Republicans Attack Dean - Because He's Unelectable?
by Erik P Sorensen - Republicons.org - 1/10/2004

Pundits across the political spectrum take a sadistic pleasure in citing Howard Dean's daunting prospects come November. An incumbent president with solid poll numbers and a king's (or sheik's) ransom in campaign dollars would pop the liberal Northeastern pest like a tick. Why then are they dedicating such a high proportion of their sleaze and distortion budget to upending Dean's candidacy?

Of course the lack of veracity of the arguments brought against Dean is no obstacle for the current administration, for that is SOP for the GOP. But the venom reeks of fear. Republican instigators have unsheathed their weapons of mass media and are laying down an unprecedented (for the primaries) fusillade of misinformation and fulmination through conventional political and mainstream media channels.

Whether it takes the form of the overtly partisan polemics of the Club for Growth or the glib dismissals by David Brooks and William Kristol or the hysterical ranting of whoever that guy is on Fox; the Republican lackeys are swarming the Dean campaign like ravenous grasshoppers.

Recent advertisements aired in Democratic primary battleground states have upped the ante. The officious Club for Growth slurred the Dean campaign as a "tax-hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading, body-piercing, Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak show". Why don't they say how they really feel? And, hey, I don't do lattes!

Now, to be realistic, why would Bush backers waste their time and hard-earned (okay well not that hard-earned) campaign contributions to lambaste a candidate that was so marginal? Precipitating Dean's defeat in the early primaries would mostly benefit General Wesley Clark. It would be a piece of deft and unlikely political gymnastics to marginalize a former Supreme Commander of NATO with such vituperations.

What is it about Dean's campaign that inspires such bilious contempt? Perhaps Tom Harkin got it right. In his speech endorsing Dean, Harkin alluded to the most powerful weapon in Dean's arsenal: people. Or as columnist Arianna Huffington noted, "Like [Robert F] Kennedy, Dean is offering an alternative moral vision for America, not just an alternative political platform."

Progressive Democrats have long realized that the only way they win elections is to mobilize their solid base which is great in number but lacking in political inspiration. As Paul Wellstone said in his book, "Conscience of a Liberal", "people yearn for a politics that speaks to and includes them." [Complete Article]

 

Dean: Best Chance to Beat Bush, Expand Party

"Dem bigwigs may scorn his campaign, but his ability to attract young and other disenfranchised voters could be just what the party needs."

What Party Elders Overlook in Dean (excerpts)
By Howard Gleckman BusinessWeek's Washington bureau senior correspondent
Business Week Online | January 12, 2004

Why on earth has Howard Dean generated so much enmity from the Democratic political Establishment? Two reasons: He hasn't shown the proper deference to those he calls -- with more than a touch of contempt -- Washington Democrats. The other is that Dean is dangerous, subversive even, for the party's congressional incumbents. But the pugnacious ex-governor of Vermont might also have the best chance to beat Bush.

NEW BLOOD. Dean's message to voters: "Only you have the power..." seems to be catching on, not just with Americans in their 20s, 30s, and 40s who have felt disenfranchised from politics but also among rank-and-file Dems. His candidacy is unfolding in much the same way that Arnold Schwarzenegger lit a fire under California surfer dudes who had never before seen the inside of a polling booth. Dean's firebrand populism has these political outsiders sending money and chatting on the Web. If he can get them to vote, Dean may really be on to something.

Former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley, himself a past Democratic Presidential candidate who recently endorsed Dean, has figured out what party insiders haven't. With turnout below 50% in Presidential elections, millions of potential voters are up for grabs. It's the Democratic Party that has the best chance to win them over. But without that infusion of new blood, the party will be trapped like a hamster on treadmill, frantically running in place to hang on to those seniors, minorities, and women who form the old party base.

Yes, Dean may be the riskiest of the Democratic hopefuls. But he also offers the party its best chance of breaking through the red state/blue state, 50/50 split in the popular vote that has thrown modern-day Presidential elections into gridlock. [Complete Article]