An excellent interview with Dean on VT public radio, overview of plans.

This is from yesterday. He sounds very upbeat, glad to have his life back again, and he most certainly does not sound like a loser. That is where the people here who call us losers, and say he is also, are just wrong....you just don't understand.

He gives a few specifics about the future, and this is no loser speaking. There are huge grassroots groups in place already, that is the secret to this thing. We are not fools, and we are not idiots. We just know this is a much broader "happening" than anyone realizes.

It would be nice if there are no insults about us in this thread. You do not have to listen to the radio interview, so don't be rude. Thanks in advance.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/vpr/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=610985

Good for the home state and native son-ism.

When the story is written about the '04 campaign, Dr. Dean well receive much credit.

I'd love to see him as a kick-ass US Senator.

:hi:

Will check back.

He especially emphasizes candidates, and keeping the new people involved in the party.

Says he was setting up tables for a sports dinner, enjoying it.

I'm on dial-up and was trying to type a transcript for you, but I've been having some trouble.

Dean basically said that he will continue to work for real democratic reform, for the vote of the average American citizen, and for candidates who believe in this--and they don't have to be Democrats. He mentioned moderate Republicans.

He said, of course, that now our focus should be on getting Bush* out and trying to get more Dems into Congress.

But he's still heading for real reform and restoration.

It's marvelous.

I'll keep trying to type something for you, but my dial-up is terrible, especially when I open Word.

DEAN:
I’m really honored, and it makes me feel great. There’s a group called Truth and Hope that put the money into it, unbeknownst to the campaign, and I certainly appreciate them, but it’s a really nice homecoming and it kind of underlines what I said when I left, which was that if the rest of the country were more like Vermont and had Vermont’s values, the country would be in a lot better shape.

VPR GUY:
So are you hoping, I mean this gives you a couple of delegates, and you’ve obviously won other delegates along the way—is having these delegates helpful to you?

DEAN:
Having the delegates is helpful. First of all, there are a lot of people who are newly involved in politics because of our campaign, like almost 700,000 of them. They need to get involved in the Democratic party. The Democratic party really has had a bad couple of years. They’ve lost their way—they don’t have the conviction that they had, and that’s really what the campaign was about, getting this new blood into the Democratic party, into the convention, much in the way I went in 1980 as a first-time as a first-time person who really knew nothing about politics to speak of. It just invigorates the party; it gives us different points of view, and hopefully we’ll find our way again and begin to stand for things that Democrats ought to be standing for.

VPR GUY:
Is that what you’re hoping to do with your new organization?

DEAN:
It is. The new organization—which will be announced on March 18, and we’re just putting it into shape now—is designed to support grassroots candidates, and not just limited to Democrats, I might add, although we would want to send a very strong message to people in this upcoming election that we can’t afford four more years of George Bush—that would be a complete disaster for the country, but we are going to work with other, with people including moderate Republicans who have felt that the country has lost its way to try to reinvigorate the grassroots of not just the party but of the country. And also to give people hope again that they can control the country. From a historical perspective, we’ve been in this place before. Under McKinley’s presidency and Hoover’s presidency. There is too much influence from special interests and corporations and it really is a matter of taking back opportunity for ordinary people to live in this country again and be entitled to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, and we’re starting to lose that.

VPR GUY:
Do you look at the vote in Vermont today and feel like there’s some energy for people to go in that direction?
DEAN:
Well there is some energy for people, of course Vermont’s always been a place for with real grassroots political activism, both inside and outside the Democratic party,. But it’s also a place with real values that the government begins to have I know there are partisan…endorsing the Democrats of course. But in Vermont the government is really responsive to people’s concerns. And that is not true in the nation as a whole. People are pretty good people in this country, I’ve discovered. But their governments are not so great. And we happen to have, in my view, one of the worst governments we’ve had in my lifetime, probably the very worst. And we’ve gotten into terrible, terrible trouble. For Chairman Greenspan, for example, to suggest that we should get rid of social security and by the way let’s make the tax cut permanent, that’s appalling. To have the chairman of the federal reserve who has had a long and respected career actually get away with saying that, I mean that is just shocking what’s happening in Washington. They’ve completely lost touch with what average Americans are going through.

That is really accurate.

and he talks about supporting the local hockey team, etc.

But here is the rest of "my" (!) transcipt...

DEAN:
I’m really honored, and it makes me feel great. There’s a group called Truth and Hope that put the money into it, unbeknownst to the campaign, and I certainly appreciate them, but it’s a really nice homecoming and it kind of underlines what I said when I left, which was that if the rest of the country were more like Vermont and had Vermont’s values, the country would be in a lot better shape.

VPR GUY:
So are you hoping, I mean this gives you a couple of delegates, and you’ve obviously won other delegates along the way—is having these delegates helpful to you?

