The people who are now strongly anti-Dean are taking him out of context.

He made a similar comment a few months ago (in San Fransisco?) where he said "And to all the white guys with Confederate flags and gun racks on their pick-ups, I want your vote, too, because you and your children need health care."

But no one made a big damn deal about that. Why? Maybe because he wasn't leading in New Hampshire and threatening in Iowa. But more likely, people didn't take him literally.

If you have a brain, and have at least a little pragmatism, what he said last week obivously doesn't translate into "I am a racist and I don't mind the Confederate flag." But that's how Kerry, Gephardt, Sharpton, et al. are treating it. He was taken out of context.

It is important that Kerry wins NH. Dean is leading there (in some polls, even by double digits!). Because of that. They're starting to get nasty and call him racist, candidate for the Confederate Flag, candidate for the NRA, etc. It's ridiculous.

Southern voters who display the Confederate flag and southern black voters might be two groups that are percieved as diametrically opposed, but they share the same basic human needs; jobs, education and health care. The only way we can win is if we can get people of differing philosophies to stand together, realizing that their common needs and goals outweigh their differences. I want to be the candidate that speaks to these people.

How is it that so many people have a problem with a candidate saying this?

The only time the words "confederate flag" should come out of someone's mouth should be to condemn it!

I am tired of all you people trying to make excuses for this loose cannon with a tin ear. He is/wiil be a disaster.

Chill, pal.

BTW...how did Sharpton come out on that FBI sting a few years back?

You have a picture of Al Sharpton as your icon and you are criticizing Dean as a 'loose cannon'?

What about Sharpton's use of Tawana Brawley as a rally icon for his agenda?

He's the frontrunner, he's going to be picking Kerry's buckshot out of his ass for the next 3 months.

...than pheasants...

Please continue discussion here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=650116

Thank you
AnnabelLee
DU Moderator