A blast from the past. Dean last Sep telling a small group of donors...

[AP]

...that he can't give all the details of his tax plan, because he'll be "rolling it out in a few weeks." Sound familiar?

hedda_foil  (1000+ posts)
Tue Sep-09-03 02:38 PM
Original message
One event ... many reasons why Dean will win

I had to post this supporter's report from the official blog because it encompasses so many audiences and so many reasons.

Update on Philadelphia Fundraiser/Lunch:

I've been looking forward to today for a while. A few weeks back I got an invitation to a $1000/$500 a plate event for Gov. Dean at one of Philly's fancy Philly Law firms. I thought to myself- why would they even waste postage asking me for that kind of money, only fancy lawyers and rich people go to these things right?! Then I thought about it some more and said to myself- "I can get together $1000, just find some extra work to do and do it." So I RSVP'd and made the biggest political contribution of my life.

I went to the event having no idea what to expect, and when I got there I met some fat cat types- but I also met an accountant, a teacher, two other students, three people I recognized from other events as inner city minority activists, disabled persons, elderly people, and a couple of trade union members.

It started off as a meet and greet (think junior high dance, except people are try to do deals with each other instead of trying to do each other.) Gov. Dean arrived shortly after everyone sat down and ate and gave a short version of his stump speech (standing 3 feet away from me !!!! I just happened to sit in the back of the room- where the governor decided to speak from . The speech was very good and effective. It differed from the usual stump speech in that:

1. He cut out a lot of background and rhetorical flourishes. This was an educated crowd and he made good use of his time by skipping preliminaries. Getting strait to the point is his strong suit- I don't know if it could work with a crowd that is less informed about policy issues, but speaking with some of the fat cats afterwords I found out he'd made some new converts because as they said "I didn't get the feeling he would even bother trying to lie to me."

2. He addressed the issue of gun controll (diosclosure- while I support gun controll, I'm an avid hunter and have mixed feelings about federal gun controll, but its not a big issue to me either way) by pointing out that %20 of union members don't vote democratic on the basis of that issue alone. He argued pragmatism and coalition building unapolagetically and from the looks on the faces and in the eyes of some of the attendees who consider support for gun controll a major issue- he convinced them. "Lets deal with education and health care first.."(paraphrase)

3. Tax reform- repeal the entire Bush tax cut first (because a partial repeal would leave too much in play politically and would transfer the benefits of the tax cuts from the rich to the upper middle class- likely leading to no additional revenue to balance the budget and deal with health care) {ed: HUH? Giving the middle class tax breaks makes them upper middle class, and gives them HUGE benfits like the ones the rich got?} Only then deal with tax reform, he avoided specifics of the program as he is rolling it out in a few weeks. But I asked him what policy goals would shape his tax reform and he answered that tax reform should be target at relieving the burden on the poorest. "Bottom up" tax relief. It was great to see him make this statement. Most tax releief aimed at the poor is actually aimed at special interests or modifying the behavior of the poor,{ed: the earned income tax credit modifies behavior? or is Dean making the right wing argument that people are poor because they have too many babies?} so it was nice not to hear the issue framed in those terms. Just a simple premise- you should payt less taxes on the first dollar you earn than the millionth.

4. An african american woman in the audience asked about appeal to minorities. The Governor's response was a HOME RUN. "Minorities don't need candidates to come and talk to them about race, they want candidates who talk to WHITE audiences about race." (paraphrase) He spoke about the south and how the GOP has talked about race in the south for thirty years and how the Dems have been afraid to do it. He said simply that he would ask white southerners (gave an example from an event in S.C.) what they've gotten for themselves and their children by thirty years of voting for GOP'ers who promise to protect them from minorities and tell them what they can get by working together with their human brothers and sisters.

He covered other isuues but they've slipped my mind.
Some suggestions based on my observations- the Gov. is a master of commanding conversation ("You WILL take your medicine!". He should always address himself to another person when speaking. In the Debates he might try the trick of addressing each answer/statement to one of the other candidates, not necessarily confrontationally, but to put his words into the second person where he is at his best.

Anyhow, I asked the Gov. to sign my tie but my sharpie was kinda out of ink so the autograph is a little pale- I don't care about that... I got a tie signed by the next president! But Gov. Dean actually spent a couple of minuites looking for a better felt tip pen to sign my tie with so it would look really good.

People never act phony in little details like that. He is one of the most genuine and decent people I have ever met. I came away from my lunch with Gov. Dean with so much respect for the man and a comittment to myself, my children, and my country to redouble my efforts to make sure that Gov. Dean is the next president of the United States.

Mark in Philly
Posted by Mark in PA at September 9, 2003 04:57 PM

[Padraig18]

1. Scraping the floor of the cellar....

Must be nothing positive about any other candidate to post, eh? :eyes:

[AP]

2. Actually, challendge repeatedly by someone supporting another candidate,

I was searchign the archive for comments on Dean's Bryant Park Speech (anyone know where I can find a transcript, or search the archives back to last summer, or get a video -- I'll look at CSPAN).

I came accross this. I didn't want to totally waste my time, so I thought I'd post this. It's relevant today because, Dean STILL says he's releasing his REVISED tax plan in a few weeks, and I don't think he released the last one.

As for positive things about my candidate, let me get the link to last nights town hall mtg on CSPAN.

[maddezmom]

4. listening to John Edwards now

on CSPAN. :) sounds good

[KittyWampus]

5. AP, I Know Tax Issues Are Your Forte

It is interesting to see where various Candidates have gone with their Policies and Campaigns.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

7. Here you go:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=109623#110670

[Hep]

3. LOL

Mad clown disease spreads!

And by that I mean, you're taking the words of a supporter and rebutting as if you expect that person to reply. You're using it as Official Campaign material. Lower than low!

[AP]

6. This is actually important on several fronts.

One that I've asked before, is why does Dean conflate middle class with upper middle class? Why does he try to convince the middle class that their breaks were so large that if he let them keep them that he'd be accused of shifting huge benefits to them that rival the benefits the super rich got?

And isn't his line about the middle class tax cuts that you really didn't get any?

This is important stuff to talk about.

[Lefta Dissenter]

8. Thanks for posting that, AP

I've been a little upset with Dean for not coming forward sooner with some specifics for his tax plan. The candidates who have done so show the courage of their convictions. They are willing to take the heat from people who don't like some of the specifics, and it gives us a way to compare the proposed policies of the candidates, and how they plan to begin to dig us out of this mess.

I would have liked the voters to be able to learn the specifics of Dean's ideas before the voting begins, not after several primaries have taken place. There's always a risk in putting forth specifics - but I believe that a more educated voter is a better voter!

(as a pre-emptive clarification, by 'more educated,' I mean better educated as to what the candidates stand for, not higher academic education level...)

[returnable]

9. All the "gotcha" stuff aside...

...shouldn't folks be concerned that after TWO YEARS on the campaign trail, Dean hasn't released the details of his tax plan? I mean, shoot, call me crazy, but I think taxes are a pretty substantial issue.

Yes? No? :shrug:

[sandnsea]

10. Repeal all the Bush-lite tax cuts

That's his tax plan. Anything else is going back on the entire basis of his campaign as far as I'm concerned.