Dean at the Take Back America Conference

Last week, Howard Dean gave one of his great "everyone on your feet" speeches at the Take Back America conference in Washington DC. More than 2,000 progressive leaders, activists, and thinkers heard Gov. Dean and others speak. At the conference, Dean was awarded the Tom Paine Commonsense Award. An excerpt from his speech:

"All of us who have been in public office, and I know there are some out here that are, have been fond of saying, going to high schools and going to colleges, and telling young people how important it is to vote. One of the things I learned in this campaign is, voting is the bare minimum, voting is not enough, you've got to give 10 bucks to your favorite candidate. And Lord knows we showed that you can sure raise a hell of a lot of money by getting 10 bucks from a half-a-million people, and you've got to run for office yourself. You have to run yourself. Democracy is not a spectator sport, and we won't have one if we don't fight for it.

(Applause.)

"So over the next few months we're going to partner with 21st Century Democrats, with the Progressive Majority, with SEIU, with AFSCME, with other groups, where we can come together not just to make sure John Kerry is the next president of the United States, but to make sure that if he is, that this is not just simply a weigh station in between right-wing presidents. That we are going to take this country back this time, and never again are we going to permit the extreme right wing of the Republican Party to tell us what to do. I am tired of listening to the fundamentalist preachers, and we're not going to do it anymore.

(Applause.)

"I'm tired of listening to Ralph Reed, and Newt Gingrich, and Rush Limbaugh, and we're not going to do it anymore, because we built this country, and we're going to take it back for ordinary working Americans. We're going to take this country back, and it's going to take election, after election, after election, work after work, after work, and win, after win, after win. Take back America, we want our country back, and it's our country, we built it, and now in November we're going to take it back."

Click here for transcripts and videos of all the speakers at the conference. Click here to watch a video of Dean's speech.

Video of Dean's San Francisco Speech

Videographer Eric Predoehl has posted his edit of a 43 minute video of Howard Dean's appearance in San Francisco on March 18, 2004 at the Palace Hotel. You can download this video as a Quicktime, MPEG, or Windows Media file for free here. Or, if you don't have broadband, you can purchase it on DVD here.

Dean Endorses Kerry

Today Governor Howard Dean officially endorsed Senator John Kerry for President:

"While my run for the White House ended last month, our work to take back this country has only just begun. George W. Bush's policies continue to fail to deliver on issues that matter most to Americans, and we desperately need a change of leadership come November," said Dean, speaking at a rally with Massachusetts Senator at The George Washington University's Kogan Plaza.

"John Kerry is a fighter with a distinguished record of service to this country, and I believe he has the experience, strength, and vision to get this country back on the right path," Dean said. "John Kerry is fighting every day to defeat President Bush because he knows that four more years of George W. Bush's right-wing ideological agenda at home and weak leadership in the world would be devastating to our country for many decades to come. The future of our country depends on defeating this president, and John Kerry is the candidate that can beat this President in November. If our party stands united, we will send George Bush back to Crawford Texas.

"I'm honored to have earned Howard Dean's support in the mission we share: bringing new leadership to our country," said Senator Kerry. "Over the last year, Governor Dean's voice has reminded us of the power of grassroots politics to change America. He's started a conversation with thousands of Americans who had turned away from politics for too long, a conversation that, with his help, we will continue and intensify and spread to thousands of other Americans in the months to come. We may have started this campaign by discussing our differences, but we will win it by reminding America that what unites this country is so much more powerful that what has ever divided us in the past."

Additional stories can be read at CNN, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.

Audio Recording of Dean's SF Speech

If you missed Howard Dean's speech in San Francisco on March 18th, you can listen to it here. It's an MP3 file and it runs for 40 minutes, including the introduction by Will Easton and Stephanie Linder of SF4Dean.com.

Dean Announces New Organization

Yesterday, at events in Seattle (click to listen) and San Francisco, and today in New York, Governor Howard Dean announced his new organization.

Still using the same DFA initials as his campaign organization (Dean for America), the new organization, Democracy for America, "will be committed to 1) strong, sustained grassroots involvement in the democratic process, 2) promoting an America where candidates and office holders tell the truth about policy choices and stand up for what they believe, 3) fighting against the influence and agenda of the two pillars of George W. Bush’s Washington: the far right wing and their radical, divisive policies, and the selfish special interests who for too long have dominated politics, and 4) fighting for progressive policies, like health care for all; investment in children; equal rights under law; fiscal responsibility; and a national security policy that makes America stronger by advancing progressive values."

At the San Francisco event, a crowd of more than 1,000 supporters squeezed into a room set up to seat 600, and joked by saying, "With crowds like this, maybe it's not too late to get back in!" The crowd went wild, and he had to make sure they all knew he was only kidding.

Dean stated, "Democracy for America will be committed to promoting an America where candidates and office holders tell the truth about policy choices and stand up for what they believe. The era when politicians equivocate about matters as fundamental as war and peace must end."

For people wanting to be on the new DFA mailing list, sign up here. The new organization will not migrate the old mailing list over to the new list, so you must sign up again. The Dean blog will still be at BlogForAmerica.com.

Read Governor Dean's speech here.

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

Dean to Speak in Seattle, San Francisco, New York

From Blog for America:

Governor Dean will be speaking about the new organization in the following locations.

Seattle, Washington - 9:30 AM on Thursday, March 18th
San Francisco, California - 6 PM on Thursday March 18th
New York, New York - 11:30 AM on Friday, March 19th

Stay tuned for exact locations. Events will be open to the public and the Governor looks forward to seeing you there!

Dean Wins Vermont

Today Howard Dean won his first primary in his home state of Vermont. Here's his statement:

I want to thank the great people of Vermont tonight who overwhelmingly endorsed our campaign for change. This win means so much to me.

Two years ago, I entered this race to talk about health care, children, and to demand change and leadership in our party. This party and this country still needs change, and tonight you have helped further that process.

While I ran for president I often said that America would be a better place if it was more like Vermont. I still firmly believe that to be true: We still need health care for all children, affordable prescription drugs for seniors, and equal rights for all Americans.

Throughout this campaign, I have appreciated the strong support from the people of Vermont. Our campaign owes a huge debt to the hundreds of Vermonters who worked at our headquarters--answering phones, stuffing mailings, and responding to emails--as well as to all of those who canvassed on our behalf in New Hampshire and elsewhere.

I will never forget the work and the heart that you put into our campaign. Thank you.

I look forward to continuing the energy and the campaign for change that our movement began. We will be announcing more details of that effort on March 18th.

Governor Dean's statement on Ralph Nader

This is what Howard Dean said after Ralph Nader announced his candidacy for President on Sunday's Meet the Press:

When I announced last week that I am no longer actively pursuing the presidency, I urged my supporters not to be tempted by any independent or third party candidate. I said I would support the nominee of the Democratic Party, because the bottom line is that we must defeat George W. Bush in November, whatever it takes.

This year, our campaign has made the case that, in order to defeat George W. Bush, the Democratic Party must stand up strong for its principles, not paper over its differences with the most radical Administration in our lifetime. In order to win, the Democratic Party must aggressively expose the ways in which George W. Bush's policies benefit the privileged and the most extreme ideologues.

I will do everything I can to ensure that the 2004 Democratic nominee runs as a true progressive, as a champion of working Americans and their hopes for a better future. I urge my supporters, and all other Americans committed to progressive values and honest government, to stick with us, and stick with the Democratic Party, so our cause can prevail in 2004.

Ralph Nader has made many great contributions to America over 40 years. But if George W. Bush is re-elected, the health, safety, consumer, environmental, and open government provisions Ralph Nader has fought for will be undermined. George Bush's right-wing appointees will still be serving as judges fifty years from now, and our Constitution will be shredded. It will be government by, of, and for, the corporations - exactly what Ralph Nader has struggled against.

Those who truly want America's leaders to stand up to the corporate special interests and build a better country for working people should recognize that, in 2004, a vote for Ralph Nader is, plain and simple, a vote to re-elect George W. Bush. I hope that Ralph Nader will withdraw his candidacy in the best interests of the country we hope to become.

Many of my supporters urged me to run as an independent, but I judged it the wrong thing to do. There is still time for Ralph Nader to stand with those in the Democratic Party who are building a progressive coalition to defeat George W. Bush. But time is running out. We can win only if we are united.

The Nation: Dean's Rough Ride by William Greider

In the March 8th edition of The Nation, National affairs correspondent William Greider writes a powerful overview of what happened to Howard Dean in the hands of the Media, and reminds us of some of his progressive policies and statements that rarely got covered. He starts with:

In forty years of observing presidential contests, I cannot remember another major candidate brutalized so intensely by the media, with the possible exception of George Wallace. Howard Dean contributed some fatal errors of his own, to be sure, but he also brought fresh air and new ideas, a crisp call to revitalize the Democratic Party and at least the outlines of deeper political and economic reforms. The reporters, as surrogate agents for Washington's insider sensibilities, blew him off. Dean's big mistake was in not recognizing, up front, that the media are very much part of the existing order and were bound to be hostile to his provocative kind of politics. To be heard, clearly and accurately, he would have had to find another channel.

And he ends the article with:

What the Dean campaign clearly did not accomplish (in addition to formulating a smart countermedia strategy) was to find ways to develop the flesh-and-blood relationships that can become enduring building blocks in politics--de Tocqueville's "associations" or labor's "collective action." The Meet-Ups are a rough start. MoveOn.org is an impressive organizing engine. We may be witnessing the early stages of small-d democratic renewal, in which people impose new technologies and new social realities on tired old institutions. As Howard Dean's rough ride reminds, established power, including the media, will resist change tenaciously. But the doctor may yet be remembered as the herald of something new.

Read the entire article here.

Dean No Longer Campaigning for Presidency

In a speech before a crowd of supporters in Burlington, VT, today, Governor Dean announced that he is no longer campaigning for the Presidency. He also announced how his organization will continue working for change in America. Here's the an excerpt, followed by the entire transcript, pulled from the Dean for America blog:

DEAN: I am no longer actively pursuing the presidency. We will, however, continue to build a new organization, using our enormous grassroots network, to continue the effort to transform the Democratic Party and to change our country.

First, keep active in the primary. Sending delegates to the convention only continues to energize our party. Fight on in the caucuses. We are on the ballots. Use your network to send progressive delegates to the convention in Boston. We are not going away. We are staying together, unified -- all of us.

Secondly, Dean for America will be converted into a new grassroots organization. We need everybody to stay involved. We are -- as we always have -- going to look at what you had to say about which directions we ought to be going in, and what we ought to continue to do together.

We are determined to keep this entire organization as vibrant as it has been through this campaign. There are a lot of ways to make change. We are leaving one track, but we are going on another track that will take back America for ordinary people again.

Third, there have been a lot of people who have decided to run for office locally as a result of this campaign.

We want to encourage you out there in the grassroots effort, run for office, support candidates like you who run for office, and we will use this enormous organization to support you as you run so we will change the face of democracy so that it represents ordinary Americans once again; government that will not be bought and sold.

Let me be clear, I will not run as an independent or third party candidate and I urge my supporters not to be tempted to support any effort by another candidate.

