Wired: The Dean Machine Marches On......Castor campaign.

[madfloridian]

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.09/dean.html?pg=1&topic=dean&topic_set=

SNIP..."Deborah Reed, Castor's campaign manager, covers her eyes in a mixture of horror and delight. After a long pause she says, "OK, play it again."

Her verdict? "This is the new hotness," she says matter-of-factly, "and the old way is old and busted. Larry is bringing the new hotness, and I understand it's not like anything I've done before."

She's talking about Larry Biddle, the deputy campaign manager. At 63, he's old enough to be Reed's father, but around the Castor office he is indeed the arbiter of the new hotness. Biddle was deputy national finance director for Howard Dean's presidential campaign. He was responsible for Internet giving, direct mail, and telemarketing; he came up with the now-famous (and lucrative) idea of using a baseball bat as a metric for fundraising on the Dean site...."

SNIP..."A steady flow of money and energy is coming from Florida's network of Deaniacs. They've spearheaded fundraising parties (organized online) and volunteered lots of hours. Beth Wolfram, Castor's Meetup coordinator, says the ex-Deaniacs - with their still-active Meetups and email lists - work like a virtual political machine, generating money and endorsements. "When the volunteer sign-ups were turned in, the comments would say, 'I was a Deaniac, and I am going to tell all my Dean friends to support Betty,'" says Wolfram....."

[AwareOne]

1. Betty Castor's performance in the televised debate was horrible

Her answers were hard to distinguish from Republican talking points. Particularly disturbing was her gung-ho support for the war and Bush's policies on terrorism. I don't think she has a chance in hell of beating any Republican candidate. Vote for Peter Deutsch and we might have a chance.

[madfloridian]

2. Sorry, these attacks against a former college president turned me off.

I would not vote for him. Two of our friends who moved here from Miami last year are supporting Deutsch, and they have worked with him before....they know and like him.

However, these attacks are turning them off as well. They have tried to talk him out of them. He has this huge law firm behind him, and it is just dead wrong.