Dean's "vicious", "dirty", "mean-spirited" campaign. What a joke.

I've watched Dean take abuse from all sides and all across the political spectrum for over a year. Did you know he's an anti-war peacenik traitor who is unelectable and too liberal, who would let the UN veto our national security, who's civil unions stance would kill him in the general election, and he's too angry? His candidacy is doomed now that Saddam is out of power, or Saddam's sons are dead, or Saddam is captured. How can he want a fair trial for OBL? What a joke! And did you know he's as bad as Gingrich when it comes to Medicare? He'll also balance the budget on the backs of the poor! And he's doomed now that he mentioned the confederate flag! Ooh... Oooh. his wife is Jewish, how can he be a real Christian? Maybe he's an abortionist! Yeah, that's it. No, a draft-dodger. Why didn't he lie to the draft board to get into Vietnam? Yeah, and he's also unelectable. Despite polling the same as everyone else before Iowa against Bush, he is unelectable. Rove wants to run against him, too. You know rove never lies! And if Dean is nominated, we'll be defenseless from Al-Qaeda! The terrorists win! Oh, and he screamed at a rally where everyone else was drowning him out! Temperament problems, obviously.

I could go on, but I just find it funny that when Dean defends himself against this shit, or expresses contempt for the people behind most of it (like the Osama ad and the people behind it), he gets called a crybaby, or worse, or singled out for being mean to the other candidates, or destroying the democratic party, or helping rove.

Give me a break.

eom

NO candidate in the race has endured a tenth of the abuse and scorn that have been heaped on Dr. Dean.

Quite a testimony to his strength, stamina, energy, dedication and commitment -- and the dedication and commitment of his supporters.

And there's the rub. As Dean himself pointed out some weeks ago:

"They're not trying to stop me. They're trying to stop you."

It's ironic aint it?!

Now, everyone rally around Kerry as uniting before the primaries are over is the best thing we can do at this point. Thanks.

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I nearly :puke:, some days...

he called those who vote for Bush's agenda and then complain about it Bush-lite, and that right there is grounds for treason.

Impeach Dean! Better yet, try him and hang him! AND HIS SUPPORTERS TOO!

:wtf:

Bush was elected, therefor people who vote for it are electable!

Dean's a poopy-head!

"entrenched beltway bureaucrats" would scatter like cockroaches when he got to town. The cockroaches have been working double duty to keep him out of town. I'm not whining. I thank them for proving Howard Dean's point.

The establishment will never appreciate what Dean has done in 2004.

Dean will be portrayed as the villain from here on out.

He correctly Identified the ills of the Democratic party and called them on their colors and now there's no appreciation...but, just scornful messages for him to drop out.

It's a shame when no one came to our aid when the Al Fromms and the DLC was actively campaigning against us, when the party establishment was to stay neutral. Dean was ravaged by his own party and this is the thanks that he gets in return.

They're right.

Dean is neither a Liberal or a conservative.

I think it's time for Independence.

http://dailywarnews.blogspot.com/

and in 9 months, it will be even more so.

Who were apparently baffled by the Bush bullshit into backing an idiotic war.

He's no different from the other candidates. But what was up with Dean's campaign manager attacking Clark for endorsing Kerry?

media dude. Never seen him before. He said Clark was entitled to his opinion. What's so evil about that?

he showed another angle of his "vicious", "dirty", "mean-spirited" campaign."

Who has publically renounced attack ads like the Osama ad, and then find out later he and another rival had their fingerprints all over it.

Do you think saying "Al-Qaeda will attack again if Dean is nominated!" by fellow candidates is something Dean should appreciate and not respond to?

But how much the lesser, there's the rub...

He often tells it.

"supporters" of the front runner are the worst and when the real Rove machine comes down on him I'm just going to sit back and laugh. It will almost be fun watching them in action and hear the outrage.

their actions towards me here have made me despise Kerry, and I'll be happy when Bush takes down Kerry in the general election so I can say "I told you so."