The bottom line is that we must beat George W. Bush in November whatever it takes.

I will support the nominee of our party. I will do everything I can to beat George W. Bush. I urge you to do the same.

Complete transcript:

My thanks to all of you who got this crowd together in about three hours notice. I appreciate that very much. And my thanks to an awful lot of people.

But my particular thanks to Vermont. I started this two years ago -- and I see Governor Kunin is here in the crowd, so I'm going to tell a story that she's going to appreciate in particular, but all of you will, because it's a local story.

The first thing I ever did is I went down to a chamber of commerce meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, I was invited down. So I went down with a few brochures in my back pocket. And I got down there and gave the speech, and then they asked questions, as they do at rotaries. It's a lot like going to a rotary or chamber here.

And the last question was somebody who got up and said this. They said, Well, Governor, you have a great business climate in Vermont. It's just terrific. And the one here in New Hampshire stinks. Can you send your people down here to tell us what to do? I thought you'd like that.

(LAUGHTER)

That's an inside joke for those of you who are from Vermont.

We love to hear people talk about New Hampshire that way.

(LAUGHTER)

Well, actually, I did pretty well in New Hampshire.

We did have a -- have had a real record of achievement in this state: creating jobs, providing health insurance, investing in children, balancing budgets.

And I said when I left the governor's office that if the rest of this country were like Vermont this country would be much better off.

(APPLAUSE)

And what we set out to do was make the rest of the country more like Vermont. And so far we haven't succeeded, but we have a long way to go.

What we did show is that by standing up and telling the truth and not worrying about polls and focus groups, you could actually get support in this country from voters.

(APPLAUSE)

We started the campaign office in Burlington. There are an awful lot of people -- and some of you should raise your hands -- who drove up here, unrequested, unknowing; showed up, no salary. Finally, we grew in to you and we were able to pay you a little something. But we really appreciate people from all over the country, particularly young people.

One quarter of all our people who gave us money were under 30 years old in this campaign. I have not seen that happen since I was under 30 years old, and that was a long time ago.

(APPLAUSE)

This has been a campaign that has been extraordinarily different. The new approach, planting seeds on the Internet, strengthening grassroots, face-to-face obtaining support from hundreds of thousands of small donors, all these steps can revitalize our democracy and return power to ordinary Americans.

All of us have done these things together. We have exposed the dangerous, radical nature of George W. Bush's agenda.

(APPLAUSE)

DEAN: We have demonstrated to other Democrats that it is a far better strategy to stand up against the right wing agenda of George W. Bush than it is to cooperate with it.

(APPLAUSE)

We have led this party back to considering what its heart and soul is, although there is a lot of work left to do.

I am very proud of all of you and very grateful to all of you for your extraordinary hard work. To the staff who've worked exceptionally hard, very long hours -- worse than mine, sometimes...

(LAUGHTER)

... for all of you who traveled around the country, showed up at our office, worked around the clock, because they believed in what we were doing, thousands of Americans who have given generously of their time, in their states, because they believed in our cause.

I want to particularly thank all our congressional supporters, many of whom signed on with us when we were an asterisk in the polls, because they believed that it was the right thing to do for their country. There are people in Washington who are going to do the right thing in this party: stand up and be recognized and stand up for what's right with America, instead of being poll-driven. And believe me, we are going to support those people in September.

(APPLAUSE)

And in November. September, if they have a primary, and then in November.

I want to thank the Service Employees International Union and the Painters. They stuck with me...

(APPLAUSE)

They stood with us when the others abandoned us and I am forever grateful to those people in the labor movement who stood up for what was right and not what was popular.

(APPLAUSE)

DEAN: I want to thank all the state and local officials who stood with us, many of them, like Governor Kunin and others, who went to other states for us to represent us all over America.

I want to thank the Dean's List. These are the big donors. We didn't have a lot of big donors, but the ones that we had signed on with us when we were nowhere. We were an asterisk in the polls. They did not do what the establishment of the Democratic Party did. They followed their hearts and stood up for what was right, and they changed this party, too.

(APPLAUSE)

I want to thank the 300,000 small donors that decided that they wanted their country back.

And we are now in the process of taking our country back thanks to you.

(APPLAUSE)

I want to thank all the people in every state who heard our message and supported us.

And I, of course, finally and most importantly want to thank my wonderful wife, who finally, after 12 years, made her political debut in Wisconsin, Iowa, New Hampshire.

(APPLAUSE)

I also...

AUDIENCE: Judy! Judy! Judy!

DEAN: I also want to thank Judy for at least promoting the debate that's needed to happen in this country for a long time about whether a woman needs to gaze adoringly at her husband or follow her own career.

(APPLAUSE)

Now I lost my place.

(LAUGHTER)

DEAN: I am no longer actively pursuing the presidency. We will, however, continue to build a new organization, using our enormous grassroots network, to continue the effort to transform the Democratic Party and to change our country. And I...

(APPLAUSE)

And speaking to all of you and all of the hundreds of thousands of people around America who are going to get this word, either by the establishment media...

(LAUGHTER)

... or the Internet, I have some things that I specifically want to ask of our supporters.

First, keep active in the primary. Sending delegates to the convention only continues to energize our party. Fight on in the caucuses. We are on the ballots. Use your network to send progressive delegates to the convention in Boston. We are not going away. We are staying together, unified -- all of us.

(APPLAUSE)

Secondly, Dean for America will be converted into a new grassroots organization. We need everybody to stay involved. We are -- as we always have -- going to look at what you had to say about which directions we ought to be going in, and what we ought to continue to do together.

We are determined to keep this entire organization as vibrant as it has been through this campaign. There are a lot of ways to make change. We are leaving one track, but we are going on another track that will take back America for ordinary people again.

(APPLAUSE)

Third, there have been a lot of people who have decided to run for office locally as a result of this campaign.

We want to encourage you out there in the grassroots effort, run for office, support candidates like you who run for office, and we will use this enormous organization to support you as you run so we will change the face of democracy so that it represents ordinary Americans once again; government that will not be bought and sold.

(APPLAUSE)

Let me be clear, I will not run as an independent or third party candidate and I urge my supporters not to be tempted to support any effort by another candidate.

The bottom line is that we must beat George W. Bush in November whatever it takes.

(APPLAUSE)

I will support the nominee of our party. I will do everything I can to beat George W. Bush. I urge you to do the same.

But we will not be above in this organization of letting our nominee know that we expect them to adhere to the standards that this organization has set for decency, honesty, integrity and standing up for ordinary American working people.

(APPLAUSE)

AUDIENCE: Take back Congress!

(APPLAUSE)

DEAN: Well, we're going to take back Congress, but we're going to take the White House, too.

AUDIENCE: We still believe, Howard!

DEAN: Believe in yourself and we're all together, we can believe in ourselves.

Let me just say something to the younger folks here -- those of us who do not have my hair color -- one of the advantages of age -- and they're less than I thought there were when I was 25...

(LAUGHTER)

... is that you get to see things come around a second or third time.

And one of the things that I realized a long time ago is that change is very difficult. There is enormous institutional resistance to change in this country. We have seen that in this campaign as we literally terrified people sitting in their salons in Georgetown that they might have to look for work someplace else if we ever won.

(APPLAUSE)

It is natural for people to resist, but it is also inevitable that we will win.

(APPLAUSE)

DEAN: Change is difficult. You cannot expect people with great privileges taken at the expense of ordinary working people to surrender them lightly. But the history of humanity is that determined people will overcome obstacles.

And we will overcome the problems that this country is facing as a result of George W. Bush and as a result of a Washington establishment that has forgotten who sent them there.

(APPLAUSE)

Some of you have been on the road with me or have seen the speeches have heard this before, but it's true. We have been here before in this country. When William McKinley was president, enormous trusts were put together which made it impossible for ordinary Americans to start their own business, make any money without enormous pressure from those trusts, which destroyed their business.

Teddy Roosevelt came along, busted up the trusts and made it possible to earn a living for ordinary Americans and small businesses again.

Under Harding and Coolidge and Hoover, Calvin Coolidge said, The business of America is business, but forgot that human beings are not meant to be cogs in an enormous government corporate machine; that we are spiritual people who need connections and have to have community again.

Franklin Roosevelt came along and took America back for ordinary working people again.

(APPLAUSE)

My favorite, however, is this one. In 1824, John Quincy Adams, the son of a one-term president, John Adams...

(LAUGHTER)

... beat Andrew Jackson of Tennessee in an election where Andrew Jackson received more votes.

It was decided in Congress by one vote, electing John Quincy Adams as president.

In 1828, four years later, John Quincy Adams became the one-term son of a one-term president.

(APPLAUSE)

Change is hard work. Change does not happen simply because you go to a rally and simply because you make phone calls -- and I know how hard everybody here has worked. But change is a process that you can never give up on because change is the state of America and change is the state of humankind.

So we will continue to fight. This is the end of phase one of this fight, but the fight will go on, and we will be together in that fight. We will continue to bring our message of hope and change to the American people.

We will speak out. We will fight on. We will continue to stand up against the dangerous foreign policy which weakens our security, and stand up against this president who weakens our civil rights.

We will continue to stand up against special interest that prevent change. And we will stand for America's working families for jobs and health care, investment in our children, the chance of all Americans to pursue their dreams.

We will continue to stand up against the divisive policies of the far right. We will no longer be divided by race. We will no longer be divided by gender. We will no longer be divided by sexual orientation. We will no longer be divided by religion. We will no longer be divided by income. And we will no longer be divided by George W. Bush in the White House.

(APPLAUSE)

And now that the campaign is stopped, I'm going to say something that all of you have heard me say before.

But I want you to think about it now because now is the most important time that you have heard it. And this is the real message of this campaign and you'll hear it in a different way because I am no longer a candidate.

The biggest lie that people like me tell people like you at election time is that, If you vote for me, I'll solve your problems. The truth is the power is in your hands, not mine.

Abraham Lincoln said that a government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from this Earth. You have the power to take back the Democratic Party and make us stand up for what's right again.

Allow us to fulfill the dream of Harry Truman in 1948 that he laid out where we would no longer be the last industrial country on the face of the Earth without health insurance. Allow us to stand up again for the rights to organize for ordinary men and women. Allow us to stand again for the principles of equal rights under the law for every single American.

You have the power to take our country back so that the flag of the United States of America no longer is the exclusive property of John Ashcroft and Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh and Jerry Falwell; that it belongs to all of us again.

(APPLAUSE)

And together we have the power to take back in the White House in 2004 and that is exactly what we're going to do. Thank you very much.

(APPLAUSE)

END

Dean on Fox News: Washington needs a good kick in the butt

This morning Howard Dean appeared on Fox News with Chris Wallace. In response to the question on how Dean handles the downside of the campaign, he answered:

There are many peaks and valleys to things that you do, the major things. This is the biggest thing I've ever done in my life. And you've just got to keep soldiering on, through the good times — it's easy to be up in the good times. You've got to work at being up in the tough times.

And, you know, you cannot win if you quit. You cannot win if you let yourself get down. You've just got to keep pushing ahead.

We are going to change this country. This country's the greatest country in the world, but it is great because it has had changes from time to time, when Washington got sclerotic.

