Howard Dean Reflects on Presidential Bid

[AlGore-08.com]

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0604/152847.html

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) - In Howard Dean (website - news - bio) 's assessment of his White House campaign, the beginning of the end came with the endorsement from former Vice President Al Gore.

Dean believes the nod from the man who lost - some contend was robbed of - the 2000 election was so potent it galvanized his rivals.

"Everyone figured, including Bill Clinton, that we were going to win the whole thing when that happened," Dean recalled in an interview with The Associated Press. "They figured that was it. The other five guys started having meetings about how to take us down after that happened."

Dean took responsibility for every action that led to the failed candidacy. "I will take all the blame," he said. "I oversaw those decisions and I accepted them and I approved them."

(More... )

[FleshCartoon]

1. I think this new more forthright Al Gore...

...has made many people nervous, including many Dems. I like him myself, and wish he'd been like this back in 1999. But, you live and learn and so he has.

The reason I supported Dean was because of his brutual honesty. I felt it was very much needed. And I think he's done some good by having run in that manner.

[progressivebydesign]

4. Yeah, and it's refreshing to see someone accept the blame in politics N/T

[Bandit]

2. I thinks Dean's major problem was he believed the Media

They LIE. He thought his support was more than it really is. Most everyday Americans had never heard of Dean and when they did start paying attention they found him shrill. Kinda like the Wall Street Journal found Buzzflash. Most of us on the far left like Shrill. we want the truth out there plain and bold but the reality is "America can't handle the truth". They need to be babysat and Kerry is a "Safe" candidate. We/I still need to hear "Shrill" and that is where Dean and Gore will come in. People will hear it and dismiss some of it but a lot will sink in and they won't feel like they are voting for someone that is "Out There" as they are not running. Dean has done America a tremendous service and we should all be very proud of Dean and Gore for they are true American Heroes.

[progressivebydesign]

3. Never, ever, found Dean to be "shrill".

Ann Coulter is shrill. Rush Limbaugh is shrill. Dean was pasionate, and a wonderful speaker. He never came off shrill. The "scream" the controvery that was manufactured by shitty micing... that sounded shrill.

Howard Dean WAS extremely popular. moreso than anyone else out there amongts the Democrats. He was damned by the attacks by his OWN party (including Kerry, for which I'll never forgive him), and by the campaign of the DLC to portray Kerry as the only electable candidate. It was a bit of campaign brilliance to convince otherwise intelligent voters that Kerry's 30 point spread at that time was reality against Bush. Dean has fire and personality... something that is quite lacking in the race now. Reagan was the ultimate example of how personality wins over the voters.. regardless of reality.

[madfloridian]

5. Actually the support is there. Just never got the chance to vote.

His mailing list is over half a million again for DFA. Meet-ups for DFA are back over 165,000 last I checked, more than Kerry. Our group here grew last month.

I only got to vote for him in the primary because his name had not been taken off the ballot. He would have gotten more votes had not Scott Maddox, our state Democratic chair, blasted him in the NYT for being such a angry man.....AND expressing his support for Kerry.

Most of the Deaniacs never got a chance to vote for him in the primary. Do not kid yourself, he had the support. Iowa elected the nominee.

I love the new passionate Al Gore. I think he was really always that way, just unable to let it show. After all, look what happened to the passionate Dean.

[Eloriel]

6. And the key thing about the support he had

was that it was largely from people who had given up on politics, hadn't been active or the least bit involved ever or for many years if ever. From the very beginning (well before the CA speech), I said that IF Dean's message and persona were allowed to reach average Americans relatively unfiltered, he'd win in a landslide. And I still believe that. And as proof I offer the kinds of ill-informed, parrot-like comments about Dean one often sees here at DU. People who obviously didn't get to see much if any of him except thru media filters. "Shrill" is NOT a word that applies to Dean, or ever will, and neither is "Angry." Those are just ignorant -- or purposely malicious -- characterizations.

Another thing about his support. While his CAMPAIGN staff was peopled by many "college kids," Dean's real support came from all ages. No one I ever talked to who ever went to ANY Dean event found his supporters to be mostly "kids" as was so often alleged by the mainstream media. We were -- are! -- all ages, from the very young not even able to vote yet, to people in their 90s. All parties too -- Dem, Independent, Libertarian, Republican, Green.