DEAN:
Having the delegates is helpful. First of all, there are a lot of people who are newly involved in politics because of our campaign, like almost 700,000 of them. They need to get involved in the Democratic party. The Democratic party really has had a bad couple of years. They’ve lost their way—they don’t have the conviction that they had, and that’s really what the campaign was about, getting this new blood into the Democratic party, into the convention, much in the way I went in 1980 as a first-time as a first-time person who really knew nothing about politics to speak of. It just invigorates the party; it gives us different points of view, and hopefully we’ll find our way again and begin to stand for things that Democrats ought to be standing for.

VPR GUY:
Is that what you’re hoping to do with your new organization?

DEAN:
It is. The new organization—which will be announced on March 18, and we’re just putting it into shape now—is designed to support grassroots candidates, and not just limited to Democrats, I might add, although we would want to send a very strong message to people in this upcoming election that we can’t afford four more years of George Bush—that would be a complete disaster for the country, but we are going to work with other, with people including moderate Republicans who have felt that the country has lost its way to try to reinvigorate the grassroots of not just the party but of the country. And also to give people hope again that they can control the country. From a historical perspective, we’ve been in this place before. Under McKinley’s presidency and Hoover’s presidency. There is too much influence from special interests and corporations and it really is a matter of taking back opportunity for ordinary people to live in this country again and be entitled to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, and we’re starting to lose that.

VPR GUY:
Do you look at the vote in Vermont today and feel like there’s some energy for people to go in that direction?
DEAN:
Well there is some energy for people, of course Vermont’s always been a place for \with real grassroots political activism, both inside and outside the Democratic party,. But it’s also a place with real values that the government begins to have I know there are partisan…endorsing the Democrats of course. But in Vermont the government is really responsive to people’s concerns. And that is not true in the nation as a whole. People are pretty good people in this country, I’ve discovered. But their governments are not so great. And we happen to have, in my view, one of the worst governments we’ve had in my lifetime, probably the very worst. And we’ve gotten into terrible, terrible trouble. For Chairman Greenspan, for example, to suggest that we should get rid of social security and by the way let’s make the tax cut permanent, that’s appalling. To have the chairman of the federal reserve who has had a long and respected career actually get away with saying that,-- I mean that is just shocking what’s happening in Washington. They’ve completely lost touch with what average Americans are going through.

VPR GUY:

You know, I have such a personal question for you..

DEAN:

(About being an ordinary person again, active in the hockey team activity…) It’s a great delight to be an ordinary person again.

VPR GUY:
And do you look at this race and say you know, a lot of people have said you’ve had a lot of impact on this race that you gave the D. party some backbone….

DEAN:
It’s not me that has the impact. It’s the 700,000 people who had the impact.
_____________________


Slink, we’re going forward!

Cheers,
--jk

Thanks...from a gal who has dialup! I takes about an hour to download a radio broadcast for me LOL...

I wanted Slink, of all people, to get the gist of things. And she can't hear the audio bullshit and didn't have a transcript.

AND--she's a killer young candidate herself. She is not the "muffin" that William Pitt described her as. (I could not believe that some internet guy described her that way.)

I have to get back to my books. Politics is not my forte. Human nature is.

And I admire Noelle so much. I hope that one day she will correspond with my daughters.

--jk

...can I find more information on joining the grassroots movement?

:hi:

But I'm sure blogforamerica.com will be involved.

Thanks for posting this. I'll never stop adoring Howard Dean. He is a hero in my book and I can't wait to hear the plan on March 18th. I'm also hoping, though some won't like it, that he will campaign for Kerry or just campaign against Bush. In fact, I can't decide if its better to have him support Kerry by name or support voting for Kerry/against Bush and appeal to those who are having trouble accepting Kerry by allowing them to think of their vote as anti-Bush. The more people push for "dissenters" to love Kerry the more they push those people in the opposite direction. I'm still undecided on how this should be handled.

Leave people alone. Everyone will decide for themselves. John Kerry will be responsible for who does and does not vote for him. So I think HE should be worrying about what he is saying to us and what he is going to do to gain our votes.
For the first time in my life I am considering NOT voting for the nominee of the democratic party and that is a direct result of Kerry's actions and his words and his character. Only he can fix it.

He is really calling him out on two things:
Saying what he did about Social Security, and saying the tax cuts should be permanent.
He said it was shocking and appalling how he and those in DC had lost touch with what ordinary people were going through.

in his future endeavors but the part in this excerpt about supporting "even moderate Republicans" doesn't thrill me much. I think that there is plenty to be accomplished working with grassroots Democrats across the country for any new organization.

I wasn't a Dean supporter (obviously) but I've always respected him and not been a DU critic.

In our local group alone, there are 3 or 4, and several independents as well. Our values and beliefs are very similar in so many ways, and so many of them have discovered they have no party to turn to anymore.

Repub party during the nineties.

They started to do some kind of moderate appeal, but those in power then would not relinquish it.

Religious Dems went Republican. This transformed the Republican party and trashed it. Many Repubs relished this.

How unbelievably stupid.

But now the Dem party is stupid in not realizing that they have to change, seriously, in order to accommodate the shift. Those in power refuse to do so. They think that they have shifted quite enough, thanks, and to shift any more would be to eliminate their relationships with special interests and media.