Washington is sclerotic right now. Both parties are wallowing in their own special interests. There are significant policy changes, which is why I think it would be a huge advantage to have a Democratic president over a Republican president.

Washington needs a good kick in the butt. That's what we're going to give them.

I don't read the press clippings. Bill Clinton told me when I first started this out, "Never read anything that's written inside the Beltway," and I think that's very good advice. Washington is a peculiar place which has its own rules. And I've discovered one thing in this campaign: The American people are much better than the people who govern them.

So, we're going to continue to push on this, because there have been extraordinary times in America — Andrew Jackson's election in 1828, Franklin Roosevelt of course in 1932, Theodore Roosevelt, who took power because of the assassination of McKinley, but was a totally different president — those kinds of major changes are what I'm looking for. And that's what we've got to keep pushing for, working hard.

Read the entire interview here.

Dean's Statement on Wesley Clark

BURLINGTON--Governor Dean issued the following statement this afternoon, after General Clark announced that he was ending his presidential campaign:

"Wes Clark ran a spirited race for the White House, and I congratulate him. His lifetime of military service has made a strong and lasting contribution to America's security.

"I believe Wes Clark's supporters will take a fresh look at our campaign, because Wes Clark and I agreed that the best way to take on George W. Bush this fall is not with a Washington politician who voted to support this president's wrongheaded policies, but with an experienced leader and a grassroots campaign that can bring new people into the process and change the way Washington does business.

"Wes Clark and I agreed that the most urgent national security threats are terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. Our campaign, strongly supported by senior retired military leaders, offers much to people impressed by General Clark's outstanding record of service and commitment to national security."

Grassroots Grown Ads to be Shown in Wisconsin

Last summer, a group of media professionals and amateurs got together in San Francisco. They were the Dean Media Team, a part of the San Francisco for Dean grassroots. During their monthly meetings, they launched several projects, including Switch2Dean.com -- a series of 30 second testimonial by everyday people who switched from another party or candidate to Dean. Kevin Murray directed the ads, and they were produced by Bart Myers and David Fox (yes, the same person writing this blog entry!).

Besides being shown on the Web, these ads were included in grassroots-produced DVDs and video tapes. But when the ads were entered into the Project Deanlight contest (which was looking for grassroots ads about Dean), they were noticed by Steve McMahon, Dean's media strategist. He loved them, and wanted to find a way to put them on TV as part of the mix of professionally produced Dean ads. All this came together last weekend when visitors to Blog for America, the official Howard Dean blog, got to vote on which of three Switch ads they wanted shown on Wisconsin television.

The voting ended last night, and the results are in. "Max" and "Mike" (their real names!) will both be shown in Wisconsin starting tomorrow.

AP Story: CNN Says It Overplayed Dean's Iowa Scream

This isn't news to any Dean supporter, but the AP came out with a story today where various network officials say they played Dean's Scream too much:

It probably means little now to Howard Dean, but CNN's top executive believes his network overplayed the infamous clip of Dean's "scream" after the Iowa caucuses.

"It was a big story, but the challenge in a 24-hour news network is that you try to keep all of your different viewers throughout the day informed without overdoing it," said Princell Hair, CNN's general manager.

It took on such a life, said Paul Slavin, senior vice president of ABC News, that "the amount of attention it was receiving necessitated more attention."

While it's impossible to blame any one network or reporter, CBS News President Andrew Heyward said, the cumulative effect was the event was covered more than editorially justified.

Slavin said his only regret was not airing an intriguing Diane Sawyer report on the coverage earlier. Sawyer reported that Dean was using a special microphone that night that filters out crowd noise to heighten his voice; other videotapes taken illustrate that his "scream" was barely audible to his live audience.

To Trippi, Sawyer's report felt like a Super Bowl referee admitting — after the game — that he blew a call that decided the outcome.

"Unfortunately, no one ran that 633 times," he said. "ABC, to its credit, did it once."

Read the entire story here.

Gov. Dean on Meet the Press

Yesterday Gov. Howard Dean appeared on NBC News' "Meet the Press". His performance was nothing short of brilliant, answering each question thrown to him by host Tim Russert with clarity and ease. At 6:00AM EST, on his MSNBC radio and TV talk show, in New York City, the very conservative Don Imus said the following about Gov. Dean's 2/1/04 appearance on "Meet the Press".

"Howard Dean pitched a perfect game!"

"Russert never laid a hand on him."

"He was fabulous!"

"He had an answer for everything, and a good answer!" "He was great."

Don Imus is well known for almost never saying anything good about anyone in fact just the opposite. And demben at Daily Kos said about the interview:

Anyone that says this isn't the man to lead this country after watching this certainly doesn't live in the same country that I do. I certainly hope plenty of Feb 3 voters were watching.

Here are some excerpts from Meet the Press:

MR. RUSSERT:  But, Governor, if your mission is to beat George Bush...

DR. DEAN:  Yeah.

MR. RUSSERT:  ...and you haven't won any primaries and John Kerry emerges as the presumptive nominee, would you continue on a scorched-earth policy?

DR. DEAN:  No, there's not going to be a scorched-earth policy, but this race is about delegates.  As we sit here right now, I have more delegates than John Kerry does.  So the real test is what happens in January--or excuse me, in July at the convention, who has the most delegates.  I hope to have the most delegates.  And we're going to continue to work and work and work and work. And every time I get discouraged about it, I go out and talk to all the people who are really supporting us and they want change in this country and I want change in this country.

I did not start this because I had this burning desire that I have to be president or my life is ruined.  I started this because this country is in big trouble because of what George Bush has done to us, $1/2 trillion deficits, all our taxpayers' money ending up in the hands of people like Ken Lay at Enron or the insurance companies and the HMOs.  More than half of the money from the Medicare prescription drug bill is ending up in the pharmaceutical companies and the insurance companies.  That's not what this country's about.

Whatever happened to ordinary Americans?  That is what this campaign is about is what's going to happen to ordinary Americans and I'm going to change this country should I become president of the United States so that ordinary people can have their voice back.

MR. RUSSERT:  After the Iowa caucuses, Democrats were very civil and nice to each other.  Yesterday, you really unloaded on John Kerry.  Let's let the viewers...

DR. DEAN:  Sure.

MR. RUSSERT:  ...listen to what you said and then hear John Kerry's response:

(Videotape, January 30, 2004):

DR. DEAN:  It turns out we've got more than one Republican in the Democratic race.  I've already said that I thought Wes Clark was a Republican and now apparently John Kerry has the same financing habits.

SEN. JOHN KERRY, (D-MA):  Governor Dean has in the course of this campaign made a number of comments that he's had to apologize to other candidates for. And I would respectfully suggest that that may be just one more of them.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  Will you apologize for, in effect, calling John Kerry a Republican?

DR. DEAN:  The only time I've ever apologized to any candidate was when I said something about John Edwards that wasn't true.  I said that John Edwards had changed his position on the war in front of the California convention last April.  That wasn't true.  Of course, I'm no going to apologize.  John Kerry gets his money the same way George Bush does.

I was so angry when I read that article after John Kerry had the nerve--you know, here's what's happening in this campaign.  Look, we came out with a very strong message.  We shot to the top.  All the other candidates took up our message.  I thinks that's fine.  Imitations is the sincerest form of flattery and it's actually great for the Democratic Party that we're starting to get some backbone again.

Then I come to find out that John Kerry has been running around Iowa and New Hampshire and telling all these Americans that he's going to get the special interests, and who was on the take with the special interests?  Not only just got him some special interest money--look, we all have special interest money. I'm sure if you went through my campaign, you'd find--there's people in special interests, lobbyists, who have given me money and so forth.  The senator with the most special interest money over the last 15 years is John Kerry who's just been running around telling all Americans how he's going to get the special interests and don't let the door hit you on the way out.  That is exactly what's wrong with American politics and that's why 50 percent of the people in this country don't vote.

For a full transcript of Gov. Dean's appearance on "Meet the Press", click here. If you're on a Windows machine, you can watch the video here.

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.

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.

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.

The Nation: "Petulance is seldom considered a prime presidential attribute"

How mature should our next president be? This is an excerpt from an editorial that will appear in the January 12th issue of The Nation, bringing to task the behavior of the other Dem candidates on their increasingly noxious attacks on Howard Dean:

Petulance is seldom considered a prime presidential attribute. George W. Bush's smirk notwithstanding, Americans prefer adults as Presidents. That makes the poisonous attacks unleashed on Howard Dean by other contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination doubly noxious. These desperate Democrats are writing the script for Bush's future TV ads in unfounded assaults on Dean while providing ample evidence to Democratic voters that they are unfit to lead.

The current round of vitriol was sparked by Dean's statement that the capture of Saddam Hussein makes America no safer. The only thing notable about that statement is its common sense. A top US commander in Iraq had just declared that Saddam's capture would make no difference one way or another. All sensate observers agree that the war on Iraq has been a distraction from combating terrorism--draining intelligence, resources and political attention. To reinforce the point, the Department of Homeland Security, concerned about chatter implying a new terror assault, has just placed America on high alert for the holidays. Joe Lieberman, John Kerry and Dick Gephardt are scoring Dean for stating the obvious....

These politicians are acting like children throwing their marbles at the one who beat them. In this, they display their bitterness not simply at Dean but at the growing legions of Democratic voters who support him. In Washington, the pros worry that these attacks can only help Bush if Dean gains the nomination. But the energy unleashed by the remarkable Dean campaign will continue to grow.

Washington Post: "Biting the hand that slapped them in the face"

In today's Washington Post E. J. Dionne Jr. writes about Democratic backlash to Bush's divisiveness:

The year 2003 will be remembered as the time when Democrats decided to fight back against George W. Bush after coddling and even embracing him in 2002. This whiplash will mean some surprising things for 2004.

Republicans won in 2002, but Bush lost most Democrats forever. Conservative critics of "Bush hatred" like to argue that opposition to the president is a weird psychological affliction. It is nothing of the sort. It is a rational response to getting burned. They are, as a friend once put it, biting the hand that slapped them in the face.

No one understood this sense of betrayal better or earlier than Howard Dean. Dean's candidacy took off because many in the Democratic rank and file were furious that Washington Democrats allowed themselves to be taken to the cleaners. Many of Dean's current loyalists had been just as supportive of Bush after Sept. 11 because they, too, felt that doing so was patriotic. So Dean also spoke to their personal sense of grievance.

This time the Democrats will have most of the election year to appeal to swing voters. Democrats are so hungry to beat Bush that they will let their nominee do just about anything, even be pragmatic and shrewd.

That's why 2004 will be very different from 2003. Democrats who loved Dean's attacks on Bush this year now want Dean to prove he can beat him. Dean's opponents know this, which is why their core case is that Dean can't win. And watch for the appearance of the new, pragmatic Howard Dean, the doctor with an unerring sense of his party's pulse.

Read the entire column here.

Guest Blogger John Burns: An American Success Story

John Burns, back from Europe, writes inspirationally about Senator Patty Murray:

I saw Patty Murray a few days ago. Senator Patty Murray is an American Success Story. As a parent volunteer in the 1980's a state legislator told her she couldn't make a difference, He told her she was "just a Mom in tennis shoes". That was a big tactical mistake. Patty got all fired up and led a grassroots coalition of 13,000 parents to save funding for parent-child education programs. Then it was on to school board member, Washington state senator, and now US Senator from Washington State.

