Mr. Bush, as given to Mr. Suskind, whose book is to be published Tuesday, is the first by a former senior Bush administration official. It is sure to fuel questions from Mr. Bush's political opponents about the administration's rationale for invading Iraq, and to focus new attention on Mr. Bush's management style and the balance in the White House between politics and policy.

To read the entire article, go here.

Also, check out the 60 Minutes piece on O'Neill and the book.

U.S. News & World Report: Is He The One?

Howard Dean appears on the cover of next week's U.S. News & World Report (1/19/04 issue) and is featured in two articles. The first is an excellent article about him by political editor Roger Simon:

In the beginning, Howard Dean intended to be one of those semitiresome aspirants who enter a presidential race in a semiserious attempt to force the media to consider his pet issues. And his pet issues happened to be healthcare and early childhood development.

In other words, in the beginning, Howard Dean never intended to be more than a bore.

"There is no doubt in my mind that his motivation to run for president was to raise those two issues to the highest level of debate," Joe Trippi, his campaign manager, says. "Pre-Iraq war, that is all he ever talked about. He's a smart guy, but he was under no illusions that he was going to be the nominee of the party."

Which gave Dean the freedom to fail. He could do whatever he wanted to do and behave in any manner he wanted. Dean was free to be Dean. And, at first, those who didn't know him were shocked. His attacks on George W. Bush were far harsher than conventional politicking dictated. As were his attacks on the "Washington Democrats" who were running against him for the nomination. Dean gave every appearance of being a candidate who didn't care whom he messed with and whom he ticked off. Which he didn't.

Read the entire article here. The second article is an interview with Dean by Roger Simon who closes with a very important question:

Simon: Just in case you do win, do you want to be called Mr. President or Dr. President?

Dean: (Laughing) The tradition of Mr. is fine with me.

Read the interview here.

The New Yorker: Running on Instinct

The current issue of The New Yorker magazine has a very extensive article on Howard Dean and his background. It's long, but worth reading if you want to learn more about the man. In talking about how Dean has "rigorously guarded the sanctity of his private life":

Dean’s abstinence from personal revelation was just one way that he had discombobulated the Party leadership’s assumptions about how to reclaim the White House. He stridently rejected the forever-glancing-over-the-shoulder centrist calculations that had defined the Democratic Party establishment since the advent of the Clinton era; he wasn’t from the South; he almost never spoke about faith (“I don’t go to church very often,” he announced in a debate in November); he’d become a free-trade dissenter; he didn’t target his speeches directly at aging, affluent suburbanites. Nevertheless, his heretical choices about what to say (and what not to say) had somehow propelled him to the top of the heap. It was a trajectory that even Dean seemed not to have foreseen. “This campaign is not about me—this is a movement” was one of his catchphrases, uttered with a matter-of-factness that sounded as if he actually believed it. Watching the race unfold, one assumed that he also instinctively trusted serendipity. Indeed, the evidence of Dean’s career thus far was that, as bold, hardworking, and opportunistic a politician as he obviously was, a key component of his success had been his preternatural good luck.

Read the entire article here. And if you want to learn more about Dean, you can always read his book!

New Endorsement for Dean

Carl Hulse reveals in the New York Times that just ten days before the Iowa Caucus, Senator Tom Harkin decided to back Dean's candidacy:

Senator Tom Harkin will endorse Howard Dean for president today, handing the former Vermont governor coveted backing from the most politically influential Democratic lawmaker in Iowa as the state's crucial nominating caucuses near.

Aides said Mr. Harkin, who had been agonizing over whether to pick a favorite in the race for the nomination, would embrace the Dean candidacy at an event at Dean campaign headquarters here.

"He's the Harry Truman of our generation," Senator Harkin said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Howard Dean is really the kind of plain-spoken Democrat we need."

To read the entire article, go here.

Huffington Sings Dean's Praises

In a recent column, Arianna Huffington offers some encouraging words for Dr. Dean:

Dean is electable precisely because he's making a decisive break with the spinelessness and pussyfooting that have become the hallmark of the Democratic Party.

So, please, no more hand-wringing about Dean being "another Dukakis." And no more weepy flashbacks about having had your heart broken by George McGovern, whose 1972 annihilation haunts the 2004 Democratic primaries like a political Jacob Marley, shaking his chains and warning of the Ghosts of Landslides Past.

There is a historical parallel to Dean's candidacy, but it's not McGovern in 1972, as the DLC-paranoiacs would like us to believe – it's Bobby Kennedy in 1968.

Like Kennedy, Dean's campaign was initially fueled by his anti-war outrage. Like Kennedy, Dean has found himself fighting not just to represent the Democratic Party but to remake it. Like Kennedy, Dean is offering an alternative moral vision for America, not just an alternative political platform.

And like Kennedy, Dean has come under withering attack from his critics for the very attributes that his supporters find most attractive.

