Dean Says Voters Will See Through Flaws

[demdave]

LEBANON, N.H. (AP) - A humbled Howard Dean, saying "I have my warts. I sometimes say things that get me in trouble," argued Thursday that voters will see through his flaws and rally to his troubled presidential candidacy.

"I'm not blow-dried. I'm not coached," Dean said as he sought to recover from his third-place Iowa finish and mounting concern over his scream-filled speech on caucus night. "I don't look at polls and even if I did they didn't do me any good in Iowa."

Dean fell 5 to 10 percentage points behind John Kerry in the most recent polls for the New Hampshire primary, set for Tuesday.


----------- input personal comment-------------

This is the line that caught my eye.


------------from deeper in the article--------------

"In other words, I lead with my heart and not my head. That's the only chance we have against George Bush."


http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040122/D807VETG0.html


-------end of article clips----------

[wtmusic]

1. LOL 'I'm not blow-dried'

wonder who that was aimed at? :D

[Just Me]

34. Well, seems to me the media is being worse than any "blow-dried",...

,...it's like a GD witch-hunt. I find the media's "hook" into a mere ten second splice of an event,...really weird. Good gawd, if we're going to be "persecutory", we should go for the real freakin' vices taking place in this country instead of dramatizing an anthill that didn't even steal our food. I find the whole obsessive "image" freak show crap being displayed,...truly demented. Honestly, I believe I am witnessing a nation gone mad if it is to be judged by this media.

2. hearts and minds

Interesting line, yes.
I was thinking this morning that my heart votes for Dean & my mind votes for Kerry, the past few days.
The past few months, both my heart and mind have been with Dean, but recent events have made me wonder if I have been letting my heart lead my mind too much. It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of voters are in this quandary.

[baby_bear]

3. Yes and no, 56kid

I empathize, but am looking at it this way: it's not the lesser of two evils, by any means. I like both Dean and Kerry - for different reasons and in different ways -- and won't be sorry to see either ultimately go after Bush.

As long as the party doesn't rip itself into shreds deciding who the nominee will be, we're in good shape.

IMHO

s_m

5. I won't be sorry either

I'm glad to see such strong candidates.

[0007]

9. They've all got good points and some not so good -

I like 'em all, but I lean with Dean for the time being.

[leesa]

35. Remember, it's the GOP media doing a smear job

They do this to us over and over again and we fall for it over and over again. Why does everyone want Kerry now when two weeks ago very few did. Watch the GOP smear and remember that they enlist the DNC, same animal. It's class warfare, be very careful.

[Metrix]

4. Disagree: "That's the only chance we have against George Bush."

I wish he would stop saying this. Bush will be formidable just because he is an incumbent and has a disciplined organization behind him, sure, but we have strong candidates and good issues.

It doesn't make sense to keep insisting that Bush is a complete disaster and should be replaced but is so powerful as to be nearly invincible.

[Oreegone]

6. I still am pissed

That none of the senators that voted to let George Bush go to war have said sorry I screwed up.

I still support Dean 100% and he is the only candidate who has clearly stated that the first thing he will do in office is reverse all those terrible mandates Gw put in effect.

I also think that Dubya would much prefer to run against Kerry the non excitement candidate. You don't see the press beating him up. For those of you that think its because Dean has done something wrong, please get a grip. Because he rallied his troops. He was obviously not angry if you watched the entire clip. The way I read things on this forum looks like the media will elect the next president. You sure are a flighty bunch. Can't even back your candidate of choice in the primary?

[wabeewoman]

7. Agree totally, Oreegone!

Every time I read something about Dean like his 'primoral scream' I think Wow, maybe he is over the top and then I go to the souce and read what he said or watch what he said and its all a big ado about nothing! Seriously! A 'primoral scream??' He was cheering up his supporters and I didn't find it strange at all in that context. It is pretty dishartening to me that 1)democrats can be so swayed by the media candidate bashing and 2)the powers that be are really controlling this election. Just when I had hope that someone would really represent me, its obviously that Kerry is going to be the media annointed front runner. I have nothing against Kerry(in fact he was my favorite before Dean came along)but he doesn't speak to or for me.

[hey2370]

8. I completely agree

The main problem I have with Bush is not how he handled Iraq after the invasion or the way his misnamed policies always seem to have hidden agendas that hurt Americans.