With some people, it is a big mistake to put them down. It is a big mistake to tell them they are not smart enough, they don't have the experience, or they can't win. These words bring out the fight in the fighter. These words bring out the fighters perseverance, toughness, and tenacity that they use to overcome tremendous odds. When you find a leader that gets riled up when people put him down, you had best fall in line with him because the world rewards that kind of person.

Howard Dean, like Patty Murray, has the fighter's instinct. That is why I fell in line with him. When the Republicans put him down, it only makes him more determined, more committed, and stronger. When they say he "can't win" he becomes more tenacious and increases his effort. When they lie about him, he brushes it off and gets back on message. Focused and street smart is a good way to describe Howard Dean. Howard, like Patty Murray, is an American Success Story. You can't stop people like Howard Dean.

As grassroots, it is our duty to support successful leaders like Howard Dean and Patty Murray. We can take a lesson from winning leaders and develop our own perseverance, toughness, and tenacity. Although you may not be aware of it, you are an American Success Story too. As grassroots you are the army that will take back the White House in 2004. It is important to fight now because our country is in danger from George W. Bush and his regime.

It is time to fight for truth, justice, and the America we believe in. The Right Wing Bush types are destroying our country. The Bush regime will not go away on its own. We cannot solve this problem with our head in the sand. It is time to fight. I don't want to fight. However, I feel I must. I feel it is my duty and responsibility to fight for my kids, my neighbors, my country and my world. I never imagined our country could fall so low. There are thousands of you out there who feel as I do. It is time to take our gloves off and fight for what we believe in.

Here are a few pearls of wisdom for the fighter you are:

• When the going gets tough, the tough get going.


• It is not the size of the dog that matters; it is the size of the fight in the dog.


• Never give up, get stronger, keep on fighting, work harder and smarter every day, and stay focused.

Be thankful for your enemies. Their words are the forge that creates the steel that is you. The more they throw at you, the stronger you become. Fine steel requires heat and hammering. With heat and hammering, we will become the largest American Success Story in history as we take back the White House in 2004.

This election cycle will be rough. Be thankful for that. Take a breather occasionally and guard against becoming what you despise. Smell the roses, enjoy the wonder of it all, then get up off your rear and get your leader elected. You are part of an American Success Story.

You have the power.

John Burns
Seattle

"Participation galvanizes emotions, gives the participant a live stake in the victory of the leader"

This quote definitely rings true in light of the Dean campaign:

"What distinguishes the new school from the old school is the political approach of exclusion versus inclusion. In a tight old-fashioned machine, the root idea is to operate with as few people as possible, keeping decision and action in the hands of as few inside men as possible. In the new style, practiced by citizen's groups and new machines the central idea is to give as many people as possible a sense of participation: participation galvanizes emotions, gives the participant a live stake in the victory of the leader."
    --Theodore H. White, The Making of the President 1960

I Want What Howard Eats for Breakfast

"I'd also like to say that whatever it is that Howard Dean knows, or whatever it is that he eats for breakfast every morning, if I could give it to every other Democratic office holder and would-be office holder, we would immediately become the majority in the Congress and we would have about 35 governors. (Applause.) I have to tell you, I think a big part of it is just producing for people, actually doing what you say you're going to do at election time. And I very much appreciate what he said about what we've tried to do here in Washington."
    -- Bill Clinton, November 12, 1997

LA City Beat says Dean is The Contender

In this week's Los Angeles City Beat, Howard Dean is inaugurated as "The Contender":

The bizarre truth is that the more the pundits bash Dean and predict the imminent collapse of his candidacy – as they have been doing from the moment he first emerged as a major force on the eve of the Iraq war – the more they betray their profound lack of understanding of the movement he has unleashed. They haven’t grasped the extent of his grassroots organization and the radical way he is reshaping the whole notion of political campaigning, in the Democratic Party and beyond. And they have either failed to appreciate or have woefully underestimated the sheer excitement he is generating, not only within his party but also in a whole new constituency of supporters being politicized for the very first time.

Read the entire article here.

Paul Krugman: "It's not about who takes whom to the prom"

New York Times columnist and author Paul Krugman offers a series of New Year's resolutions to the press on how to go about reporting the election this next year. Two the rules he suggests:

• Beware of personal anecdotes. Anecdotes that supposedly reveal a candidate's character are a staple of political reporting, but they should carry warning labels.
  
  For one thing, there are lots of anecdotes, and it's much too easy to report only those that reinforce the reporter's prejudices. The approved story line about Mr. Bush is that he's a bluff, honest, plain-spoken guy, and anecdotes that fit that story get reported. But if the conventional wisdom were instead that he's a phony, a silver-spoon baby who pretends to be a cowboy, journalists would have plenty of material to work with.


• Don't fall for political histrionics. I couldn't believe how much ink was spilled after the Gore-Dean event over Joe Lieberman's hurt feelings. Folks, we're talking about war, peace and the future of U.S. democracy — not about who takes whom to the prom.

Read the entire column here.

Howard Dean's Message of Peace

From Howard Dean today:

"Today, for just a single day out of the year, much of the world recognizes a day of peace. It is a day when we set aside our differences and come together to celebrate an ideal of a world free from hate, free from want and free from war.

"Over the 3,500 years of recorded human history, we have seen thirteen years of war for every year of peace. Today, as we gather with families and friends, we must remember the hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers separated from their families, serving overseas. We must remember the people of Africa who have seen too much war, destruction and want this year, and we must remember all of the other humanitarian crises that escape our notice on other days of the year.

"On this day more than most, we must resolve to continue our work and to redouble our efforts to ensure that someday soon world peace can be something we celebrate more than just once a year.

"The United States was founded on an ideal that we would serve as a peaceful and moral beacon for the rest of the world. Thomas Jefferson once wrote, 'Peace with all nations, and the right which that gives us with respect to all nations, are our object.' The biggest roadblock to achieving that is our own doubt that it can be accomplished. Franklin D. Roosevelt told us that 'The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.' May today bring peace on Earth and goodwill toward everyone."

Have a Great Holiday!

Happy Holidays to all!

William Rivers Pitt on "Howard's Road"

William Rivers Pitt, the Managing Editor of truthout.org and author of "War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know", writes a compelling essay on Howard Dean's chances of winning the nomination and the election:

In all electoral likelihood, it will be the former Governor of Vermont who will run away and hide with the nomination. No votes have been cast yet, and the official score in the primary race is still zero to zero to zero to zero to zero to zero to zero to zero. But if polling numbers in Iowa and New Hampshire are any indication, the front-loaded primary season designed by the folks at the DNC to pick a nominee as quickly as possible will be catapulting Dean into the driver’s seat well before pitchers and catchers report in for spring training.

A lot of people within the GOP, Karl Rove and Tom DeLay most recently, are making gleeful noises at the prospect of facing Howard Dean in the general election. If they get that chance, they will be facing a candidate who has already overcome enormous odds. They will be facing a candidate whose instant reaction message team has not missed a beat. They will be facing a candidate whose seeming deficiencies are well-matched by his incredible strengths. They will be facing an army of people who want their country back, an army riding on the words of Victor Hugo: “There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” The idea here, simply, is that George W. Bush must go.

In other words, they will be facing another old folk saying. Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.

Read the entire essay here.

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.

Howard Dean: Out of the Mainstream? Hardly

Governor Dean wrote an Op-Ed piece for the Washington Post in response to the Post's December 18 editorial on his foreign policy speech:

The Post repeatedly misstates my views. For example, I support missile defense efforts that make us more secure; I oppose deployment of any system not yet proven to work. I favor active talks with North Korea, backed by the threat of force, rather than a stubborn refusal to engage that has allowed the situation to become more dangerous by the day.

More important, The Post's editorial comes close to equating the Bush administration's foreign policy -- including its signature doctrine of "preemptive war" -- with the American foreign policy mainstream. In fact, the Bush agenda represents a radical departure from decades of bipartisan consensus on the appropriate use of U.S. power and our leadership in the world community.

And he closes with:

A critical presidential campaign is now underway. Americans face a choice between two very different views of our role in the world. My agenda returns security policy to its fundamental course: protecting Americans and advancing our values and interests -- democracy, freedom, opportunity and peace -- through effective partnerships and global leadership, as well as military strength.

The current administration strays wildly from this course and from the time-honored manner of pursuing it. In the end, I believe it will be clear who is in the mainstream and who is swimming against the tide of history.

Read the entire article here.

Holiday Vacation

Because of the holiday season, for the week of December 22nd to December 26th, the postings here on the Winning Back America blog will be irregular. New posts will appear though, so continue to check in.

Paul Krugman on Telling it Right

Paul Krugman, an outspoken New York Times columnist, cautions us on how easily history can be rewritten:

The capture of Saddam Hussein has produced a great outpouring of relief among both Iraqis and Americans. He's no longer taunting us from hiding; he was a monster and deserves whatever fate awaits him. But we shouldn't let war supporters use the occasion of Saddam's capture to rewrite the recent history of U.S. foreign policy, to draw a veil over the way the nation was misled into war.

...we should be deeply disturbed by the history of this war. For its message seems to be that as long as you wave the flag convincingly enough, it doesn't matter whether you tell the truth.

By now, we've become accustomed to the fact that the absence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction — the principal public rationale for the war — hasn't become a big political liability for the administration. That's bad enough. Even more startling is the news from one of this week's polls: despite the complete absence of evidence, 53 percent of Americans believe that Saddam had something to do with 9/11, up from 43 percent before his capture. The administration's long campaign of guilt by innuendo, it seems, is still working.

Read the entire column here.

NY Times Story: "Napster Runs for President in '04"

In tomorrow's New York Times, columnist Frank Rich compares Howard Dean to F.D.R. and J.F.K. and talks about the importance of the Internet to Dean's campaign. This is a must read story:

Even after Saddam Hussein was captured last weekend, all that some people could talk about was Howard Dean. Neither John Kerry nor Joe Lieberman could resist punctuating their cheers for an American victory with sour sideswipes at the front-runner they still cannot fathom (or catch up to). Pundits had a nearly unanimous take on the capture's political fallout: Dr. Dean, the one-issue candidate tethered to Iraq, was toast — or, as The Washington Post's Tom Shale memorably put its , "left looking like a monkey whose organ grinder had run away."

I am not a partisan of Dr. Dean or any other Democratic candidate. I don't know what will happen on Election Day 2004. But I do know this: the rise of Howard Dean is not your typical political Cinderella story. The constant comparisons made between him and George McGovern and Barry Goldwater — each of whom rode a wave of anger within his party to his doomed nomination — are facile. Yes, Dr. Dean's followers are angry about his signature issue, the war. Dr. Dean is marginalized in other ways as well: a heretofore obscure governor from a tiny state best known for its left-wing ice cream and gay civil unions, a flip-flopper on some pivotal issues and something of a hothead. This litany of flaws has been repeated at every juncture of the campaign this far, just as it is now. And yet the guy keeps coming back, surprising those in Washington and his own party who misunderstand the phenomenon and dismiss him.