I saw what happened when I became a Democrat for Howard Dean. I saw how the candidates and the voters were manipulated.

I will remain a Democrat just in time to vote for Dean in our caucuses; after that, I'll go back to my independent status. I've seen what happens in this foul, stinking process.

I am a literary writer, and I can do NO LESS.

At some point, I might start a thread elsewhere to show you what I mean, but for now I am as pissed off as a bull at a red flag and an idiot.

Both parties are changing so, it is hard to get excited. Maybe our Dems are getting a backbone now.

BUT then I look at folks like Lincoln Chaffee in RI, and I think...wow, what an excellent representative for his constituency and what a good legislator he is.

Do I agree with Chaffee on everything, or even most things?

No.

But when the rubber hits the road, so to speak, Chaffee has made courageous, heartfelt, and politically dangerous decisions that bespeak a principled and honest man.

That kind of Republican is more than welcome, deserves support, and should receive our acclaim and possibly help.

So the frame of reference is a bit different. There are issues that matter across the board to some- Jeffords deal breaker was the environment. One should be health care, another education.

Dean is clear that this admin is filled with right wing ideological zealots but he doesn't (and I don't) equate all repubs with wing nut policies, any more than I'd say all dems would support Kerry, should he develop policy based on his personal feelings about gay marriage.

I guess I am so used to the Republicans and Independents in our group here, the way we have all come together, that I don't even think of it that way anymore.

That is strange for me and for my husband, as we have always been Democrats.

The Iraq War is one of the main things that brought the others to support of Dean. I know people say it does not matter anymore, but it really truly does.

To many moderate Republicans it was a betrayal of their beliefs that the US would not invade another country. That is the same way many Democrats felt, and many Independents.

Maybe at one time it would have worried me to hear him say that, but not now. Dean himself is hard to fit in a box and label, and more and more people are getting that way as well.

I don't know how to describe it exactly. The establishment of both parties has moved in the same direction, and it has left a lot of good moderate, caring folks without a home.

That is what happened to us, and the Republicans in our group. When we talk about issues, you can hardly tell a difference between us.

There is just a blurring of lines, it is happening. Not sure where it is going, but Dean recognizes it. Eugene of Truth and Hope.org was a lifelong Republican, but look at the wonderful group he has formed for us. He is the one Dean mentioned in the interview.

I don't know if it is a new phenomenon, but it is real. We have to recognize and cope with it.

Do I agree with all his votes, NO. But then I don't agree with the votes of many democrats. But we have to find the places where we agree and those places should not be for pre-emptive war and crappy education policy.

catering to with his votes in the senate? Of course we have to engage people in other parties. 1/4 of my meet-up are people who are republican or Ind and disgusted with the republican party at this moment. Shall we tell them to go back to bush and leave us alone? don't we also need the votes of moderate republicans in congress to get any reform to happen.

:yourock:

I guess Dean is *coping* rather well :P

We are organizing around the candidate we are running against the incumbent here. Also, we will organize some kind of meeting for the 18th per HQ request, as he announces his plans.

I was surprised the attendance held and added a couple of new ones.

Yes, Dean does not sound like a loser. I do not feel like one either.

:hi:

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I do not see where that conflicts. It would make Kerry's job easier.
:hi:

Change is coming. :hi:

Most of us are going to vote for Kerry. But when he fucks up, we're going to call him on it. And you're just going to have to deal with it.

should should should. Go talk to Kerry about what he should do. Tell him to do it quick because he hasn't done a thing to gain my support yet. I am certainly not telling anyone here not to support him. In fact I hope he wins in Nov. But having Dean chant "support kerry" over and over won't change anything.

Our Meet-Up is gearing up for the campaign of one of us against the GOP incumbent. It is good to see others are still busy with such goals. Good to see him relaxed and rested.

The interview and picture both are inspiring. The Gov looks happy and thoroughly relaxed.

and we discussed some other state and local races we will be supporting. All this grassroots effort will bring new democrats to the voting booth. I hope Kerry will give them a reason to also vote for him. Though I think most will just because bush is so awful.
But we also discussed holding Kerry's feet to the fire once he gets into office if he does.

He calls a spade a spade.

While I have nothing but disdain for the Religious Reich, I really think somebody like Howard Dean could start for the Democrats what the Moral Majority folks started a good 25 years ago in the Republican Party... nobody took them seriously, and any type of presidential candidate would have been laughed at (like Pat Robertson was way back when...) However, they went out and got Fundamentalists elected to local schools boards & town councils and those town council and school board members slowly worked their way up the ranks to the point where the Religious Reich has effective control of the Republican Party nationally, and within many states.

Only not right wing reich. LOL

They have already indentified 110, maybe more by now, people who are running for congress because of his inspiration. They are to stay in contact with the group that is being formed.

We are actively involved in setting up the campaign of one of our group here. It is the first time we have done anything like this.

As he says, this will take a long time and not be easy.