Arianna: Unelectable, My Ass! - must read for Dean supporters

[dkf]

Unelectable, My Ass!

By Arianna Huffington, AlterNet
January 6, 2004

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17512

snip

Dean is electable precisely because he's making a decisive break with the spinelessness and pussyfooting that have become the hallmark of the Democratic Party.

So, please, no more hand-wringing about Dean being "another Dukakis." And no more weepy flashbacks about having had your heart broken by George McGovern, whose 1972 annihilation haunts the 2004 Democratic primaries like a political Jacob Marley, shaking his chains and warning of the Ghosts of Landslides Past.

There is a historical parallel to Dean's candidacy, but it's not McGovern in 1972, as the DLC-paranoiacs would like us to believe – it's Bobby Kennedy in 1968.

Like Kennedy, Dean's campaign was initially fueled by his anti-war outrage. Like Kennedy, Dean has found himself fighting not just to represent the Democratic Party but to remake it. Like Kennedy, Dean is offering an alternative moral vision for America, not just an alternative political platform.

And like Kennedy, Dean has come under withering attack from his critics for the very attributes that his supporters find most attractive.

More

Love this piece!

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. You know I have said this

about the race

Dennis reminds me of FDR, but Dean remidns me of Kennedy, I thought John, and yes Dean sounds a tad like John... but Arianna has a point

I cannot help but think of that black and white photo, of Bobby dying... for a second that came strong into my head... very strongly.

[slinkerwink]

2. Arianna's right....

and I wish she was Gov instead of Arnold!

[Hoppin_Mad]

3. Great Article - Araiana for SEC Chairperson under Dean ! ;-) -nt-

[slinkerwink]

4. she's a great columnist, and I rue the day that Arnie won....

[Atlant]

34. Soon, many will rue that day. (NT)

[windansea]

5. arianna is like an LA Times recall poll

clueless

[dkf]

7. She gets what the Dean campaign is all about.

Gov. Dean's message is resonating with many people including me.

Of course, you would say I'm clueless too, wouldn't you?

[w4rma]

10. LOL! You just can't stand it when someone says something good about Dean.

:crazy:

[RetroLounge]

13. Yes, we know your thoughts on anything Dean

and anyone who does not agree with you is clueless.

blah blah blah

[edzontar]

15. Arianna is not clueless--she is right!!!!

And Dean is proving that everyday.

Arianna is intelligent, funny, observant, and frankly, rather attractive,with that "dreamy" accent and all....

I'll take her---and Dr. Dean WILL win, thank you very much.

[bitchkitty]

27. yada yada yada -

yada yada yada. You're so transparent.

[Clark Campaigner]

6. Arianna's an authority on unelectability

From her husband's failed republican campaign for the Senate to her own impressive 1% showing in the California gubernatorial race. ;)

[CWebster]

9. Well, clarkcampaigner

Bush runs a tight and vicious campaign--even when he loses he wins. Who can beat him--that is what our media tells us. Our corporate media who dances for the piper, provides the mouthpiece for those who further their interests. What a racket Bush has, he paves the way for the corporate power structure and they pay their dues with campaign backing and advertising. If Clark is just another corporate hack--and the record reflects this- even if he wins, we lose again. Clark ain't nothing but product, a front man for the corporate wing of the Democratic party, and that is the wing who lost the party. What is gained for the Democrats by such a win?

[Clark Campaigner]

14. I'm not sure what any of that has to do with my post

I was just pointing out that she doesn't exactly have her finger on the pulse of mainstream America.

And wasn't she one of Newt Gingrich's lackeys, anyways?
She's swung from one nutty extreme to another.

[edzontar]

16. Arianna can swing my way.....

Anytime!

[CWebster]

18. Speaking of swinging...

Aside from the obvious efforts on the part of the Clark campaign to suggest the Clark-Clinton connection (which does not necessarily sell well to progressive Democratic base seeking a DLC regime change, as well as providing some powerful fuel for the Repugs to rile up the anti-Clinton forces),that particular pin-up has a somewhat suggestive quality of a....pecular, shall we say, sort of fondness....if you know what I mean.

[Nederland]

33. So what if Clark has a "fondness" for Clinton?

What's wrong with that.

Oh, I know. You far leftists despise anybody who's ever won anything or accomplished anything in American politics.

[maxanne]

20. you might want to

reconsider chiding those who swing from one extreme to another. After all, your guy voted for Nixon, Reagan, and Bush.

[Cheswick2.0]

11. thanks for kicking the thread

:7

[Forkboy]

8. whats her ass running for?

I might just vote :)

[reachout]

24. Well,

I heard that as soon as she heard about the beef recall, Ariana started running for cow.



joke...joke...relax people, I like that Greek fireball.

[Atlant]

12. Thanks for posting this!

(Let's just hope Dr. Dean doesn't end up too much like
Bobby Kennedy! It's pretty clear that a lot of people
hate him in some sort of pathological way.)

Atlant

[DarkSim]

17. Dean Dean Dean.

Great writing this is something i want to see more of, also for the other candidates. I dont care who it is that has a chance of beating W. but ill vote for whoever it is that has a chance at it.

[Walt Starr]

19. And unlike Kennedy,

hopefully, Dean's watching his back. I don't trust the DNC any more than I trust the RNC.

[Hep]

21. Didn't you hear? Arianna is the enemy

Apparently it wasn't the case until this morning. Odd.

[CWebster]

23. And Gore and Bradley are "losers"

since they endorsed Dean.

[Hep]

25. Not to mention

the evil Molly Ivins.

[Atlant]

32. Gore: "enemy." Bradley: "enemy." Arianna: "enemy." Dean: "Enemy."

You know, if you classifying some of these folks by who they oppose,
you'd swear these folks were in the other party.

Atlant

[Hep]

36. Ivins "enemy" Jackson Jr. "Uncle Tom" Joan Jett "Hates Rock and Roll"

The usual from the Intellectual Stuckeys'.

[OhioStateProgressive]

22. I don't trust former Right Wing zealots(nt)

[Atlant]

26. How about former pro-lifers, now pro-choicers? (NT)

[OhioStateProgressive]

28. yes, as a matter of fact I do

I don't find that topic to be the one that motivates what I look for in a candidate

I am not a 'liberal', and neither are alot of Dennis's supporters, personally I would rather we had the 1970's model Kucinich who called his opponents "Neandertals"

so no, his abortion stance and changes don't effect me

[mzmolly]

29. Good answer

:toast:

[Atlant]

31. Thanks.

That one point is a big part of why I don't put Dennis at
the top of my list (although I do think kindly of him).

I DO have a few litmus tests, and I tend not to
support any candidate who fails them (or has recently
failed them). And support of reproductive rights are
one of those litmus test items.

Atlant

[mzmolly]

30. Rock On Arianna!

Great article, thanks for posting!

I LOVE THIS QUOTE:

"Far from Dean not being able to "compete" with Bush on foreign policy, he's the one viable Democrat who isn't trying to compete on the playing field that Bush and Karl Rove have laid out. No Democrat can win by playing "Whose swagger is swaggier?" or "Whose flight suit is tighter?" Instead Dean unambiguously asserts that "We are in danger of losing the war on terror because we are fighting it with the strategies of the past... The Iraq war diverted critical intelligence and military resources, undermined diplomatic support for our fight against terror, and created a new rallying cry for terrorist recruits."

[adamrsilva]

35. Exactly right! Why should we trust the DLC and these

establishment people who've been consistently losing groud against the Republicans since 1994? And Arianna totally gets why Dean has caught fire here.