The elusive piece of this phenomenon is cultural: the Internet. Rather than compare Dr. Dean to McGovern or Goldwater, it may make more sense to recall Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy. It was not until F.D.R.'s fireside chats on radio in 1933 that a medium in mass use for years became a political force. J.F.K. did the same for television, not only by vanquishing the camera-challenged Richard Nixon during the 1960 debates but by replacing the Eisenhower White House's prerecorded TV news conferences (which could be cleaned up with editing) with live broadcasts. Until Kennedy proved otherwise, most of Washington's wise men thought, as The New York Times columnist James Reston wrote in 1961, that a spontaneous televised press conference was "the goofiest idea since the Hula Hoop."

And on the use of blogs:

"The term blog is now so ubiquitous everyone has to use it," says the author Steven Johnson, whose prescient 2001 book "Emergence" is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand this culture. On some candidates' sites, he observes, "there is no difference between a blog and a chronological list of press releases." And the presence of a poll on a site hardly constitutes interactivity. The underlying principles of the Dean Internet campaign "are the opposite of a poll," Mr. Johnson says. Much as thousands of connected techies perfected the Linux operating system's code through open collaboration, so Dean online followers collaborate on organizing and perfecting the campaign, their ideas trickling up from the bottom rather than being superimposed from national headquarters. (Or at least their campaign ideas trickle up; policy is still concentrated at the top.) It's almost as if Dr. Dean is "a system running for president," in Mr. Johnson's view, as opposed to a person.

Read the entire story here.

"If Dean Is Too Liberal Why Don't We All Just Shoot Ourselves?"

Jon Carroll, San Francisco Chronicle columnist, writes a droll and insightful article on Howard Dean today:

An acquaintance of mine, Ted Webster, has thought of a fine bumper sticker. Goes like this: "If Dean Is Too Liberal Why Don't We All Just Shoot Ourselves?"

Yes, the dangerous radical who threatens our very way of life is the last in a long line of zany socialistic Vermont governors. They're almost Canadian. Leftie Dean cut state income twice and cut the state sales tax entirely, and increased prison terms for felons.

He is also, of course, opposed to an unprovoked invasion of a foreign country. He is opposed to lying about the reasons for the attack. This used to be an honorable opinion.

Read the entire column here.

Guest Reviewer Stuart Heady on Winning Back America

Guest reviewer Stuart Heady of www.Snohomish4Dean.us writes about "Winning Back America".

You can imagine sitting next to Howard Dean on a long flight, with plenty of time to ask him lots of questions. He tells you long stories to fill you in on his life history, his feelings about FDR, Vietnam, the Middle East, and the major issues. The book probably was written by someone who held a tape recorder microphone up so Dean could answer questions on long airplane trips between campaign stops.

I wish that the book's editor had started at Chapter 13, and put Section One second. This would start with the way Dean sees the campaign begin to take shape and involve more and more people. But, nevertheless for a good overview of who Howard Dean is, and highlights of the major positions on issues, this is well written and an informative read. The real Howard Dean, not the reflection in the media's funhouse mirror, is sitting with you as you read. Is this guy, the sort of person who should be President? Can you see him in the White House? Yes.

For those who want to argue the cause, this is a good handbook to work from, along with the blog and its daily updates.

-Stuart Heady
www.Snohomish4Dean.us

More Talk About the Dean Attack Ad

CBS News reports that three presidential candidates have begun running commercials in New Hampshire, as speculation about the real source of the Dean attack ads continues.

The political ad wars intensified as three Democratic presidential candidates launched commercials in New Hampshire this week and debate simmered over an ad that uses Osama bin Laden to criticize front-runner Howard Dean.

In 30-second ads, Joe Lieberman claims his record shows he has integrity, John Edwards showcases his plan to crack down on corporations, and Wesley Clark says he has the strategy for success in Iraq — echoing themes each has embraced on the campaign trail.

Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi said Wednesday he sent a letter to rival Dick Gephardt, questioning whether Gephardt's team is coordinating the attacks with the group, which would be illegal.

Several labor unions that endorsed Gephardt have donated thousands of dollars to the group, whose two top officials have ties to Gephardt.

"The ads are despicable and we ought to ask for the refund," said Rick Sloan, a spokesman for the International Association of Machinists, which gave $50,000 to the AJHPV. "They've done more to damage Dick Gephardt than anything any of his opponents could have done or dreamed of doing."

Gephardt said Tuesday he had no idea who was financing the group. His campaign has said it learned about the group from news reports.

The entire report can be read here.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer notes that the Dean attack ads featuring Osama Bin Laden are coming to an end, but not because the sponsors think they are inappropriate.

As criticism from its donors mounts, a controversial political group led by former Democratic congressman Ed Feighan of Cleveland will end its attack-ad campaign aimed at Howard Dean, a front-runner in early Democratic presidential primary races.

Feighan says his group, Lakewood-based Americans for Jobs, Healthcare and Progressive Values, is ending the ads only because it has used up the TV commercial time it had bought.

To read the entire article, go here.

The New York Times responds to the Dean attack ad

In an editorial today, the New York Times argues against the appropriateness of ads such as the one attacking Dean's foreign policy experience.

That ad's message — that Dr. Dean, the former Vermont governor, lacks foreign policy experience — is fair enough. But it is delivered with low-blow stealth as the ad's graphics dwell entirely on the sociopathic bin Laden stare. The screen shows floating scraps of scare phrases, "Dangerous World . . . Destroy Us . . .," and finally the tag-line bodkin alleging that Dr. Dean "just cannot compete with George Bush on foreign policy."

The Osama ad was concocted with labor figures and politicians who have supported Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts and Representative Richard Gephardt of Missouri, Dr. Dean's primary rivals, who disown any connection. It's always risky to ask how dumb the ad makers think voters are. But Grand Guignol attack ads underwritten by generic-sounding committees unconnected to any particular candidate are bad politics at any season.

To read the entire piece, go here.

"Capture doesn't justify invasion"

There's an interesting article by Joan Ryan in the San Francisco Chronicle discussing the ramifications of Saddam Hussein's capture.

You can't swing a picket sign in the Bay Area without hitting a "Defoliate Bush'' button on someone's "Vote for Peace'' T-shirt. You're more likely to spot cars bearing "No War in Iraq'' bumper stickers than "My child is an honor student at . . .'' To the rest of the country, the Bay Area is an island of radicalism, as fierce and out-of-touch as any Christian Coalition zealot.

There is some truth to this. But what is also true is that the ferocity that gave birth in the past year to protest marches and anti-war organizations serves a continuing, crucial purpose. It ensures that, despite months of spin and photo ops, there are voices reminding us of Bush's original rationale for the immediate invasion of Iraq, without waiting for international support:

There was imminent danger from weapons of mass destruction.

No matter what you think about the war, the world is better off with Saddam locked away in prison, reduced to a scared, ragged old man, utterly alone.

But as Cabasso and other Bay Area peace activists pointed out yesterday, if the American people had been asked last spring if bringing Saddam to justice -- as opposed to, say, the dictators in Burma or North Korea or Congo or any number of other countries -- was worth the billions in expenditures and the lives of their sons and daughters, they would have said no. Without hesitation.

To read the entire article, go here.

Dean Delivers Major Foreign Policy Speech on Iraq and Security Challenges

Governor Dean gave this very powerful speech today in Los Angeles. You can watch the rebroadcast of it tonight at 8 PM ET on C-SPAN. Here's the complete text of the speech:

In the past year, our campaign has gathered strength by offering leadership and ideas – and also by listening to the American people. The American people have the power to make their voices heard and to change America’s course for the better.

What are the people telling us? That a domestic policy centered on increasing the wealth of the wealthiest Americans, and ceding power to favored corporate campaign contributors, is a recipe for fiscal and economic disaster. That the strength of our nation depends on electing a President who will fight for jobs, education, and real health care for all Americans.

But the growing concerns of the American people are not limited to matters at home: They also are increasingly concerned that our country is squandering the opportunity to lead in the world in a way that will advance our values and interests and makes us more secure.

When it comes to our national security, we cannot afford to fail. September 11 was neither the beginning of our showdown with violent extremists, nor its climax. It was a monumental wake-up call to the urgent challenges we face.

Today, I want to discuss these challenges. First I want to say a few words about events over the weekend. The capture of Saddam Hussein is good news for the Iraqi people and the world. Saddam was a brutal dictator who should be brought swiftly to justice for his crimes. His capture is a testament to the skill and courage of U.S. forces and intelligence personnel. They have risked their lives. Some of their comrades have given their lives.

All Americans should be grateful. I thank these outstanding men and women for their service and sacrifice.

I want to talk about Iraq in the context of all our security challenges ahead. Saddam’s capture offers the Iraqi people, the United States, and the international community an opportunity to move ahead. But it is only an opportunity, not a guarantee.

Let me be clear: My position on the war has not changed.

The difficulties and tragedies we have faced in Iraq show that the administration launched the war in the wrong way, at the wrong time, with inadequate planning, insufficient help, and at unbelievable cost. An administration prepared to work with others in true partnership might have been able, if it found no alternative to Saddam’s ouster, to then rebuild Iraq with far less cost and risk.

As our military commanders said, and the President acknowledged yesterday, the capture of Saddam does not end the difficulties from the aftermath of the administration’s war to oust him. There is the continuing challenge of securing Iraq, protecting the safety of our personnel, and helping that country get on the path to stability. There is the need to repair our alliances and regain global support for American goals.

Nor, as the president also seemed to acknowledge yesterday, does Saddam’s capture move us toward defeating enemies who pose an even greater danger: al Qaeda and its terrorist allies. And, nor, it seems, does Saturday’s capture address the urgent need to halt the spread of weapons of mass destruction and the risk that terrorists will acquire them.

When I become president, addressing these critical and interlocking threats – terrorism and weapons of mass destruction – will be America’s highest priority.

To meet these and other important security challenges, including Iraq, I will bring to bear all the instruments of power that will keep our citizens secure and our nation strong.

Empowered by the American people, I will work to restore:

The legitimacy that comes from the rule of law;

The credibility that comes from telling the truth;

The knowledge that comes from first-rate intelligence, undiluted by ideology;

The strength that comes from robust alliances and vigorous diplomacy;

And, of course, I will call on the most powerful armed forces the world has ever known to ensure the security of this nation.

I want to focus first on two ways we can strengthen the instruments of power so we can achieve all our national security goals. Then I want to lay out my plans for dealing with the central challenges I have identified: defeating global terrorism, curbing weapons of mass destruction.

First, we must strengthen our military and intelligence capabilities so we are best prepared to defend America and our interests.

When the cold war ended, Americans hoped our military’s job would become simpler and smaller, but it has not.

During the past dozen years, I have supported U.S. military action to roll back Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, to halt ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, to stop Milosevic’s campaign of terror in Kosovo, to oust the Taliban and al Qaeda from control in Afghanistan. As President, I will never hesitate to deploy our armed forces to defend our country and its allies, and to protect our national interests.

And, as President, I will renew America’s commitment to the men and women who proudly serve our nation – and to the critical missions they carry out.

That means ensuring that our troops have the best leadership, the best training, and the best equipment.

