Help me refute this annoying commentary about Dean as DNC chair!

Commentary: Howard Dean - A Desperate Choice For A Desperate Party?
by Lee Cullum, KERA 90.1 commentator


DALLAS, TX (2005-02-17)

Clearly the Democratic Party would rather be right-or rather left-than president. The 447 members of the Democratic National Committee shunned all efforts to block Howard Dean as chairman, ignoring far better choices such as former Congressman Martin Frost of Dallas which would have been a move toward political, geographical sanity. It is the South where Democrats must take a stand if they ever are to have any hope of winning back the White House.

But does Howard Dean understand that? No. He has said forcefully that the party should not go for a Southern candidate. Apparently he wants to stick to the blue states only with no regard for the mathematics of the Electoral College. A nominee may not emerge from the South, but the possibility cannot be foreclosed.


More....

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kera/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=740180

first question: Has Dean actually said that the party should not go for a Southern candiate?

EDIT: I'm done! Please read my response in post 18 and give me your feedback on that!

no refuation needed

I was looking up her bio, can't find that. Do you have a link to substantiate it?

Anyone who likes Martin Frost (just signed a deal with FAUX NEWS!!) is a fucking republican

I think this commentary is wrong in several facts and I'd like to refute it.

in at least one post-chairmanship-election interview? I could swear I've heard him point to Edwards' "two Americas" theme as something Democrats should focus on. Edwards could be our nominee in '08 and I'm sure Dean would support him.

is someone with a ballsac who is also tempered by humility. I think Dean fits that discreption.

what part of this mission statement doesn't the writer understand?

http://www.democrats.org/index2.html


1. Show up! Democrats should never concede a single state, a single district, or a single voter to the Republicans. We must be active and compete in all 50 states and work with the state parties to build a true national party.

Great place to start, I don't know why I didn't think of that.

Got anything for: Democrats must run in the center if they expect to win. ? :mad:

and let us crash and burn. The fact that they expend so much effort to tell us Dean is poison ivy indicates he is a threat to them. They seem to have a serious fear of Dems with a spine, a mind and no inhibitions about speaking truth.

Didn't we all figure this out when MSM worked so hard to work up the impression he was somehow unstable because he gets provoked and righteously pissed when the occasion calls for it? They were terrified of having him as the DEM candidate so they pulled out all the stops to paint him as something he isn't. They knew many real world Republican voters were impressed by the guy and leaning toward voting for a DEM in the general election if Dean was the candidate. Gads, even the wingers in my area saw that the media buried Dean because the business-as-usual politicans were terrified of his impact.

Plain fact: He has a lot of powerful liars and scoundrels shitting their drawers. They are gonna work hard to make us afraid of him. Fear is the only real trick they have.

Tell them to piss off.

"piss off." :7

you fucking criminals. Who do ya think yer talking to? We are not a bunch of your Kool Aid sucking idiots! Go peddle 'BOO!' somewhere else!"

Or you could use the first part of my previous reply, re-framed to direct at them instead of about them.

There are no real facts here. Only hearsay and very few quotes.

If you want to take this head-on, go with the "Dems should not be Repubs" angle. Going with a right-of-center Dem as a leader, would not be positioning the party as an opposition. We cannot sell ourselves as the alternative, while looking like elephants. The American voter is smarter than that, Ms. Cullum.

Something like that. Of course, I don't actually feel this way. Dean is a firebreather. He speaks his mind, and even Dems who don't think he is liberal enough in policy like that about him. I feel that the far right rulers of this country are a bunch corporatist warmongers. Compromise is not an option.

Southern candidate. But that should not be the ONLY criteria! We should nominate the best qualified from whatever state he or she comes from.

I mean, the head of the DNC just brings the party together on message and makes sure that democrats are supported and elected in their districts.

Lee Culum really doesn't have a clue about the media either:

"Dean may be great on the Internet, but Marshall McLuhan would say that he's too hot for television, a medium that prefers its people cool."

If that statement is true then why is there so much yelling, interruption, rudeness, and maliscious name calling on Faux News? Are they losing ratings over it? No! There are at least 3 other cable news networks that are trying to emulate that freak show.

"It's too late now for Dr. Dean to scamper back to the center, where Democrats must run if they expect to win."

If Lee had done his homework he would know that Dean IS a centerist, he was just painted as a lefty by the WH. The fact that he was anti war and anti-patriot act doesn't make him a lefty, it makes him a non-hysterical-reactionary no matter how many times the petty media plays that scream Dean did.

Lee's just pissed that his Dallas DINO wasn't elected so that Texas could rule the United States and spreading how badly that state SUCKS all over the nation. STOP TRYING TO BORE UP MY COUNTRY CULLUM!!

... is a woman, I heard her commentary here in Dallas this morning.

