Former Air Force chief backs Dean candidacy
Retired Gen. Merrill 'Tony' McPeak of Lake Oswego helps bolster the presidential hopeful's military credentials - JEFF MAPES The Oregonian 11/18/03

Retired Gen. Merrill "Tony" McPeak, the former Air Force chief of staff who endorsed George W. Bush in 2000, has left the Republican fold and is backing Democrat Howard Dean in the 2004 race for president.

McPeak, who lives in Lake Oswego, joins a small but growing list of top military veterans who have parted ways with the president at least partly because of the war in Iraq. McPeak's decision could be an important boost for Dean because critics have accused the former Vermont governor of lacking the experience and knowledge needed to be the nation's commander-in-chief. [Continued]

 

A 'culture war' on gay marriage could hurt GOP
"Howard Dean issued a statement noting that he signed a bill authorizing civil unions when he was governor of Vermont."

By Joan Vennochi, The Boston Globe, 11/20/2003. Key excerpts:

Cultural war versus war in Iraq. To Republicans, a war over gay marriage rights foisted upon the nation by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court may sound like a welcome and winnable distraction. That is, until they remember Houston.

"The radical right is demanding a cultural war and calling for a civil war within the Republican Party at a level not seen since the 1992 Houston convention," observes Patrick Guerriero, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans. "The last time I checked, that led to the defeat of the first President Bush."

In 1992, the GOP's right wing took over the convention and podium in Houston to declare a mean and supposedly holy war against Americans whose beliefs are different from its own. In a speech to delegates, Patrick J. Buchanan stated it as plainly as can be: "There is a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we will one day be as was the Cold War itself." Buchanan's theme was reinforced by other conservative political and religious leaders who scared the country on prime-time television. That November Bill Clinton won the White House.

Why would George W. Bush want that same shrill, divisive discourse to permeate his campaign for reelection? He was elected as a compassionate conservative. His vice president, Dick Cheney, has an openly gay daughter who brings her partner to White House dinners. Today the country is even more tolerant toward gays than it was a decade ago, and the tolerance is more outspokenly bipartisan. Guerriero, a former Massachusetts legislator and mayor, is trying to keep it that way:

"The closer the Republican Party gets to fueling this cultural war and having a national debate about basic civil rights, the closer they get to a very dangerous path," he warns. [Complete Article]

 

In search of Dean's confederacy
"As a white Southern male, I'd like to explain my views about Howard Dean and the Confederate flag." GENE LYONS, Decatur Daily Democrat, November 21, 2003

Dean made his point a lot more effectively when I heard him at a Little Rock appearance earlier this year. What he planned to ask Southern white men, the former Vermont governor said, was "You've been voting Republican for 30 years, ever since Nixon. What have you got to show for it? Better schools? Better jobs? Reliable health insurance?"

Bringing a potentially divisive symbol like the Rebel flag into it wasn't the smartest thing Dean's done in an otherwise cleverly innovative campaign, but his rivals' make-believe outrage made them look ridiculous. Does anybody really think that Al Sharpton and Sen. John Kerry were personally offended?

What hurts Democrats most in such charades is the absurd ritual of forcing somebody like Dean to apologize for a remark everybody knows wasn't offensive in the first place. It feeds the perception that they're fakers and panderers to trumped-up, phony grievances in a party dominated by sissies and snobs. [Complete Article].

 

Dean's 'New Southern Strategy
Blacks and Whites Together--Focused on Education and Healthcare
by Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. - Key Quotes:

Historically, the Confederate flag is a symbol of the Democratic Party. Today, however, Republicans can fly and wave it, but Democrats can't talk about it--and current Democrats don't know how to handle it.

As a result, the symbol Howard Dean used got in the way of his substance, but his substance was on point--and the point was that Southern whites and blacks together must focus on their common economic needs: jobs, good schools, affordable healthcare.

Howard Dean has a new Democratic Southern strategy.

So what have Republicans offered these working-class white Southerners? Tax cuts for the rich, less government, a strong military message, plus symbolic cultural, social and moral issues.

If Howard Dean wins the nomination around an economic agenda, and can effectively combat the certain Republican tactic of diversion--using social issues openly, and race more subtly, to sublimate economic concerns--then Democrats may once again be able to win in the South and pursue a progressive economic agenda for the benefit of all Americans.

That's Howard Dean's approach and his challenge. I support him because I think it's the right strategy politically, economically and morally. [Complete Article]: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20031201&s=jackson