HE WOULD HAVE WON IN A LANDSLIDE.

I saw Tom Brokaw earlier this week say that it's his observation that Americans are hungry for "authenticity," and that Reagan gave them that. Howard Dean is THE most authentic and honest politician to have come along in a very long while, if not ever. He trumps Reagan on that and leaves him in the dust. I agree with Brokaw re the authenticity. I think Americans are also craving honesty. There is NOTHING as bracing and exhilerating as being told the truth, especially when it's in such short supply. Add to that Dean's equally exhilerating vision for giving power back to The People (what a concept!) and an America where we all matter equally and work together to build Community again, and you've got -- well, someone who had to be stopped, actually. Better they killed him figuratively than literally.

[stickdog]

20. Exactly. Dean is strongest where Bush is weakest.

Iraq War
Deficit Spending
Jobs
Honesty
Ability to Communicate Clearly

He would have won in a landslide.

[Lugnut]

32. Authentic is right.

Every time Howard Dean opened his mouth I felt as though he was reading my mind. He was saying all the things so many of us ached to hear. And he was and still is as outraged as I am.

I voted for Dr. Dean in the PA primaries for my own self-satisfaction. I'm voting for John Kerry in November because I have no choice.

[ozone_man]

25. I love the new Gore too.

I would have voted for him in 2000, if he had been like he is now. But, perhaps he would have been assassinated like Dean, if he had.

Iowa elected the nominee.

They sure did. If we had started in California or New York, I think Dean would be the nominee. But, as Dean said in so many words, Gore's endorsement was the kiss of death. It was maddening to watch the debate the same week when Ted Koppel went after Dean about that endorsement. From that point forward was Dean's downfall as they all ganged up on him along with the media.

The bottom line is that Dean is too honest and the establishment politicians and media will not stand for it.

[goforit]

44. I loved Gore then and do even more today!!...Go gettem Gore!!

I despise passivity from the Central Democrats.

It is phoney and nauseating!!!!

And the Iraq war was WRONG and still is WRONG!!!!

[Paradise]

7. i still believe dean's downfall took place

at a nationally televised iowa public meeting, when he angrily addressed the wrong person/comments, with the wrong response, at the wrong venue, in the wrong state.

"You sit down. You've had your say and now I'm going to have my say."

a very small mistake, in a very small but important state, with a very big consequence.
:think: about it.

now, mind you, i believe we would NOT have the party nor the spirit we have today
if it weren't for the courage of howard dean, and he would have made a great president.
imho O8).

[madfloridian]

8. Way too simplistic.

Many many applauded him for that.....I was watching the guy drone on forever having his say. There was a whole lot more to it. Dean is very gracious about losing. Most of us are trying to be.

I have a daughter in Iowa, and a very smart granddaughter. They know a lot of what happened, and they were very angry.

Iowa, a small state, elected our nominee. The rest of us had no choice.

[Paradise]

23. I wholly agree with:

"Iowa, a small state, elected our nominee. The rest of us had no choice."

As for:

"Many many applauded him for that.....I was watching the guy drone on forever having his say. There was a whole lot more to it. Dean is very gracious about losing. Most of us are trying to be."

I was just worried that Iowans, perhaps, didn't understand that Dean's/our anger was at this administration, and at the fact that George Bush could/should/would never be considered his/our neighbor.


And, as for:

"I have a daughter in Iowa, and a very smart granddaughter. They know a lot of what happened, and they were very angry."

I have no knowledge of what actually happened in Iowa, and simply felt badly that a small thing may have wrongfully defined him.

As a matter of fact, notwithstanding the foul-play you mention occurring, you've helped me feel better; sort of like, glad to hear he didn't 'shoot himself in the foot' over some little retort.

Thanks mad! :)

[Carolab]

31. I guess you didn't know he was "mugged"

by his own party:

http://www.publicintegrity.org/report.aspx?aid=194&sid=200

[Paradise]

38. the only thing i knew was that the dnc

was pushing kerry! thanks for the link as i had no idea. :(

[Eloriel]

40. Thanks for posting that link. Add to that the

concerted effort by Kerry to (a) co-opt Dean's whole message, (b) craft the "electable" meme while helping Dean appear to be unelectable, and (c) put Vilsack's political machine into high gear for the caucuses (which is why Vilsack has been on the VP short list, along with Gephardt who was instrumental in the Osama ads with his longtime dirty tricks aide Joyce Abouzzi), along with even MORE dirty tricks and backroom deals, and anyone who remains the least bit objective can easily see that Dean didn't have a chance against the onslaught.

