Dean Won't Stop Talking About Race with Southerners

Howard Dean campaigns in Tallahassee

Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean told a Tallahassee audience today that southerners have to quit basing their votes on "race, guns, God and gays."

Dean, making his first campaign foray into North Florida, spoke at a
rally in Jacksonville then addressed more than 500 people at a luncheon of the Capital Tiger Bay Club.

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It should also be noted that Dean said Graham was on his VP shortlist. That is a good thing and makes me curious who Graham might endorse.

He's not trying to win the election, Jesus couldn't win an election alienating Christians. He's either a moron on a mission or a con artist just trying raise money from his cultlike base.

The GOP owned media kissing his ass, his history of supporting conservative policies and kissing up to the Cato institute... I think he's the 'establishment's chosen candidate.

and they spend much time criticizing him...
:scared: :nuke::tinfoilhat:

But positive covers / stories in two major magazines, and I'm not sure if they spend more time criticizing him or praising him / giving him preferential treatment.

The simple fact that he's got so much validation by a corrupt press is suspect. Sorry if you think that's a tinfoil hat issue.

Anyone have access to lexis nexis?

The establishment's candidate? You have got to be kidding me...the establishment is obviously desperate to crush him!

May I have some kool-Aid now, sir? :grr:

Better supporting him, than a spineless, gullible pair of ninnies like Kerry, Edwards or Gephart.

Braun. She is not rude any of the other candidates. She is focus on what she wants to get out to the public. If she is asked about another candidate-she is very civil about her statement for or against the other candidate.

So who do you support? Who are you positive about?

Unless you are worried that just maybe, Dean isn't dooming himself.

"Democratic presidential hopeful former Gov. Howard Dean (news - web sites) of Vermont, left, clasps hands with Rev. Al Sharpton of New York, right, moments after the televised Rock the Vote Democratic presidential debate at Boston's Faneuil Hall, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2003. The two hopefuls had a heated exchanged during the debate concerning voters who display the Confederate flag."(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, Pool)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=650235

John Nichols: Rebel flag flap shows media failure

If you want to understand just about everything that is wrong with the way American politics is practiced these days - and especially with the malpractice of the media - consider the absurd controversy about Howard Dean's comment that "I want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks."
…
What isn't being reported is this reality: Every single presidential candidate who is now expressing concern about Dean's remark has sat in meetings where political operatives, pollsters and consultants have discussed strategies for winning the votes of white working-class males. These voters, whose economic interests would be at least somewhat better served by Democratic policies but who tend to vote Republican for social and cultural reasons, have fueled the rise of the GOP in recent years. And Democrats are obsessed with figuring out how to reach them.

So why has the Dean comment proved to be so controversial? Good question. It has something to do with the desperation of the other candidates, who have had a hard time keeping up with the former Vermont governor's fund-raising juggernaut and highly effective grass-roots campaign. But, in truth, it has a lot more to do with the media.

Too many political reporters practice stenography to power. They simply take down what candidates have to say. This week, the other candidates are trying to paint Dean as the reincarnation of Jefferson Davis, and the media are dutifully reporting it.

More responsible and engaged media would stop to ask the deeper questions: Why do so many white working-class males vote against their own economic interests? Is it because they are racists who really do embrace the Confederacy's legacy? Is it because the Democratic Party has so abandoned populist economic messages that even voters in what were once traditional Democratic constituencies have lost faith in the party and its candidates? The answers to these questions are complicated; but they are at the core of any serious examination of our politics.

Unfortunately, most politicians are unwilling to engage in real discussions about race and economics, let alone the complex zones in which they intersect. And as the current controversy illustrates, most political reporters have lost the inclination, and perhaps even the ability, to demand better of the politicians.
…
http://www.madison.com/captimes/opinion/column/nichols/60451.php

Howard Dean campaigns in Tallahassee

Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean told a Tallahassee audience today that southerners have to quit basing their votes on "race, guns, God and gays."

Dean, making his first campaign foray into North Florida, spoke at a rally in Jacksonville then addressed more than 500 people at a luncheon of the Capital Tiger Bay Club.
…
Dean said he hopes to reassemble a coalition of conservative southern voters like President Franklin Roosevelt had in the "solid South" 70 years ago. Although his opposition to the war in Iraq and his criticism of the Bush tax cuts do not score well in polls in the South, Dean said he hopes working families will support his call for improving education and health care.
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/7181952.htm
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=108&topic_id=76824

Did these SOUTHERN, BLACK, Baptists have a problem with Dean's remarks?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=108&topic_id=73335

Oh man, this is so bad. Not wrong bad, sad bad. Poor Ho Ho, he doesn't get the south.

I go to school with quite a few Southerners, and except for one Clark supporter, they're *all* Dean supporters. Wonder why that is, if he doesn't 'get Southerners'? :shrug:

Most Democratic Southerners would be baffled by the statement Dean made, because it doesn't apply to them. The Republican southern voter would also be baffled, because they wouldn't know what else to vote on. And why anybody is supporting Dean is beyond me anyway, your friends included.

You must be very busy, being a spokesperson for two different groups of people from the South. How do you manage? :eyes:

That was helpful.