What needs to be reversed by the next President, even more than the tax cuts, is the power grab by the executive branch, the elevation of the Presidency to a position with no checks or balances. This, along with the equivalent rule changes in the Congress, is what is so disgusting about the Republican leadership. They really do only care about power and keeping it in their fat grubby hands by any means necessary, and their megalomania is a dire threat to the continuation of representative democracy (to the extent that it still exists) in America.

[maggrwaggr]

10. the trouble with pointing out your flaws

is then that's all people see.

Truman had some good advice: "NEVER apologize"

Why can't any Democrat fucking GET this?

[2cents]

11. agree..n/t

[stickdog]

21. Damned if he does. Damned if he doesn't. (nt)

[boxoffrogs]

12. well....

he still looked and sounded like and idiot. sadly I am questioning my support for him because he reminded me of a frat boy up there.

[stickdog]

20. Yes. Time to change over to somebody boring, calculated and handled.

Hmmm, will it be the smooth, cute southern salesman or the sleepy, patrician polician's politician?

[fjc]

13. Heart over head?

Is that a good idea in a President? Sounds romantic, but dangerous.

[davhill]

14. Sometimes it seems he leads with his chin

I like the guy, his honesty is refreshing. He would be quite a change from the recent crop of presidents, and he is not nearly as packaged as most of the other candidates. Of course I like Sharpton for the same reasons.

[otohara]

15. No Way Gov. Dean - We're All Bolting

we are wobbly spineless liberals and run at the first sign of trouble that has been overblown by the mediawhores

I'm still for Dean -

[David__77]

18. wobbliness and spinelessness is a real problem.

I've never identified as a "liberal" precisely because I've seen such passivity and patrician nicities in the face of reactionary beasts. We can fight and win--sometimes you have to take an aggressive stand.

[Manix]

16. I'm afraid Dean has "jumped the shark".

Fair or not he has been tagged by the media and has no time
to correct the image.

[Oreegone]

33. Wow its toooooo late

And only 49 States left

[Voltaire99]

39. "His troubled campaign"

That's the tag all the media whores will use now and until Dean is driven from the race.

[TeeYiYi]

17. The whole Dean fiasco has caused me to take a second look . . .

I've never been a Dean supporter but what happened in Iowa made me re-think that position. I watched his speech live and saw a passionate, overly tired man who was losing his voice. He was also probably a little sick of the negative media onslaught that he had endured up to that point. And being in 3rd place likely influenced his demeanor but it wasn't as horrible as people have tried to make out. Whatever happened, I felt like the negative coverage of Dean's speech was, like everything else regarding Dean, OVERBLOWN by the media.

I don't like what happened to Dean in Iowa. It reminds me of how the media treated Gore toward the end. Because of this, I've been looking at all of the front-runners a lot closer. And as a result of my new scrutiny of Kerry, Edwards, Clark, etc. I have decided to take another look at Dean. As it turns out, he most closely represents what I am looking for in a candidate. (Other than Kucinich.)

So I am now making Dean my second choice behind DK. It used to be Edwards . . . but not any more. I hope Dean is able to rebound from the bullshit. It will be hard to do in New Hampshire since that is Kerry's stomping ground but I don't think 'the speech' will be Dean's death nail. With me it had just the opposite effect and I doubt I'm the only one.

TYY

[kskiska]

23. It smelled to me

a lot like the Wellstone memorial. Same game plan.

[stickdog]

19. Dean was yelling when his opponents were still yeller. (nt)

[Anwen]

37. Good one!

:D

[Fleshdancer]

22. The thing that really pisses me off about this whole thing....

is that if the media had done this to a different Dem. candidate, I would be one of the first people here to yell "bullshit!" Just like when the media whores made fun of Kerry for how he ate the Philly cheesesteak...I turned on my computer and went to DU just to say the story was bullshit.

This time, I get on my computer and almost every supporter of different candidates here were spewing the same talking points as the media whores. If giving a pep rally to 3500 people "scares" us, then it's no wonder why Republicans think Democrats are weak!

[stickdog]

24. Exactly. What's to stop the media from showing Kerry's "Puff the Magic

Dragon" joint hit over and over and over and over and over and over and over ...

Won't it have the exact same effect?