It means keeping promises about pay, living conditions, family benefits, and care for veterans – so we honor our commitments and recruit and retain the best people.

It means putting our troops in harm’s way only when the stakes warrant, when we plan soundly to cope with possible dangers, and when we level with the American people about the relevant facts.

It means exercising global leadership effectively to secure maximum support and cooperation from other nations, so that our troops do not bear unfair burdens in defeating the dangers to global peace.

It means ensuring that we have the right types of forces with the right capabilities to perform the missions that may lie ahead. I will expand our armed forces’ capacity to meet the toughest challenges – like defeating terrorism, countering weapons of mass destruction, and securing peace – with robust special forces, improved military intelligence, and forces that are as ready and able to strengthen the peace as they are to succeed in combat.

When he ran in 2000, this president expressed disdain for “nation building.” That disdain seemed to carry over into Iraq, where civilian officials did not adequately plan for and have not adequately supported the enormous challenge, much of it borne by our military, of stabilizing the country. Our men and women in uniform deserve better, and as President, I will shape our forces based not on wishful thinking but on the realities of our world.

I also will get America’s defense spending priorities straight – so our resources are focused more on fighting terrorism and weapons of mass destruction and honoring commitments to our troops – and less, for example, on developing unnecessary and counterproductive new generations of nuclear weapons.

Leadership also is critically needed to strengthen America’s intelligence capabilities. The failure of warning on 9-11 and the debacle regarding intelligence on Iraq show that we need the best information possible about efforts to organize, finance and operate terrorist groups; about plans to buy, steal, develop, or use weapons of mass destruction; about unrest overseas that could lead to violence and instability.

As President, I will make it a critical priority to improve our ability to gather and analyze intelligence. I will see to it that we have the expertise and resources to do the job.

Because some terrorist networks know no borders in their efforts to attack Americans, I will demand the effective coordination and integration of intelligence about such groups from domestic and international sources and across federal agencies. Such coordination is lacking today. It is a critical problem that the current administration has not addressed adequately. I will do so – and I will meet all our security challenges – in a way that fully protects our civil liberties. We will not undermine freedom in the name of freedom.

I also will restore honor and integrity by insisting that intelligence be evaluated to shape policy, instead of making it a policy to distort intelligence.

Second, we must rebuild our global alliances and partnerships, so critical to our nation and so badly damaged by the present administration.

Meeting the pressing security challenges of the 21st century will require new ideas, initiatives, and energy. But it also will require us to draw on our proudest traditions, including the strong global leadership demonstrated by American Presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to Bill Clinton, to renew key relationships with America’s friends and allies. Every President in that line, including Republicans – Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and the first President Bush – demonstrated that effective American leadership includes working with allies and partners, inspiring their support, advancing common interests.

Now, when America should be at the height of its influence, we find ourselves, too often, isolated and resented. America should never be afraid to act alone when necessary. But we must not choose unilateral action as our weapon of first resort. Leaders of the current administration seem to believe that nothing can be gained from working with nations that have stood by our side as allies for generations. They are wrong, and they are leading America in a radical and dangerous direction. We need to get back on the right path.

Our allies have been a fundamental source of strength for more than half a century. And yet the current administration has often acted as if our alliances are no longer important. Look at the record: Almost two years passed between September 11 and NATO assuming the leadership of a peacekeeping force in Afghanistan. More than six months have gone by between the fall of Baghdad and any serious consideration of a NATO role in Iraq.

It can, at times, be challenging, even frustrating, to obtain the cooperation of allies. But, as history shows, America is most successful in achieving our national aims when our allies are by our side.

Now, some say we shouldn’t worry about eroding alliances because, whenever a crisis comes up, we can always assemble a coalition of the willing. It’s nice when people are willing, because it means they will show up and do their best. It does not, however, guarantee that they will be able to accomplish all that needs to be done.

As President, I will be far more interested in allies that stand ready to act with us rather than just willing to be rounded up as part of a coalition. NATO and our Asian alliances are strong coalitions of the able, and we need to maximize their support and strength if we are to prevail.

Unlike the kind of pick-up team this administration prefers, alliances train together so they can function effectively with common equipment, communications, logistics, and planning. Our country will be safer with established alliances, adapted to confront 21st century dangers, than with makeshift coalitions that have to start from scratch every time the alarm bell sounds.

Rebuilding our alliances and partnerships is relevant not only in Europe and Asia. Closer to home, my Administration will rebuild cooperation with Mexico and others in Latin America. This President talked the talk of Western Hemisphere partnership in his first months, but at least since 9-11 he has failed to walk the walk. He has allowed crises and resentments to accumulate and squandered goodwill that had been built up over many years. We can do much better.

Third, I will bring to bear our strengthened resources, and our renewed commitment to alliances, on our nation’s most critical and urgent national security priority: defeating the terrorists who have attacked America, continue to attack our friends, and are working to acquire the most dangerous weapons to attack us again.

Essential to this effort will be strong US leadership in forging a new global alliance to defeat terror.

And a core objective of this alliance must be a dramatically intensified global effort to prevent the most deadly threat of all – the danger that terrorists will acquire weapons of mass destruction: nuclear, biological, and chemical arms.

A critical component of our defense against terror is homeland security. Here, the current administration has talked much, but done too little. It has devised the color coded threat charts we see on television, but it has not adequately addressed the conditions that make the colors change. Our administration will.

We will do more to protect our cities, ports, and aircraft; water and food supplies; bridges, chemical factories, and nuclear plants.

We will improve the coordination of intelligence information not only among federal agencies but also with state and local governments.

And we will enhance the emergency response capabilities of our police, firefighters and public health personnel. These local first responders are the ones on whom our security depends, and they deserve much stronger support from our federal government. A Department of Homeland Security isn’t doing its job if it doesn’t adequately support the hometown security that can prevent attacks and save lives.

As President, I will strengthen the National Guard’s role at the heart of homeland security. Members of the Guard have always stood ready to be deployed overseas for limited periods and in times of crisis and national emergency. But the Iraq war has torn tens of thousands of Guard members from their families for more than a year. It also deprived local communities of many of their best defenders.

The Guard is an integral part of American life, and its main mission should be here at home, preparing, planning, and acting to keep our citizens safe.

Closing the homeland security gap is just one element of what must be a comprehensive approach. We must take the fight to the terrorist leaders and their operatives around the world.

There will be times when urgent problems require swift American action. But defeating al Qaeda and other terrorist groups will require much more. It will require a long-term effort on the part of many nations.

Fundamental to our strategy will be restoration of strong US leadership in the creation of a new global alliance to defeat terror, a commitment among law-abiding nations to work together in law enforcement, intelligence, and military operations.

Such an alliance could have been established right after September 11, when nations stood shoulder to shoulder with America, prepared to meet the terrorist challenge together. But instead of forging an effective new partnership to fight a common foe, the administration soon downgraded the effort. The Iraq war diverted critical intelligence and military resources, undermined diplomatic support for our fight against terror, and created a new rallying cry for terrorist recruits.

Our administration will move swiftly to build a new anti-terrorist alliance, drawing on our traditional allies and involving other partners whose assistance can make a difference.

Our vigilance will extend to every conceivable means of attack. And our most important challenge will be to address the most dangerous threat of all: catastrophic terrorism using weapons of mass destruction. Here, where the stakes are highest, the current administration has, remarkably, done the least.

We have, rightly, paid much attention to finding and eliminating the worst people, but we need just as vigorous an effort to eliminate the worst weapons. Just as important as finding bin Laden is finding and eliminating sleeper cells of nuclear, chemical, and biological terror.

Our global alliance will place its strongest emphasis on this most lethal form of terror. We will advance a global effort to secure the weapons and technologies of mass destruction on a worldwide basis.

To do so, we will build on the efforts of former Senator Sam Nunn and Senator Richard Lugar, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. And our effort will build on the extraordinary work and leadership, as Senator and as Vice President, of one of America’s great leaders, Al Gore.

The Nunn-Lugar program has been critical to securing the vast nuclear, chemical, and biological material inventory left over from the Soviet Union. Incredibly, despite the threat that the nexus of terrorism and technology of mass destruction poses, despite the heightened challenges posed by 9-11, the current administration has failed to increase funding for these efforts to secure dangerous weapons. I know that expanding and strengthening Nunn-Lugar is essential to defending America, and I will make that a priority from my first day as President.

Our new alliance will call upon all nations to work together to identify and control or eliminate unsafeguarded components – or potential components – of nuclear, chemical and biological arms around the world. These include the waste products and fuel of nuclear energy and research reactors, the pathogens developed for scientific purposes, and the chemical agents used for commercial ends. Such materials are present in dozens of countries – and often stored with little if any security or oversight.

I will recruit every nation that can contribute and mobilize cooperation in every arena – from compiling inventories to safeguarding transportation; from creating units specially-trained to handle terrorist situations involving lethal substances to ensuring global public health cooperation against biological terror.

A serious effort to deal with this threat will require far more than the $2 billion annual funding the U.S. and its key partners have committed. We need a global fund to combat weapons of mass destruction – not just in the former Soviet Union but around the world – that is much larger than current expenditures.

Our administration will ask Congress to triple U.S. contributions over 10 years, to $30 billion, and we will challenge our friends and allies to match our contributions, for a total of $60 billion. For too long, we have been penny-wise and pound-foolish when it comes to addressing the weapons proliferation threat. We urgently need to strengthen these programs in order to defend America.

The next President will have to show leadership in other ways to mobilize the world into a global alliance to defeat terror.

We and our partners must commit ourselves to using every relevant capability, relationship, and organization to identify terrorist cells, seize terrorist funds, apprehend terrorist suspects, destroy terrorist camps, and prevent terrorist attacks. We must do even more to share intelligence, strengthen law enforcement cooperation, bolster efforts to squeeze terror financing, and enhance our capacity for joint military operations – all so we can stop the terrorists before they strike at us.

The next President will also have to attack the roots of terror. He will have to lead and win the struggle of ideas.

Here we should have a decisive edge. Osama bin Laden and his allies have nothing to offer except deceit, destruction, and death. There is a global struggle underway between peace-loving Muslims and this radical minority that seeks to hijack Islam for selfish and violent aims, that exploits resentment to persuade that murder is martyrdom, and hatred is somehow God’s will. The tragedy is that, by its actions, its unilateralism, and its ill-considered war in Iraq, this Administration has empowered radicals, weakened moderates, and made it easier for the terrorists to add to their ranks.

The next President will have to work with our friends and partners, including in the Muslim world, to persuade people everywhere that terrorism is wholly unacceptable, just as they are persuaded that slavery and genocide are unacceptable.

He must convince Muslims that America neither threatens nor is threatened by Islam, to which millions of our own citizens adhere.

And he must show by words and deeds that America seeks security for itself through strengthening the rule of law, not to dominate others by becoming a law unto itself.

Finally, the struggle against terrorism, and the struggle for a better world, demand that we take even more steps. The strategic map of the world has never been more complicated. What America does, and how America is perceived, will have a direct bearing on how successful we are in mobilizing the world against the dangers that threaten us, and in promoting the values that sustain us.

