Reply #47: Plus the fact that we are going to NEED votes from everywhere, [View All]

even conservatives, if we're gonna win this thing. Frankly, Dean has enough brownie points on "conservative" issues like the whole gun business and fiscal responsibility to appeal to them

And I am among those NOT upset with Dean for saying a person is innocent until proven guilty. Uh, excuse me, but isn't that the TRULY American system of justice? I realize that we're in the era of "shunt 'em off to Gitmo, no lawyers, no questions, no reading anybody no damned rights." But our system of justice is "innocent until proven guilty." And my saying that - does that make me an "Osama lover?" OF COURSE NOT!!! No more than it makes Dean an "Osama lover."

Note if you will some of the pundits now using the term "...sided with Saddam" to refer to ANYONE who A) opposed the war, B) wanted UN inspectors to stay in there and keep working, C) didn't want to go in unilaterally, and D) didn't want to send their troops into what looked like a quagmire in the making. Now, those countries and believers are being lambasted as "siding with Saddam." They did nothing of the kind. I have now heard this multiple times among right-wing talking heads. Somebody sent a memo out about this, no doubt. It's just too obvious a ploy. They'll try to say Dean "sided with Saddam," no doubt. And they'll be wrong. But Dean opponents here will probably eat it up with a spoon...

The fact is, we need votes from everywhere. Even better if we can make inroads in the various corners of bush country. Even better. The more we eat away at his support, the better for us. The more of his so-called believers we can lure away, the better. That's one less vote for him and more more for OUR GUY. I do NOT fear bringing conservatives into the fold. Enough of them and we're back in the White House, okay?

And isn't that the whole point here?

Do we want to be players again, and do we want to be winners again, and control the agenda again, or is it just SO DAMNED IMPORTANT to be ideologically pure that we relegate ourselves to playing off in some irrelevant corner by ourselves for the rest of our political lives?