Inside the Dean campaign on CNN at 8 Eastern

I am steeling myself for a hatchet job part.

I am sure it's tough for some people to watch. A lot of this campaign was built on hope. There is still hope for many of us, but not the way some dean supporters expected.

It also appears that they had no idea how they were spending money. One of the outstanding and possibly disturbing problems is that Dean changed his message late.

It just looks like they didn't know how to close. I wrote something in July saying Dean wouldn't win and the grassroots doesn't matter. I was right. The candidate matters more than anything.

is CNn trying to get the FCC on Joe Triipi or something? :shrug: I don'tuderstand why they left that in..

I am still trying to figure out why I got attached to the whole Dean thing when Dean was so way to the right from where I stand. I saw all his flaws that his detractors here at DU pointed out but it didn't matter to me. I think it was the movement more than the man that "seduced" me. I don't know. All I know is that this is sad to watch and I am not quite sure why. :(

Anyway I am gonna try my damndest to get enthused about Kerry now.

That is a very powerful feeling. But Dean's campaign didn't just do it for him. He did it for all the dems. The problem with Dean is he was not a good messenger. His background and his mouth were not good. That's what did him in.

Kerry is a better politician with more national experience. That's partly why he closed so well.

Dean's internet organizing and dedication of his campaign workers were second to none. No question people gravitated to him early on when he was making strong statements against Bush. Hell, I contributed money twice on the basis of his comments/press releases commenting against this administration.

But ultimately, there were stronger candidates in the field. As much as I respect Howard Dean and his campaign, I truly think our best candidate was chosen by the people....but I hope we can look forward to Howard's continued involvement with the Party and the election of a Democrat in November.

I was surprised that the movement happened. I liked the man, I liked how he said the things that needed to be said.

Whenever Dean said almost anything, he was saying something I was already thinking. It was almost kind of weird.

He was, if anything, too straightforward.

"part of the internet movement" as so many like to paint Dean supporters. Many of our group had no internet connection, they just had a dream...that things could be set right again.

It is disturbing to see it treated as such. :hi:

an amazing tool. In the early days especially, it was marvelous to be able to send messages to the campaign and know that those messages would be read.

on some of the issues in the past and present. He always said all the right things but I watch what politicians do/have done more than listen to what they say. I won't get into the particulars of my personal beliefs but Kucinich should have been the man I was for hands down. I don't know, I am kind of confused in retrospect about why I even supported Dean and fought with other DUers on his behalf when lots of the time I could see their point. :shrug:

have done part of your post. That these people support him shows me that the man was not a myth. That he would have (finally) brought about real change...and that many were just not ready for it.

:hi:

I would have supported him until the end if he stayed in despite my private reservations. I voted for him here in CT on super tuesday even. Of all the candidates running he wasn't the one most in line with my views but I supported him anyways. I guess I am trying to figure out why. :hi:

It was so easy to see how the Dean fever could hit anyone. I did say a long time ago just what you did: It was the process not the politics that turned on a lot of Dean fans.

Anyway, I thought it was a very good show and well done. There were no villians....except the media.

I am a glutten for punishment. :( I hated to see the look on the supporters faces near the end when they new it was over. oh well...time to move on a hope our candidate beats the crap out of Bush in November.

What will I remember?

Trippi exasperatingly saying, "Why is Kerry on every fuckin' channel?" while Dean was still up in Iowa.

Trippi blowing up after the Dean Scream got repeated everywhere. "This is assassination."

The special including the uncut footage of the speech, showing that he couldn't be heard above the din of the crowd. Gee, thanks, CNN.

Later.

RJS

I'd add Nixon's 'Checkers' speech and

"It's the people stupid."

when Trippi was watching it--that part of the CNN documentary made no sense to me, but maybe I missed something.

Also, Crowley was awful.

One of the examples of the media's warped perspective at that time.

I agree about Crowley.

Which network or cable channel did that, do you know?

If I was to guess, I'd say MSNBC but it could well be CNN since it was their special.

For those in later time zones, and it will likely be repeated.

It was surprisingly "fair and balanced" neither a hatchet job nor glossing things over. More like "cinema verite" where reality is presented and you can draw your own conslusions.

It focused heavily on Trippi.

You can't do everything in an hour. This was more focused on one aspect.

This is interesting because the cable channels were showing it nonstop just before Iowa.

and I've got "partner" in house watching because it looked like a "Trippi Trash" rather than an "Indepth on Dean" from a serious perspective.

So far, "partner" and "me" walking in and out of room for "high points" agree that it's a "Dean Trash."

I hope that maybe some folks disagree with me here. That we missed something that the "Promo" seemed to alert us to...that an "unshaven" blurry Trippi would be the feature of this with interviews of "Trip" in bars and lots of loud music ....and weird VH-1 Rock Star on the Skids stuff thrown in.

Tell me I'm wrong about this CNN (to me Trash Dean Piece of Work) but I got stomach cramps from the little I was able to watch....:shrug:

I hope I'm wrong...that I jumped to conclusions which weren't warranted.

I'm usually quck to have an allergic reaction to media bias. But I liked this one.

This struck me more like an honest, impressionistic documentary about life behind the scenes than anything. It captured the sense of it better than talking heads or careful inteviews.

I actually felt more enthusiastic about what the dean campaign represented after watching it.

It seemed very fair. I think that it showed a lot of bad politics in his campaign. Dean was right about the we are not safer comment. but they were out maneuvered by their opponents.

at what it did, no one (with any influence on Dean himself) realized that this internet thing had virtually NO impact on convincing normal Democratic voters in Iowa to go to a caucuses and cast a vote for Dean.

Kerry was the one candidate whom older caucus goers recognized and felt comfortable with voting for. That is why Kerry won Iowa and given the other problems, the campaign just could not recover from the failure to meet expectations. These voters by and large were not influenced by anything happening on the internet

I love Howard Dean, and I hate him (for what he did to Gephardt).

Sorry but give me a break. Gephardt started and finished it.

Politics is not tiddly winks. Politics is a bloodsport and has never been for the faint of heart.

Don

and I still think Dean was assasinated by the media, especially after the scream. What I saw though was Gephardt and Lieberman doing hatchet job on Dean, Dean fighting back, and Kerry and Edwards cashing in.

I get a lot of satisfaction that Gephardt and Lieberman dropped out before Dean did.

the man and his message.

It was interesting, sad, inspiring and discouraging all at the same time.

I enjoyed getting to know Joe Trippi, but I did hope to see more of Dean.

I feel it captured the feelings of Dean supporters and of his staff, but little about Dean and/or his feelings about the campaign.

Dean supporters, and it did that job, but it left a couple of important things out.

The first time I was watching it I could feel something was missing, but could not figure out what it was. This time it hit me. Where are the minorities working for the campaign? I know he must have had minorities working for him, but did CNN just not show any? I don't get it?

Don

Because Vermont has virtually no minorities here. There were lots of minorities working for Dean, but Vermont just doesn't have many here.