Today, billions of people live on the knife’s edge of survival, trapped in a struggle against ignorance, poverty, and disease. Their misery is a breeding ground for the hatred peddled by bin Laden and other merchants of death.

As President, I will work to narrow the now-widening gap between rich and poor. Right now, the United States officially contributes a smaller percentage of its wealth to helping other nations develop than any other industrialized country.

That hurts America, because if we want the world’s help in confronting the challenges that most concern us, we need to help others defeat the perils that most concern them. Targeted and effective expansion of investment, assistance, trade, and debt relief in developing nations can improve the climate for peace and democracy and undermine the recruiters for terrorist plots.

So will expansion of assistance to fight deadly disease around the world. Today, HIV /AIDS is the leading cause of death in many places.

We still are moving too slowly to address the crisis. As President, I will provide $30 billion in the fight against AIDS by 2008 – to help the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria meet its needs and to help developing nations meet theirs.

Fighting poverty and disease and bringing opportunity and hope is the right thing to do.

It is also, absolutely, the smart thing to do if we want children around the world to grow up admiring entrepreneurs, educators, and artists – rather than growing up with pictures of terrorists tacked to their walls.

We can advance the battle against terrorism and strengthen our national security by reclaiming our rightful place as a leader in global institutions. The current administration has made it almost a point of pride to dismiss and ridicule these bodies. That’s a mistake.

Like our country’s “Greatest Generation,” I see international institutions like the United Nations as a way to leverage U.S. power, to summon warriors and peacekeepers, relief workers and democracy builders, to causes that advance America’s national interests. As President, I will work to make these institutions more accountable and more effective. That’s the only realistic approach. Throwing up our hands and assuming that nothing good can come from international cooperation is not leadership. It’s abdication. It’s foolish. It does not serve the American people.

Working more effectively with the UN, other institutions, and our friends and allies would have been a far better approach to the situation in Iraq.

As I said at the outset, our troops deserve our deepest gratitude for their work to capture Saddam. As I also said, Saddam’s apprehension does not end our security challenges in Iraq, let alone around the world. Violent factions in that country may continue to threaten stability and the safety of our personnel.

I hope the Administration will use Saddam’s capture as an opportunity to move U.S. policy in a more effective direction.

America’s interests will be best served by acting with dispatch to work as partners with free Iraqis to help them build a stable, self-governing nation, not by prolonging our term as Iraq’s ruler.

To succeed we also need urgently to remove the label “made in America” from the Iraqi transition. We need to make the reconstruction a truly international project, one that integrates NATO, the United Nations, and other members of the international community, and that reduces the burden on America and our troops.

We also must bring skill and determination to a task at which the current administration has utterly failed: We can and we must work for a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Our alliance with Israel is and must remain unshakeable, and so will be my commitment every day of our administration to work with the parties for a solution that ends decades of blood and tears.

I believe that, with new leadership, and strengthened partnerships, America can turn around the situation in the Middle East and in the Persian Gulf. I believe we can defeat terrorism and advance peace and progress. I believe these things because I believe in America’s promise. I believe in our capacity to come together as a people, and to act in the world with confidence, guided by our highest aspirations.

Again and again in America’s history, our citizens have faced crucial moments of decision. At these moments, it fell to our citizens to decide what kind of country America would be. And now, again, we face such a moment.

The American people can choose between a national security policy hobbled by fear, and a policy strengthened by shared hopes.

They must choose between a go-it-alone approach to every problem, and a truly global alliance to defeat terror and build peace.

They must choose between today’s new radical unilateralism and a renewal of respect for the best bipartisan traditions of American foreign policy. They must choose between a brash boastfulness and a considered confidence that speaks to the convictions of people everywhere.

I believe we will again hear the true voice of America.

It is the voice of Jefferson and our Declaration of Independence, forging a national community in which “we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

It is the voice of Franklin Roosevelt rallying our people at a moment of maximum peril to fight for a world free from want and fear.

It is the voice of Harry Truman helping post war Europe resist communist aggression and emerge from devastation into prosperity.

It is the voice of Eleanor Roosevelt insisting that human rights are not the entitlement of some, but the birthright of all.

It is the voice of Martin Luther King proclaiming his dream of a future in which every man, woman and child is free at last.

It is the voice of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton bringing long-time foes to the table in pursuit of peace.

With these legacies to inspire us, no obstacle ahead is too great.

Our campaign is about strengthening the American community so we can fulfill the promise of our nation. We have the power, if we use it wisely, to advance American security and restore our country to its rightful place, as the engine of progress; the champion of liberty and democracy; a beacon of hope and a pillar of strength.

We have the power, as Thomas Paine said at America’s birth, “to begin the world anew.”

We have the power to put America back on the right path, toward a new era of greatness, fulfilling an American promise stemming not so much from what we possess, but from what we believe.

That is how America can best lead in the world. That is where I want to lead America. Thank you very much.

Governor Dean Reacts to Saddam Hussein's Capture

Governor Dean issued the following statement in reaction to the weekend's events:

This is a great day for the Iraqi people, the US, and the international community.

Our troops are to be congratulated on carrying out this mission with the skill and dedication we have come to know of them.

This development provides an enormous opportunity to set a new course and take the American label off the war. We must do everything possible to bring the UN, NATO, and other members of the international community back into this effort.

Now that the dictator is captured, we must also accelerate the transition from occupation to full Iraqi sovereignty.

And the New York Times contends that the capture of Saddam Hussein could make the opposition by certain Democrats, such as Governor Dean, to the war in Iraq a moot point.

It could force Dr. Dean, Democrats said, to deal with a stronger incumbent in next year's general election, should the capture prove the turning point Mr. Bush has sought in the war. It could also lead to challenges from newly emboldened Democratic candidates who supported the war, who see an opportunity to attack Dr. Dean on his antiwar stance, the issue on which he has built his candidacy.

When asked whether he thought Hussein's capture would effect his run for president,

[Dr. Dean] refused to speculate on what it might mean for the presidential campaign or his own candidacy. "This is a day to celebrate the fact that Saddam's been caught. We'll have to wait to see what happens to the campaign later."

And at a fund-raiser on Sunday evening in San Francisco, a center of of the antiwar movement, Dr. Dean assured the crowd of 1,800 people that he was not bowed by the news from abroad.

"He is a bad person and we are all better off with him in captivity, but you should know that my views on Iraq have not changed one bit," he said to a standing ovation. "Some people said, `Oh, Saddam Hussein, he's caught, now the whole campaign's going to go away.' I don't think so."

To see the entire article, go here.

Guest Blogger John Burns: Dwight D. Eisenhower Stands Alone

John Burns is traveling through Spain and England and wearing his Howard Dean T-Shirt. He just sent in this uplifting report of European reaction to Dean:

The statue of Dwight D. Eisenhower stands alone. The statue is near the corner of the US embassy here in London. The area is cold and mostly lifeless. British security guards eye me from inside the compound with their automatic weapons at the ready. In better times families and workers strolled in front of our embassies. In better times, US Marines proudly provided security for our embassies. Now the area is triple fenced and there are multiple layers of concrete barricades. Tension and fear permeate the ghost town surrounding the embassy.

My wife Karen and I are on day 7 of a 9 day trip to Spain and England. People over here are shocked and angry at George Bush over the Iraq war. Americans are viewed as immoral leaders in pursuit of oil profits and corporate gain. Americans are viewed as a world problem rather than a solution to the problems of the world. Americans are seen as bullies taking what they want by force. Americans are viewed as responsible for creating the terror that makes them and their embassies unwelcome around the world.

We have talked to business people, students, cab drivers, and security guards and the common feelings run deep. Everyone feels America (and their own governments) has let them down. The first hint of that took place a week ago when we touched down at Heathrow airport in London. The customs screener asked me about my Dean Tee shirt. I told her we were sending President Bush back to Crawford Texas. She said Bush should take Tony Blair to Texas with him! The motion was seconded by her fellow customs agent. The stories like this continue on and on and are too many to list.

The highlight of this trip for me was last Saturday in Barcelona, Spain. I was cheered by common Spaniards as I jogged down main street, La Rambla, with My Dean Tee shirt and Dean construction hat. I was viewed as representing a new kind of American. I had tears in eyes as I high five'd through the ecstatic crowd. One lady shouted to me that I was "phenomenal" and shouts of olé rang out as I passed by.

Not everyone here knows who Howard Dean is at this point. However, Vice President Gore's endorsement has been front page news and people here are catching on fast. Without question, the people on the streets are looking for a new kind of American leader and when they sense one, they rejoice.

Our great nation, like the statue of Dwight Eisenhower, should not stand alone. We should stand with our brothers and sisters in Europe, working together, to solve the world's problems. With Howard Dean's leadership, we will once again enjoy the international respect America deserves. Europe, like America, is ripe for Howard Dean.

John Burns
In London, England
Hometown Seattle, WA
December 11, 2003

Guest Blogger Annie Fox: This is a Movement, a Reawakening

Guest blogger Annie Fox describes her experience at a house party she hosted:

Recently we hosted a "Bushwacking party" in our home. There were 18 of us there. We had a really great group, very high level conversation, and an inspiring conference call with Dean.

Several people who came in on the fence, uncertain, cynical, absolutely jumped on to the playing field by the end and are now ready to get involved. Many of us in the room agreed that what's building here is about more than Howard Dean's candidacy. This is a movement. It's re-awakening millions of Americans to the importance of being politically active. For way too long we've let the "great white father" call all the shots. After Vietnam and Watergate it's surprising that we had fallen asleep at the wheel again, but most of us had and the car's been hijacked.

But things are definitely changing. Now that we've seen the gang at the wheel running the economy into the ditch, bleeding education, social and environmental programs. Now that we've seen them working overtime to erode our civil liberties and promote the message that dissension is un-American. Now that they've driven us dangerously close to the edge in the international arena, we've finally fixed our eyes back on the road again.

Bush and company are so obviously going in the wrong direction, racing down a one-way street and running over anyone who gets in their way. There are lots of us who refuse to along for the ride. We are patriotic Americans in the tradition of people who stand up against tyranny. And because of that deeply cherished American value, we used to be the good guys. But now, because of greed, arrogance, and bully-ism, we're the most feared and hated people in the world. So here we are, more and more of us each day, willing to do whatever it takes to get those other guys the hell out of the car. Then, as a reawakened nation, we'll chart the next part of the journey together, with the rest of the world. Because, after all, there are no roads off of this planet.

In friendship,
Annie

The Other Dr. Dean

There's been a growing amount of mentions about Judy Dean in the news lately. Salon has a detailed profile on Dr. Judy Dean:

Dr. Judith Steinberg Dean, M.D., the Vermont internist married to the state's former governor and presidential candidate Howard Dean, has been MIA on her husband's campaign trail, and is bold in her assertion that she will remain almost as absent from his presidency and instead keep up her full-time medical practice.

The quicksilver Dean campaign has already turned water into wine by making his just-folks country doctor act into the hip campaign with momentum. That fizzy, effortless Howard Dean magic may be at work on his wife as well, transforming the abstemious Judith Steinberg -- aka Judy Dean -- into the perfect foil for a new presidential millennium. An unlikely mating of rural career girl, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman and Donna Reed, Dr. Steinberg could be the anti-Hillary, anti-Laura first lady that Americans have been waiting for: a cipher onto which every woman -- whether she has a high-powered career or is a stay-at-home mom -- can project herself. A woman who, like the rest of her husband's campaign, is almost too good to be true.