I've seen that used before, but I don't get it.

Seems I read that somewhere, otherwise, I've seen it used and use it once in a while myself.

Who knows what crazy-ass thing the people will do next.

That's the best I can do.

just not to vote for Dean. I've been convinced not to vote for Dean for awhile now and it looks like I won't be voting at all because so far, no one has convinced me any of the other candidates are worth my vote.

posted in this area all the time about Kerry.

I hope you give him some serious thought. I could say the obvious things about him, but I know you know already, even though I haven't been around here much in the past few months...

I just don't admire his 'safe' campaigning. I like risk takers.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=108&topic_id=76323#76539

I write about Kerry's policies all the time. Nobody finds issues posts very interesting.

Dean caught my imagination where Kerry is just another Washington guy. Okay, not just another one, I do believe he is stellar. He just plays it safe too much. I can't get excited about that.

You complain because I don't post anything positive and then I do and you complain because you already know the issues. How's a person supposed to make you happy?

And yeah, Kerry is running a tight, smart campaign. That's because this is a Presidential election, not American Idol. Get excited about the world you're going to get to live in as a result of 8 years of a Kerry Presidency and get excited about the world you're going to leave to generations to come. Maybe I'm just more of a piss or get off the pot person. I don't need titilation, I need results.

I'm just pointing out that you've achieved results in attacking Dean constantly. I won't vote for him. Yay for you!

... which candidate do you support?

Does the candidate I support somehow alter my opinions?

talking down to us (southerners).

I be a western yankee that lived it Texhell for over 8 years. The feel that I got from living and traveling in the south is this... the Rebel flag is an item that has very strong and serious meaning for alot of folks down there. Yankees that don't travel thru the south can not grasp the full idealogy of the Flag on both sides of the discussion. There are southerns that still distrust-dislike-disapprove the Northern and the Federalist ways of doing things; hence the Civil War. The Northerns(aka "The Carpetbaggers") did not help the situation of the distrust of the South dealing with the North. Now add the addition of reversing seggeration and other "embedded" believes down ther. The last thing that some of the middle-to-lower classed citizens of the south needs to hear is a Yankee doctor telling them about race issues. They have a hard enough time dealing with it within their own communities that they don't need no outsider making ill-advised statements about the subject.

and great cartoon.

My point is Dean's approach is divisive and demeaning for some of us. For example, I'm from North Carolina. Your first thought may be Jesse Helms. But why not James Taylor, Michael Jordan, David Brinkley, Charles Kuralt, Karl Castle, Sharon Lawrence or Roberta Flack? When non southern cities can stop police excesses in the minority communities or when instead of putting minority youth on the street, you put them on Wall Street, come talk to us. In the meantime, we'll talk race issues with Al Sharpton, not Howard Dean.

Al Sharpton or Carol Braun are better people to talk about race

:toast:

South as a hog knows about Sunday."

Somebody stick a fork in Howard, he's done.

He told Bill Clinton to hire Begala and Carville and then he helped get Georgia's electoral votes for Clinton. And Zell knows more about the South than Howard, I "gar -on - tee" (points if you know who said that.)

And if we believe Zell, then we shouldn't vote for any of these candidates, he backs Bush.

gotta link?

Do you seriously support Kucinich ... and Zell Miller??

Can't remember his name just now.

Is that who ya meant?

right after that line he said Dean is stereotyping Southerners...excuse me, but someone from Georgia who just said "as a hog knows about Sunday" should look in the mirror if he's looking for Southern stereotypes...maybe you find his 'folksiness" cute but I find it grating.

whole thing about "talking down." Are you just repeating Edwards' line, which I thought was idiotic. Just because someone is from New Englnad, they have no right to discuss race? What makes Al Sharpton more qualified to discuss this issue? Are you telling me that only people of color can seriously discuss the race issue? I hope not because I know (as I'm sure everyone does) many white people who are far more concerned, and are more sensitive, to race relations than some minorities. Dean is running for president; he is reaching out to everyone; not just New Englanders.

Secondly, Dean is the only candidate who doesn't just talk, but acts. Everyone talks about health care -- nothing gets done. They talk against the war -- but voted for it. They talk about reaching white southerner voters -- but do nothing to recruit them. All they can do well so far in this campaign is constantly attack the front runner.

it might be helpful to know what part of the South you're from.

It's not that New Englanders (called Yankees still, here) can't discuss race, it's that they have to watch how they do it.

Dean saying that the flag was a ... what did he say? an abhorrent? depolorable? symbol - it was something negative... anyway, the message is that he doesn't consider these people, whose votes he's supposedly trying to get, to be very intelligent.

I shouldn't have to tell anyone that there's very little chance such a strategy will be very successful. Who knows, maybe it will... but my take from knowing the people I've grown up with (born & raised in Texas) is that they'll take it the wrong way, and like * even more, because these people are raised to hate people that can't do anything for themselves. They think (yes, even if THEY THEMSELVES don't have insurance) that it's not the employer's job to give it to them, nor is it the government's place to do so either. There's an ideology that even if it is counter to their self interest, seems very hard to penetrate or change.

That was rambling but I hope the meaning was somewhat clear at least.