[Fleshdancer]

27. I saw it once (forget where) and got pissed off

I don't like what's happening to our Democratic process. It's getting so...I don't know, Entertainment Tonight. The media doesn't report the issues anymore, just the "gotcha's" given to them by opposing campaign staff or the RNC or DNC...okay, well I'm not even sure the DNC does any opposition research, but perhaps DLC??? :shrug:

The same people here who looooove what's happening to Dean right now will not be as thrilled when it happens to their candidate. Dean has recieved most of it, Kerry recieved a little so far, but this thing is only starting.

I'll bet everyone here $5 that when shit starts hitting the fan about Clark or Edwards, their DU supporters will start giving every excuse in the book why it's okay for the media to crap on Dean but not their guy.

[TeeYiYi]

30. They're starting on Clark tonight . . .

. . . the national news is scrutinizing every recorded and printed word that was ever uttered by the man.

TYY

[stickdog]

38. Isn't it obvious that it was supposed to be Kerry/Edwards from the start?

Lieberman was supposed to scare us enough to run into Kerry's arms.

Clark was only brought in as an afterthought because of Dean's amazing grassroots success.

Clark probably has some personal integrity. And we can't have that in a candidate, much less a President.

[tom_paine]

26. Well said, Gloria!

And true. We must support each other.

As Ben Franklin said when confronted with the previous King George to rule America:

"We shall all hang together, or surely we will all hang seperately."

[tom_paine]

25. Good for you, Doctor Dean!

I've got no problem with what he did, my only problem is the way the Right-Wing Sub-Media and the Corporate TV Pravda that follows lazily in it's oily wake pounds the shit out of any Dem for the slightest imperfection but gives the Imperial Fool* a free-pass no matter hat dumbass shit he says or does.

I'm a Clark supporter, but I would be proud to work for and support Dean, also.

I like the Doctor's style, and, as Mike Moore (a fellow Clarkie said), Dean has NOTHING to be ashamed of.

The only ones who have anything to be ashamed of are the Media, which would be more at home in the book "Farenheit 451" than a Free Nation (luckily, for the moment the Imperial Family has removed the Free Nation from beneath their feet).

Go Dean, you Feisty Little Bastard! Keep on shooting from the hip and pay no mind to the Imperial Pravda.

(it's a shame the vast majority of the Imperial Subjects of Amerika still haven't realized this about the "Liberal Media")

[Polemonium]

28. I respect and like Dean more each day

He is sincere in his belief that government should be for the people, and if he were to get the nomination you would see the grassroots running the DNC. That alone is worth fighting for. Getting big money out of the white house is worth fighting for, and Dean the whole package is definitely worth fighting for. He's like a breath of fresh air.

[aeon flux]

29. It was a slip-up

that the media blew out of proportion. I'm not going to judge him based on one speech out of dozens he has made. The man is under a tremendous amount of pressure. I think he deserves the benefit of the doubt.

[pacifictiger]

31. I just watched Dean on cspan

and I must say he appeals to both head AND heart. He has sound, common sense, practical ideas instead of plattitudes and hollow spin, and he has with that an incredible sense of outrage how modern day politicians are allowing the political process and the country that he obviously dearly loves to be hijacked. He conveys a sense that the picture is bigger than him, that he is just a cog in the wheel for change, and left me with more hope and optimism than I've felt since JFK.

[wabeewoman]

32. Exactly right, pacifictiger

That's why I supported Dean in the first place-he gave me hope when the other candidates (except Kunich and Sharpton) were silent. He showed he wasn't afraid to speak up and what he said was EXACTLY how I saw things. I don't think Edwards 'positive' campaign and being a nice guy is going to stand up to bush and I wonder if Kerry will go back to being milktoast. We continue to see bush push into new territory for this country and I think its going to take someone strong like Dean to CHANGE it back once they take it back. As far as angry-how can anyone not be downright pissed at how they are ruining the country! I'm sticking with Dean.

[Bozvotros]

36. Meanwhile back at the pigfarm

and all across the country, Bush gaffes and word salad utterings go on almost everyday. Away from the safety of canned remarks, soft ball interviews and teleprompters, he smirks and babbles the most inane bullshit imaginable and the press calls him plain spoken and a straight shooter. The media conglomerates are going to go after each of our candidates in exactly the same way. They are going to replay edited clips and have four conservative guests argue only over the degree to which our candidates are unbalanced, smarmy, phoney or dangerous. We will have our work cut out for us.