And the Des Moines Register attempts to inform its readers before the rapidly approaching primary:

"I love my practice and I have a commitment to my practice - I can't just leave my patients," Judy Dean, an internist, said in a recent interview with The Des Moines Register. It was one of the few she's given since her husband, also a physician, vaulted to the top tier of the nine-candidate field in the race for the nomination.

"That's my job, and Howard sees it that way, too," she said. "I don't plan on traveling unless I absolutely have to, just because it would really disrupt my practice, my life, my son left at home - that would be really difficult."

Gore Shocker

It's at this time of year our thoughts turn to Florida. For humorist Andy Borowitz's take on Gore's endorsement of Dean, go here.

It's Official: Gore Endorses Dean

Al Gore officially announced that he would give Governor Dean his support for the 2004 presidential election. In the New York Times this morning:

Mr. Gore announced his endorsement this morning at a fundraising event in Harlem, and planned to appear with Dr. Dean later in the day in Iowa, a state where Mr. Gore remains highly popular.

"I have come to the conclusion that in a field of great candidates, one candidate clearly now stands out,'' Mr. Gore said, standing alongside Dr. Dean. "So I am asking all of you to join in this great movement to elect Howard Dean president of the United States.''

"Democracy is a team sport,'' Mr. Gore said, "and I want to do everything I can to convince anyone who is interested in my judgment about who among these candidates has the best chance to win and the best chance to lead our country in the right direction. I want to do everything I can to convince you to get behind Howard Dean."

From CNN:

Gore said part of the reason he chose to endorse Dean was his ability to appeal to the nation's "grassroots" elements, a reference to Dean's success in organizing and raising funds on the Internet and in small voter gatherings.

Gore also praised Dean's opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. The former vice president called the Iraqi war a "catastrophic mistake" by the Bush administration, a move that leaves the United States less effective in the nation's battle against terrorism. He said the United States is now in a "quagmire" in Iraq.

"He was the only major candidate who made the correct judgment about the Iraq war," Gore said. "And he had the insight and the courage to say and do the right thing. And that's important because those judgments -- that basic common sense -- is what you want in a president."

See photos of the announcement here.

Gore to Endorse Howard Dean

Hot news flash, Al Gore is expected to announce his endorsement of Howard Dean tomorrow. Articles are now appearing in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, CNN, and elsewhere. From the New York Times:

"This is huge," said Donna Brazile, who was Mr. Gore's campaign manager in 2000. "It gives Dean what Dean has been missing most: Stature. Gore is a major league insider, somebody with enormous credibility that Democrats respect, who can rally the grass roots, and who's been speaking very strongly in the last few months about the direction he wants to take the country in."

Dr. Dean's campaign manager, Joe Trippi, declined to confirm the report. "We're having our event tomorrow at 8 o'clock," Mr. Trippi said. "People can find out who it is then. We're not saying anything."

In the Chronicle:

Gore, who lost to President Bush in the disputed 2000 election, has agreed to endorse Dean in Harlem in New York City on Tuesday and then travel with the former Vermont governor to Iowa, site of the Jan. 19 caucuses which kick off the nominating process, said a Democratic source close to Gore.

In the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

AFSCME President Gerald McEntee said Gore's endorsement is more significant than all of Dean's labor endorsements.

"It goes so far in dispelling this idea that swirls around that Dean would not be a good candidate in the general (election), that Dean in some way would be damaging to the Democratic Party," McEntee said. "If there is anybody in this country who wants to beat George Bush again, I think it's Al Gore."

And on CNN's Web site:

Paul Begala, a political adviser for President Clinton and now a host of CNN's "Crossfire," called the endorsement an "enormous boost" that would clearly give Dean momentum going into Iowa and New Hampshire.

"The Dean Connection"

Samantha Shapiro's article, "The Dean Connection", in this weekend's New York Times Magazine discusses the untraditional methods of the Dean campaign and how it is successfully tapping resources that more conventional candidates have either yet to explore or truly take advantage of. And along with Dean's message, it is these methods that are attracting the scores of volunteers that continue to offer themselves up to Dean For America.

Long before Howard Dean was considered a plausible candidate for president, he seemed to emit some sort of secret call that made people, many of them previously apolitical, drop everything and devote themselves to his campaign. Even after the campaign's 45 official intern positions were filled, people kept showing up -- mostly young people, but also senior citizens in R.V.'s and middle managers from Microsoft.

At the headquarters of most political campaigns, there's a familiar organizational structure: a group of junior employees carrying out a plan devised by a bunch of senior advisers. The Dean headquarters feels different: a thin veneer of Official Adults barely hovers above a 24-hour hive of intense, mostly youthful devotion. When the adults leave, usually around 10 p.m., the aisles between cubicles are still cluttered with scooters and dogs; when they return in the morning, balancing just-microwaved cinnamon buns and coffee, they climb over pale legs poking out from beneath their desks and shoo sleeping volunteers off their office couches.

Shapiro's account of the seemingly endless stream of volunteers echoes Dean's own impression that he describes in "Winning Back America" of how so many Americans have found something to relate to in his campaign's message.

Click Here to read "The Dean Connection" in its entirety.

Gandhi Quote

I noticed this blog is mentioned on another blog that's supportive of Howard Dean, Value Judgment. When I visited there, I saw one of my favorite quotes:

First they ignore you
then they laugh at you
then they fight you
then you win.
- Gandhi

So, we're in the fighting stage? Definitely past being laughed at!

In The News

Across the country, people are talking about "Winning Back America". Renee Tawa of the Los Angeles Times writes about Governor Dean's book as well as those of the other presidential candidates in her article:

Today, Democratic front-runner Howard Dean is releasing "Winning Back America" (Simon & Schuster), a statesmanlike campaign biography, just as the former Vermont governor is struggling to widen his lead over Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and other rivals before the key Iowa caucuses on Jan. 19.

Linton Weeks in his Washington Post piece discusses the various candidates' books as well. Weeks breaks down the highs and lows of each book, and credits Governor Dean with one of the best jabs at President Bush:

It's official: Now there is at least one book either by or about every one of the nine announced Democratic candidates for the 2004 presidential nomination.

Some are good, some are bad. Some are thick, some are thin. Some are short, some are shorter. Some are direct, some are long-winded.

And that goes for their books, too.

Three of the hopefuls appear to have done most of the heavy lifting on their volumes -- at least, they take credit for the writing. The promo material for 'Winning Back America' by Howard Dean, for example, explains that the book was 'written in the candidate's own words.'

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.

Tell Us What You Think About "Winning Back America"

If you've read the book, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please post a review in the comments section below. We'd like to feature some of your reviews here on the main page.

Links to this Blog

Now that we've had our official launch (both of the blog and the book), we're starting to get mentioned in other blogs. One of the first is Taegan Goddard's Political Wire.

Ten Questions About Governor Dean's New Book, "Winning Back America"

1. When did Dean work on his book?
Governor Dean started work on his book in April of 2003.

2. Does it tell me anything I don't already know?
Probably. There are sections that deal with family, his father and brother. "Winning Back America" reveals some of the personal facets of Dean that people don't often see. Governor Dean has written about his upbringing and family life for the first time. He also gives his personal account of his political career and reasons why he was prompted to run for President.

3. Why did Governor Dean decide to write this book?
People invariably want to know about the personal histories of the people they will vote for as President. Governor Dean wanted to present his side of the story, in greater depth and detail than any feature article or web piece can provide.

4. From reading the book, can we tell who the greatest influences have been on Howard Dean?
He lists his political heroes. A chapter goes into detail on what the loss of his father and his brother Charlie meant in his life.

5. Will Governor Dean be signing books anywhere?
Currently there are no scheduled signings, though keep checking back for updated information. You can always ask the Governor to sign a book if you meet him on the road.

6. How much of it is about his stint as Governor, and how much is about his plans for our country as President?
The book is mostly Dean's personal story, though it contains stories about how he got involved in politics, and his opinions on a number of issues like diversity, the economy, and education.

7. Has Governor Dean been interviewed on TV about the book? If so, where?
Click Here for a list of upcoming media events.

8. Does the Dean Campaign get any portion of the money from book sales?
No part of the proceeds for this book go to the campaign.

9. Why isn't the book being sold at DeanMart?
"Winning Back America" is not a product of the campaign, but it is available in almost every bookstore and through a variety of online retailers.

10. What is the most surprising detail in the book?
Readers may be intrigued by the story of how the Governor decided to become a doctor; by the manner in which he became Governor of Vermont; by his view of George W. Bush as a person and as a President. But you'll have to read the book to find out more.

Howard Dean on Chris Matthews's Hardball

Yesterday Governor Dean was featured on a special edition of Hardball at Harvard, and was grilled by Chris Matthews for an hour. Dean got to hold up his book, "Winning Back America", a couple of times:

MATTHEWS:  Let's go to fun questions and lighten it up here. Governor, it's nice to meet you in this circumstance in front of these smart people here. It's sort of like a cock fight here. Let me ask you, what's your favorite movie?

DEAN: Oh, probably "A Beautiful Mind." Pretty impressive movie.

MATTHEWS: Do you like Jennifer Connelly. She's pretty good. Just guessing. Let me ask you about -- you know you don't have to have one. Your favorite book.

DEAN: Well, Chris, I hate to do this to you, but...

MATTHEWS: Oh, no.

DEAN: [holding up his book] It's actually issued today, by Simon and Schuster and it says "Too to Chris, with warmest wishes, Howard Dean."

MATTHEWS: You know, it's amazing how all these books go straight to paperback. Lets go too...

DEAN: Chris, that's 20 percent off on amazon.com, but Kerry's is 40 percent off. So, I'm still ahead.

Click Here to watch part of the interview. Read about the show in this Boston Globe article.

"This is Charlie coming home"

One of the most emotional chapters in "Winning Back America" is probably Chapter 11, where Governor Dean talks about how profoundly his life was changed by the death of his brother, Charlie, who disappeared in Laos in 1974. This chapter might just now be coming to a close, with the return of the remains believed to be Charlie's, on November 26. This was reported in the New York Times and the Washington Post:

HONOLULU, Nov. 26 -- Howard Dean stood on the tarmac of Hickam Air Force Base on Wednesday, hand over his heart, and for a few solemn moments he was not foremost a presidential candidate or governor. He was a brother, and he was grieving.

Flanked by his stoical mother and siblings, Dean watched a military honor guard return to American soil the flag-draped remains believed to be his younger brother Charles, who was captured by communist insurgents while traveling in Laos in 1974 and then vanished.

Continue reading this Washington Post article.

Happy Thanksgiving!

As we approach the official launch date (December 1st) of this blog and Howard Dean's, "Winning Back America", we want to wish the early visitors here a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Welcome

Governor Howard Dean's new book, "Winning Back America", is hitting the book stores on December 1, 2003. This blog has been created as a central place to read reviews on the book (or write your own), make comments about the book, and learn more about Gov. Dean.