http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7010190255Howard Dean Praises Democratic Candidates For "Looking Like America"
February 29, 2008 1:27 p.m. EST
Julie Farby - AHN Reporter
Washington, DC (AHN)-While speaking to a Georgetown University forum organized by the student chapter of the NAACP, the College Democrats and several other organizations, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean praised the Democratic Party for bringing diversity to the presidential campaign.
Dean, who is the former Governor of Vermont, also blasted the Republican Party for their all-white, male candidates John McCain and Mike Huckabee, saying the GOP "looks like the 1950s and talks like the 1850s."
Meanwhile, in putting forth a woman and an African-American as the Democratic party's two front-runners, Dean praised his party's forward-looking mentality, saying the Democratic field "looks like America."
"The Democratic Party is the party that is dedicated to Dr. King's dream of equality and justice for everybody in America," Dean told the audience during February's Black History Month. "The Democratic Party continues to be at the forefront of ensuring social and economic justice for all Americans. And in this election year, we will make history by electing either the first African-American or the first woman as president of the United States."
Dean also said he was confident in the Democrats ability to take the White House in 2008, calling the Democrats "the party of change" and the one that best embodies the values of the younger generation.
"The younger generation sees themselves as a unified, multicultural generation. That does not mean that racism is dead in America or that race doesn't matter," Dean said, adding that, "What it does mean is that young people have assimilated all the gains of the civil rights movement, and they expect that they're going to be treated the way everyone else is treated."