Mark Your Calendars: Dean Book Signing in Vermont

Do you live in the Vermont area? Howard Dean will be doing a book signing of his book, Winning Back America, at the Burlington, VT Borders book store on March 23, 2004:

AUTHOR:	Howard Dean
TITLE:	Winning Back America
DATE:	3/23/2004
TIME:	7 PM
EVENT:	In store signing
EVENT LOCATION:	Borders # 276 29 Church Street Burlington, VT 05401 802-865-2711

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.

NY Times: Reading, Writing and Running for President

Can book sales be a barometer for election results? Today's New York Times compares the popularity of books published in the last year by the major Democratic candidates. Howard Dean's "Winning Back America" has more than twice the sales as the next candidate, another positive indicator for Dean:

So how are the candidates faring in the literary battle for voters' hearts and minds? The chart accompanying this article tells the story. While the figures are a one-week snapshot of demand from the Ingram Book Group, the world's largest book wholesaler, they accurately reflect how each title has fared in recent weeks according to different industry databases that track bookstore and consumer demand. The numbers may reveal some hidden strengths for Dr. Dean — and may recommend some strategies for his opponents.

...if book sales are any indication, Dr. Dean may poll better than expected in the South. According to BookScan, "Winning Back America" is selling slightly better in the South than in either the Northeast or the Pacific, two regions generally regarded to be supportive of Dr. Dean. A quarter of Dr. Dean's overall sales are in the South.

Whether Americans will vote the way they read remains to be seen, of course. But so far Howard Dean is faring as well in the bookstore as he is on the campaign trail.

Read the entire article here.

Molly Ivins: Picking a Winner

Author and Austin columnist, Molly Ivins, threw her support to Governor Dean today in her column. Here's an excerpt:

No one has been waiting with bated breath for me to make up my mind about the Democratic presidential candidates, but I have, and you might be interested in how I got there. I'm for Howard Dean -- because he's going to win.... I went up to Vermont and talked to a bunch of liberals there. They all said Howard Dean is no liberal. Funny, that's what Howard Dean says, too. And indeed, he isn't, but in politics, everything's relative. The conventional wisdom first dismissed Howard Dean (the man has never been to a Washington dinner party!), then condescended to him, then graciously offered him instruction on how he should be running his campaign -- which seemed to be going along quite well without their input....

Dean gives a hell of a speech -- even if you're Republican, you should go and hear him just for the experience. But I fretted about Dean on TV -- TV is so important. How could anyone poker up on Margaret Carlson of PBS, not one of the world's toughest interviewers? But then I saw Dean laugh his way through a Chris Matthews interview (which he should have done with Tim Russert, who was hell-bent on gotcha questions), and I know the guy can take care of himself. So he fights back if you get in his face -- that's not all bad.

I know, he's even less of a liberal than Bill Clinton was, but I don't think Dean is a moderate centrist. I think he's a fighting centrist. And folks, I think we have got ourselves a winner here.

Read the entire article here.