"He could be intemperate and impulsive... the image of wrath – his forefinger pointing, his fist pounding his palm, his eyes ablaze." Sean Hannity on Howard Dean? No, Theodore White on Bobby Kennedy in "The Making of the President 1968."

It's the same ludicrous charge of being "too angry" that's being constantly leveled at Dean. Have his Democratic opponents (and the notoriously decorous Washington press corps) suddenly morphed into Miss Manners? Personally, I could never trust a man who does not occasionally get hot under the collar.

To read the entire column, go here.

Bradley Endorsement Announcement

In New Hampshire this morning, former Senator Bill Bradley formally announced his support of Dean's candidacy.

For 18 years as a U.S. senator, I stood on platforms like this one and talked about what public service was and what politics could become. Four years ago, I ran for president. It was a journey filled with hope and joy and the knowledge that if we succeeded we could make life better for all Americans.

In 2000, many Americans in Iowa and New Hampshire and across the country gave me their support, and I continue to consider their confidence a sacred trust.

This year many of them have asked me who among this very capable group of candidates I would recommend. My answer is Howard Dean.

To read the entire transcript, go here.

The List Grows: Bill Bradley to Endorse Dean

Confirming many suspicions, the Dean campaign gave word today that former Senator Bill Bradley will officially announce his endorsement of Governor Dean tomorrow. Jodi Wilgoren writes in the New York Times:

Former Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey will endorse Howard Dean at a breakfast in New Hampshire on Tuesday, the Dean campaign said today, adding to a growing list of marquee Democrats backing his bid for the party's 2004 presidential nomination.

Dr. Dean, the insurgent turned front-runner, will interrupt four days of intense campaigning in this first caucus state for a surprise overnight trip to New Hampshire, according to a late change in his schedule. After the breakfast in Manchester, Mr. Bradley is expected to accompany Dr. Dean on his return to Iowa to echo the announcement, according to officials of the Dean campaign and other Democrats familiar with the plan.

To read the entire article, go here.

James Carville: "It's the people, stupid--all of the people"

James Carville, who successfully engineered Clinton's win over Bush Sr, says in his great, new book, "Had Enough? A Handbook for Fighting Back", how, back in 1992, the campaign distilled the essence of Clinton's message into these three points:

1. Change vs. more of the same
2. It's the economy, stupid
3. Don't forget health care

Now Carville is suggesting the Dems revisit those 3 points in 2004, and, according to him, here's the message they need to get across to beat Bush:

Number 1 [change vs. more of the same] stays intact. The choice is still between change and more of the same.

Number 2 is a little too narrow for these guys. We're going to change that to It's the people, stupid—all of the people.

See, [the Bush administration is] about people, too, just not all of them. If you're one of the wealthiest people in America, a member of the arsenic lobby or the drill anywhere, anytime posse, the corporate cheat club, or anyone who wants more money now at the expense of passing on our problems to our children later—they're for you.

For progressives, all of the people has to be all of the people...the elderly, the children, the black, the blue, the strong, the weak, the lame, the halt, the blind...everybody.

We can be justifiably scathing in our criticism that this administration has not just neglected but also acted detrimentally to the interests of tens of millions of Americans. When we say, "It's the people, stupid—all of the people," we're really saying: Are we going to have a government for a few of the people or for everybody? You know where I stand.

Number 3. Of course, health care is still a huge issue and growing bigger every day. We should look at how this administration's policies have meant that millions of people have lost their health insurance and this president has offered basically nothing but a prescription drug benefit that by everybody's account is convoluted, inadequate, insufficient, and unworkable. All of that is legit, and all of that becomes part of number 2. That way we'll use number 3 to move on to that foreign policy ground that Democrats ought to occupy forcefully and proudly. For number 3, we're going to steal a line from our good friends at State Farm and call for a good neighbor policy.

Even though America has the biggest and best house in the neighborhood, we have got to recognize that our house is safer when we join the neighborhood watch, when we don't speed down the street or throw our garbage out on other people's lawns. That's the only way we can get our neighbors to look out for us.

There you have it:

1. Change vs. more of the same.
2. It's the people, stupid—all of the people.
3. A strong America that's a good neighbor.

That's our message. That's the tip sheet for all of you who have had enough. That's how we meet the constitutional prescription for good government. Now it's up to us to bring that message to the American people and bring the candidates who represent it to victory. That's how you build a more perfect Union. That's how you fight back. That's how you respond when you finally decide you've had enough.

Happy New Year: Dean on your Desktop

We think that visualizing a desired outcome will help make it happen. Click Here for a version of this image for your computer's desktop.

FDR: "a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference"

From the "Making of a President 1960" comes this apropos quote from FDR:

"Governments can err, Presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that Divine Justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted on a different scale. Better the occasional faults of a government living in the spirit of charity, than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."
    --Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936
     (accepting his 2nd Presidential nomination)

Happy New Year

Welcome to 2004, when we will decide who will be the next US President. Will we take back our country? Comments welcome.