"I'll be happy when Bush takes down Kerry in the general election so I can say "I told you so."





Fucking amazing.

His WIFE wasn't there.
then he drug her in the bastard.

Oh, wait, you said that already. ;-)

I have this funny feeling that in the end, we will be looking at our next president here. Truth sometimes prevails.

That's what the bat and rolled up sleeves were all about. He was the guy who was tapping into anti-Bush anger.

There are problems with this approach, and they were obvious from the beginning. Dean went with it anyway.

Only republican talking heads have a problem with it.

"Happy Days are Here Again."

sufficiently informed voters of Bush's continuous outrages.

Only Dean as our nominee could have changed that fact. But the media couldn't have their complete complicity exposed like that, now could they? Hence the ascension of the safe "electable" pro-war candidates!

And other candidates aren't.

But not really "real." Many of the things he claimed to be as a candidate weren't things he actually did as a governor.

Where did what he "claim to be" conflict to what he "actually did"? And do you have sources for this?

...example).

Some of this stuff is beyond any doubt.

He thanked the legislature for not giving him the CA-style deregulation he activiely sought. He said if he could do it all over again, he wouldn't have taken the meaures he took to make IBM happy. He said it wasn't worth it.

In a light most favourable to him, you could say "he learned." Least favorable: he was running from a very conservative pro-business record which conflicted with the image he was trying to create as a the people's presidential candidate.

The fact that so many say not to be angry is the whole problem right now.

I had to turn off the TV for months leading up to the war. I could hear them lying. Nothing we said made any difference. They disappeared the war protests. Most everyone here at DU knew it was a wrong-headed war.

There should be anger over every death and every maiming of a soldier of ours or of Iraqi citizens.

The fact that so many are not angry truly worries me. The people who voted for the war and the huge tax cuts and the flawed and dangerous Medicare bill and the NCLB bill.....they knew what they were doing..it was not accidental.

There should be anger.

who was laser-guided, calm, and collected.

Think, Luke Skywalker -- "stay on target" -- don't let the dark side take over.

He could have been Luke. He has a little too much of Anakin.

He needed to be noticed, and he was. Others took on his message. There is nothing wrong with the way he has conducted himself. Now that he knows for sure about the nasty ads, and is pretty sure about the flyers, he has a right to be angry.

So do we.

Do you honestly think Dean wouldn't be doing better as Luke?

He could still have everything else, but just a little more of the "stay on target."

That is why some are squirming.

The only problems are if that's all you've got -- it was NEVER all Dean had, never.

Someone had to say it.

EDIT: Also, don't forget, he said that horrible thing about us not being any safer with the capture of Saddam Hussein. So what if we went up to orange alert the next day, there was no link between Hussein and 9-11, and there are no weapons of mass destruction! How dare he be right and ahead of the curve every time! He must be stopped. Stopped!

Stopped I tell ya!

Back when the campaign was just starting out, I started researching the candidates. I got a wonderful impression of Dean from many DUers, and decided to look into him. And I did. I read the stuff on his site and came away rather unimpressed. And this was when Dean was still considered a fringe candidate and everyone thought John Kerry, who hadn't even started campaigning, was going to be the front runner. The tables turned of course; and then turned again. And the media kept on shouting about how liberal Dean was and how he was unelectable and I kept wondering if this was the same Howard Dean former Vermont governor, or someone else. Everything about Dean seemed so centrist to me that I started out wondering if he was liberal enough. The only thing I kept on hearing was how because he opposed the war he was liberal and his candidacy would flounder like George McGovern's. Because he opposed the war? He opposes a war and all the sudden he's a communist? No. Just misplaced hyperbole from the media. And then the temper. Christ did that get hammered into the ground. The whole time it just seemed so ridiculous. And all of that climaxed with the infamous scream. In some bizarre twist of logic, the energized and animated yet innocuous scream Howard Dean let out in Iowa destroyed his candidacy. Because he screamed. Now he's the liberal Northeastern blue-blood with a mean streak and a tendency to scream. There wasn't a pigeonhole the media didn't like. How rare was it that the cable news behemoths actual talked about Dean's positions or his record as governor or his vision. I wasn't a Dean supporter, but I would have liked to have heard some serious debate. When Koppel asked perhaps the most Asinine question ever, "Raise your hand if you believe Howard Dean can beat George Bush," I knew it was lost. The game had been fucked by the media. It was a show. They picked a candidate and obsessed over him. And they fucked him over. After Iowa and New Hampshire, the media dropped him immediately. Old news. Not important. Kerry. Yes, Kerry. Let's obsess about Kerry now. Let's ignore everyone else. Let's not discuss the issues, let's just stare up the ass of the process 24 hours a day.