I thought about trying to rebut it - they even offer up a phone number (or some contact info) if anyone wishes to - but why bother?

She has it all wrong and anyone listening who knows anything about Dean knows it. She is a typical "middle-right" commentator, one who always presents the winger point of view but tries to couch it in neutral rhetoric.

I wish the original poster well in trying to talk to these cretins, I just don't have the patience.

Google that name. You'll find some very interesting stuff concerning her connections with Eberle Communications Group.

If it were up to me we would be able to buy marijuana at drive through windows of abortion clinics.

If the Democrats had chosen someone low-key and further to the right, then, the approach would be "The Dems are over. They're trying to scoot over closer to the Republicans."

If Howard Dean has said ANYTHING about the 2008 election bryond "we're going to win," I'd be astonished.

But if you want a talking point, remember how The Doctor said he wanted the Democrats to bring into the party the guys with confederate flags on their pickups?

And remember the shit he took for it?

Quod erat demonstrandum.

Dear KERA:

I was rather dismayed at Lee Cullum's recent commentary on the selection of Howard Dean as the DNC chair. For example, she states that Dr. Dean has given up on the South. This is quite simply not true. Dr. Dean wants to make the Democratic party competitive at all levels. What part of: "transforming our party into a grassroots organization that can win in all 50 states" (from Dr. Dean's acceptance speech) does Ms. Cullum not understand?

I would also disagree with her contention that Joe Trippi "raised an army of true-believers." Dr. Dean himself has raised that volunteer, grassroots army not because of any "internet wizardry" but because of the qualities of the man himself. Dr. Dean is not afraid to speak truth to power. He does not temper his words or deeds with careful, typical oily-politician-style language. Nor does he hedge his ideas about with lawyer-like disclaimers and deliberations. It is this quality that won Dean his supporters, and it is this quality that has carried him to the DNC chair position.

Furthermore, Lee Cullum's assertion that Democrats should run in the center if they expect to win is, quite simply, nonsense. As the Martin Frost race showed us locally, when Republicans are given a choice between a Republican and a Republican-lite, they will continue to pick the real Republican. In order to win, Democrats must clearly articulate their values, which ARE in fact in sync with those values of ordinary, working-class Americans. Democrats stand for economic opportunity and for protecting the rights of the individual over those of large corporations and wealthy fat-cats. The Republican party has once again become the party of corporate welfare. As President Bush said at his fundraising dinner: "What an impressive crowd: the haves, and the have-mores. Some people call you the elite, I call you my base." The Republican party has moved the entire political spectrum so far over to the right that the Democrats ARE in fact in the center RIGHT NOW.

In future, when you run such right-leaning commentary, I would expect you to give equal time to the left. You are, after all, supposed to be "public radio." If I want to hear Republican talking points, I can turn on Fox News. Thank you.

Sincerely,

XXXXXX XXXXX

refuting her statements.


You've just fallen for the conservative media trap - she's framed the debate, and you're busy answering accusations.



never let them see you sweat. express confidence in HD, tell her she's crazy, and keep on your own offensive. Look at my post directly below yours for an idea of what i'm getting at.

with all due respect, what the Democrats DON'T need, is someone from another party telling them what they do need.



We chose Howard, we love Howard, he has our support, deal with it. One would think you were scared of Howard Dean the way you're going on about how he's jsut such a "bad fit" for OUR party.


We've had 4 years now, to see how the republicans do things. I believe in another 3, many who voted for Bush will see the light as well. There is no way moving further "right" is an acceptable option. The Democratic Party is an alterantive to what's on offer now. We are the party of Human beings, not corporations, and in a few short years, I'm willign to bet the majority of the American populace will be wishing for someone that really does work for their interests.


So i suggest you keep pushing Social Security Privatization, Medicare Fraud masking as reform, a tax cuts for Corporations whilst waging as many wars as you can. We'll be here waiting, stronger than ever.


Sincerely,


xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Well said.

telling us how much we suck, while we flounder on trying to explain that thye're wrong.

...I'm left to wonder if the problem isn't that Dean is excluding the South (something she asserts without specific evidence of such) so much as the fact that he's not a Southerner (since of course, anytime a Southerner isn't chosen it amounts to turning your back on the South).

IOW, Dean isn't the one with a regional chip on the shoulder here...

Only one response?

It is just that I have so much trouble seeing where in the world that reporter got that stuff? Ever since Dean has campaigned for chair, and before, and all over C-Span all week-end....he said he would be living in the Southern states for a long time. He said it over and over. He is going there to tell them what we believe, and talk to them about what the party offers.

I get I was so stunned at where the reporter got off writing that stuff.

And we have follwed his campaign very closely since early 2003, and he never said anything like no Southern president.