Oh yes, there were also eports of the media in Iowa running editorials attacking Dean's "electability." Hmmm, wonder where those ideas came from? The problem with that is that Dean was the most electable one of the bunch, which along with his populist message and full intention of returning political power to The People is exactly why he had to be stopped. He'd have won in a landslide IF he and his message would've been allowed to reach most voters unfiltered through the major mainstream media; it wasn't.

This whole thing, btw, is just ONE reason I can't stomach Kerry. I truly admire Gov. Dean for forgetting or ignoring all this and supporting Kerry anyway, tho thank Goddess he does it in a way that doesn't compromise his own principles otherwise. ("Kerry will be a much better President than Bush." "Kerry will be much better for the environment than Bush." Etc. I've never heard him say anything about Kerry that I know he doesn't believe and that I can't also agree with, however begrudgingly.)

[calimary]

27. Shoot, yeah. We Californians certainly didn't have a choice -

and we're the biggest piece of the pie, for heaven's sakes. We've got the most diversity, the most of the desired future demographic (hispanics), the biggest population - and getting bigger all the time (which automatically also means the biggest congressional delegation AND lump of electoral college votes), AND our economy, while having taken a big hit, is still measured against other COUNTRIES, not other states. They pay us such short shrift, every blinkin' time.

If California had had a chance to weigh in when it counted, Dean would be THE guy. So we've got Kerry. Fine. I'll go with Kerry. I'm driving around with his bumper sticker on my car even now. But my heart STILL belongs to Dr. Dean.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. Right state. Wrong item.

Iowa delegate swapping finished him. Fits perfectly with this line: "The other five guys started having meetings about how to take us down after that happened."

The Five:

Kerry
Edwards
Gephardt
Lieberman
Kucinich (surprisingly)

They have something in common that Clark, Sharpton and Braun don't.

[babzilla]

10. something in common for $500 = what is being a member of congress?

the ties that bind the exclusive club of congress critters sometimes seem to trump the proclaimed democratic party ideals.

That was one part of Dean's message that put a target on his back, yet ironically, served to strengthen the spine of the democratic party.

Dean was courageous in speaking out against the "popular war-time president" at a time when the DC Dems had been cowed by the "everythings changed since 9-11" patriotic frenzy.

He was rewarded with record-breaking fund-raising, enthusiastic crowds and a hyped-up punditry that didn't know what to make of the phenomenon.

In turn he was brought down by the very forces that gained from his outspokenness. So goes the way of american politics.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

11. That is correct!

[janx]

12. Corrupt as hell.

So much for "democracy," eh?

[mzmolly]

14. "So goes the way of american politics"

Indeed ... enjoying your democracy? Not I ... :(

[JNelson6563]

24. We have a Winner!!!!

Bingo!

Well, at least the supporters of these club-members are still very proud of their candidate(s) in spite of this treachery. That's dedication for ya! Almost neo-con-like, ya gotta admire it.

Wait, no you don't. ;-)

Julie

[janx]

13. I was naive in thinking that Iowa democrats would see

through the manipulation--the robocalls, the Osama ad, the vote swapping, etc.. I really believed they were smarter than that. I was wrong.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

16. There are other ways to manipulate elections than by Diebold.

People will get it......eventually.

Some will readily call it bitterness. I prefer to call it observation. But let us not talk about the untidy facts.

[mzmolly]

15. Things that make you go hmmmmm.........

:freak:

Still angry over this. I guess all is fair in love and war ... oh and politics from what I gather?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

17. Angry, yes.

Surprised, no.

The fact that the next four years will bear out all assertions to be true or false will be little comfort.

[mzmolly]

21. I am angry as well. Hope I didn't confuse you with my reply.

I am also *not surprised*

[Paradise]

18. didn't know about the delegate swapping. nt

[madfloridian]

19. The Dean campaign found out that day about the swapping.

It was a shock.

[BuelahWitch]

22. This is why I wretch

when people sing the praises of St. Dennis de Kucinich. He's just as corrupt as the rest of them.