And I say that as a Kerry supporter. The media played a major role in Dean's fall. Television has become of the epicenter of politics and it's killing legitimate debate and discussion.

And won't use contributions to pay himself back on a mortgage.

The name is vaguely familiar, but I can't quite place him.

who gave him all that money.:)

Along with thousands and thousands of other Americans who also want their country back, not to mention their party.

And I'm proud of every cent I gave, and am continuing to give. It has been the best investment of my life. Howard Dean has changed my life, and the lives of countless thousands -- perhaps hundreds of thousands -- of others. He and Joe Trippi have also changed American politics, tho it's likely that the change won't stick.

In fact, it'll be real funny when the fancy tools Dean and Trippi used don't work as well for the "politics as usual" crowd. Damn funny. It might be a little less funny when so many of these newly awakened and energized Dem voters don't see fit to validate the politics as usual they were fighting by supporting Dean come November.

Dean is a breath of fresh air. Dean invigorated non-voters. He's a straight talking relief after the monied windbags posing as Democrats for the past 10 years. Like Dukakis, and Tsongas.. Dean is someone that SHOULD be president, but sadly, will probably not be. He is someone with the smarts, the savvy, the determination, and the message.. but without the corporate annointment of the Democratic Party. I will support Dean until he drops out, or until he wins. I'm tired of other candidates co-opting his lines, and presenting them as their own. They're empty words coming from other candidates, because they are Dean's own words.

I hope that I recover from the disgusting lashing that Dean has suffered at the hands of his "own" people, the so-called Democrats. I hope I recover by November... Ironic, I was one of those people on DU back when Gore was screwed out of the election... and I was so angry at the Nader voters for diluting the vote. I didn't have any problem voting for Gore.. but I DO finally see their point. At some point, the DNC and the DLC will have their showdown with the democratic voters tha believe they have become as corporate and useless as the AARP. And we may have to lose some elections as a result to get our Party back. Dean is just a symbol of a deeper unrest in the Party... it'll only come back every election until it's either dealt with or siphoned off as a third party.

your post clearly outlines how I feel about this front-loaded primary process.

Dean bit into the front-runner apple with Trippi's prodding.

Dean's used to being able to tell the truth without parsing every word every which way in advance. He's used to living in Vermont -- where political fights are generally intellectual and fair. He didn't have a clue what he was up against.

Someone had to say it.

:toast:

he got as far as he did. Kudos to trippi and Dean. The brilliant campaign just couldn't overcome the obviousness of the fact that he can't beat Chimp.

He is in fact the anti-Chimp for many reasons.

apparenly, thought Dean could beat Chimp, he wouldn't be losing so often.

i really liked when people on DU were saying Dean didnt like jewish people. what a riot!

good lord, people should do atleast a LIL research on someone before they try to slander them ;)


GO DEAN!!!

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A Movement that is in the process of building structures for continuing whether or not Dean is in the White House.

And I don't think there will be all that many who are going to feel betrayed. What Dean has given us has been life-changing for most. Of course, I recognize that there are many here who are not able to hear that or understand it. Some simply don't want to.

But that doesn't lessen the truth of it.