from Dana Blankenhorn's GreaterDemocracy op ed from July 5, 2003
Titled:
What Gives?http://www.greaterdemocracy.org/2003_07_01_gd.html<SNIP>
<I>There was a lot of agonizing in Hollywood over the ending of Capra’s movie "Meet John Doe." It had to be changed, because it was looking dark. It was 1941, and Edward Arnold’s media mogul D.B. Norton had succeeded in defeating Gary Cooper and the John Doe clubs.
Cooper, as Doe, is ready to jump off a skyscraper on Christmas Eve, just to prove a point, that no one cares. Barbara Stanwyck, as the journalist who got him into this mess (she created the character and wrote the letter promising he would jump), reaches toward him, hugs him, begs him not to jump. Arnold and his powerful buddies arrive on the scene, but so do James Gleason (the crusty newspaper editor) and a rag-tag collection of John Doe Club members. It’s the extras, the Doe Club members, who keep Doe from jumping, not Stanwyck, and these are the people who carry him off the roof. Gleason sticks out his finger at Arnold, motions with his thumb back to the group, and barks, "The people. Try and beat that!" (Cue the credits.)
That’s the secret of the Dean Campaign. Yeah, it’s as corny as a Frank Capra movie. But the blogs, the campaign, the Meetups, they all deliver that same power, that same intimacy. They return Americans back to a sense of themselves as powerful, important, worthwhile.
And we need that. We need that now. We need that bad.
Howard Dean gave it to us. The feeling that we have the power. And
we will see whether we do. </I>
Fellow Dean-ocrats, just remember the media in Capra's story created John Doe and broke his PR image, but The People, the little "John Does" rescued him in the end. Howard Dean rose to frontrunner status because his willingness to listen to us and champion our cause earned him our support. It's time fellow John and Jane Doe Dean-ocrats to keep the faith, keep hope alive in our hearts and work as hard as we can to help our candidate win.