[ozone_man]

26. He seemed like a sore loser.

Well if it's not me, then it certainly won't be Dean. So, we wind up with Kerry who is about as much of an establishment insider as you can be.

[SenatorBulworth]

28. Primary elections were fixed by terry mac

old terry had then fixed so that any candidate that won early (Iowa and NH) would have the show tied up under almost any circumstance thats why they all freaked when dean has that great head start....so they crushed him.

:evilfrown:

[madfloridian]

29. Yes, they were front-loaded....here is a good article by Nichols.

There is a better article by Nichols, more thorough, but I can not seem to find it right now.

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030217&c=1&s=nichols

SNIP..."While Bobby Kennedy did not even announce his 1968 presidential campaign until mid-March of that year, Steve Cobble, a campaign-trail veteran who helped run the Rev. Jesse Jackson's 1988 race, says, "The way things are headed, it's very possible the Democratic nomination will be settled by early February of 2004." Progressives can still have an impact on the nomination fight, Cobble argues, but only if they recognize that the window for acting is rapidly closing because of schedule changes that have dramatically quickened the pace of presidential politi

SNIP..."Early in 2002, Democratic National Committee chair Terry McAuliffe and his allies at the DNC quietly engineered a reworking of the primary and caucus schedule that all but guaranteed the fastest-starting and fastest-finishing nominating process in American political history. Rule changes implemented by the DNC moved the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary dates deep into January 2004--maintaining what Michigan Senator Carl Levin condemned as the "perpetual privilege" of those two small, overwhelmingly white and disproportionately rural states--and then cleared the way for one more "retail" primary in South Carolina, on February 3.

[madfloridian]

30. Count on the Atlanta Journal Constitution...twisted headline to blame Gore

This is exactly what the media is doing to us. This is a terribly misleading headline, not what the article is about.

I notice that as the story is picked up from the AP, the first paragraph is left out....the one about the lady who gave the quarters she saved so long.

Amazing, huh?
I won't link to the AJC because I don't want to give them the hits....but the headline reads:

"Dean: Gore backing hurt him."

I would ask for people to write and gripe about it, but I doubt anyone would. Oh, well. That is the game.

[Carolab]

33. I SAID, he was mugged:

READ THIS and understand what happened to Dean in Iowa (this AND other dirty tricks by the Kerry campaign like push-polling):

http://www.publicintegrity.org/report.aspx?aid=194&sid=200

[madfloridian]

34. Hi carolab, welcome to DU.

Good article. It has been hard to accept what happened. Trying, though.
:hi:

[Carolab]

35. I just can't

I've tried. I can't. Howard is the one. We were robbed.

Thanks for the warm welcome, though!:toast:

[madfloridian]

36. Well, be brave.

Dean defenders here have a rough time sometimes. I feel he is a hard-working Democrat for the party, and he deserves a voice in this forum. So I post a lot about him. I think it is important to do it even if folks disappove. Lots of us here love him.

[SenatorBulworth]

37. I knew I did

I got to hear him speak..i never thought i would hear a politician from one of our two main parties come out in favor of instint runoff voting. I will be voting for Kerry but he is certainly not my first choice.

[Eloriel]

41. Welcome from me too

I can't get over it either. And I've finally come to realize that the pain will probably never go away. It may diminish, but I don't think it will completely go away.

I'll repeat something I posted in another thread within the last couple of days. There's one thing that gives me a LITTLE comfort, and that is the realization that they killed him figuratively, not literally. He was far too much of a threat to ALL the powers that be. He'd not have lived til inauguration otherwise, I don't think. He'd have been Wellstone'd or Carnahan'd.

[janx]

43. Thanks for posting that.

It's a little late, but it's a pretty good rendition of what went on. I only wish that it would get more attention.

The thing that really angers me the most about what happened was the arrogance of the people who formed the 527 group.

They didn't give a damn about democracy, really--they just wanted to retain power. They scorned voters.

[Dr Fate]

39. I think Gore should get a cabinet position...

And Dean should be the head of the DNC.

DK for the head of the Dept. of Peace!!!

[Algomas]

42. Nader for EPA administrator

[Dr Fate]

45. Well, he could have had that a long time ago...

...if he had wanted it...