”Howard Dean really is the only candidate who has been able to inspire at the grass-roots level all over this country, the kind of passion and enthusiasm for democracy and change and transformation of America that we need.” — Al Gore
Like a lot of people, I was at first a bit disappointed that Al Gore endorsed Howard Dean. First, I was still dreaming that Gore might be drafted when no one else proved as popular. Second, though I like Dean most of the other candidates (after Gore), I was looking forward to the primary process to weed out some of the Nine. Let the voters speak.
On the other hand, many have been bothered by too many candidates with little or no chance. For example, though I greatly respect Carol Mosley Braun, like much of what she has said and would, in fact, vote for her instead of Bush, she doesn’t really have a chance — and I am truly sorry to say that. I could say the same about Dennis Kucinich. I don’t fault any of these candidates for trying and appreciate the messages they have communicated. If only they had stayed on target with attacking Bush and uniting voters against him. The last few “debates” seem mostly to be try-outs for VP — who will bring the most to the presumptive Dean ticket? Who has attacked Dean the least?
There should be one thing that unites ALL Democrats, Independents, Libertarians, and countless others: dump Bush. Get Bush out of the White House. This is going to be much more difficult than it should be — the Radical Right literally has a stranglehold on power. It is already time for the general campaign against Bush. It is time to stop spending money and time undermining the eventual Democratic candidate. I’m afraid that Gore’s announcement will not succeed in uniting everyone NOW, not later, but that may have been the right idea.
Dump Bush and the Radical Right. Vote for the Democrat! mjh
Dump Bush — Keep George W. Bush a one-term president
News Analysis: Dean’s Role Is Redefined by Gore’s Endorsement By R. W. APPLE Jr., NYTimes
Al Gore’s endorsement confirms the status of Howard Dean as that rarest of animals in the jungle of presidential nominating politics: an insurgent front-runner. It gives him the legitimacy he has been seeking, but it also presents him with problems of self-definition.
Gore’s endorsement divides Dems / Race now pits Dean against everyone else
Gore praised Dean’s early opposition to the war in Iraq, calling him “the only major candidate who made the correct judgment.” He urged Democrats to rally around the former Vermont governor, saying “we don’t have the luxury of fighting among ourselves to the point where we seriously damage our ability to win” the White House back.
Gore, the party’s standard-bearer in 2000, declared Tuesday morning that Dean is the strongest candidate to defeat Bush. By evening, none of the other candidates would even acknowledge the possibility that Dean could win the presidency, an indication of potential divisiveness ahead.
Hi Mark,
This revolution will not be pundit-ized. However, I thought this guy was picking up on the real dynamic pretty well:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51811-2003Dec10.html
Hi again. I am
sharing part of a letter I’ve written about the endorsement. I am not a pundit, which means what I have to say will not make you want to
shove your head through a wall at the sheer insane banality of turning the truth inside out like a pretzel.
–
A couple months ago at a
meetup they gave us a list of people we could write to ask to endorse Dean, and Gore was one of them. I poured a lot of myself into a
handwritten letter to Mr. Gore. I told him that we were his heritage, that when the people broke the first bat back in June and were
celebrating on the Dean blog, I gave him a shoutout for sponsoring the legislation that made the internet and thus our efforts possible.
Then I acknowledged he was maligned for saying he “invented the internet,” when he never said such a thing. I told him that the people
had not fought for him in 2000 but that since then, we had learned we have to fight for our leaders, when we found one who would stand up
for us. I let him know I had thanked him publicly for the good work he has done for the American people.
It turns out that Al Gore
received about 2500 handwritten letters from Dean supporters– not paid staff, not a brochure, not a petition— and that this was a
factor in his decision. He had the opportunity to read many of the letters. There were some great posts on the Dean blog on the occasion
of his endorsement. “I wrote Mr. Gore! You all can thank ME for bringing him in!” This whole sense of pride in it came from ordinary
folks. And I felt a bit of a thrill myself, that I knew I had honestly played a part in persuading Mr. Al Gore to endorse Dr. Dean.
I
told Gore that Dean was a candidate who could look in you the eye and tell you, “we’re going to give Americans a reason to vote again,”
and you believe him.
I had the privilege of hearing Howard Dean speak in person when he was here in NM for the first DNC-sponsored
debate. He met with his supporters twice. Outdoors, before the debate, he gave a version of his stump speech. I was about ten feet away,
close enough to see the fire in his eyes. He literally gave me chills. Without meaning to, because it was not a big enough crowd to be
lost in while doing this, I was jumping up and cheering by the end when he pointed at us in turn, giving us real eye contact, and said,
“YOU have the power to take our country back.” These words had meaning because before this part of the speech, he was speaking out loud
the stuff I had been screaming at my TV for the last 3 years. And he had been out front saying this stuff all over the country for an
entire year. My personal impression was one of intelligence, grit, sincerity and integrity.
After the debate, he took time to meet
with his supporters upstairs at the SUB, standing room only. He offered a speech or Q&A, and let the room decide. He had yet another
engagement afterwards and did not have time for both. The man was genuine and present to his audience despite a very demanding day. He is
at his best in this setting, speaking spontaneously with actual people, not in a media-scripted event. The Dean I saw then, is the one I
wish I could introduce people to. One question in particular, the last he took, still stands out in my mind. The questioner was a former
Green supporter who said he thought one of the biggest problems we faced was the power struggle between globalism and localism. Dr. Dean
turned this into a quick 5 minute lesson and said the real problem was corporatism, not globalism. And he said we can fight that. He said
one of his struggles as governor of Vermont was the new WTO agreement which allowed multinational corporations to override local
environmental regulations. He said they used the threat of cancelling the corporate charter in Vermont to get a corporation to sign
agreements to comply. People in the room were so fired up and encouraged by his words.
I can describe Dr. Dean personally as
practical, populist, passionate, and principled. He closes most of his stump speeches quoting Lincoln, that “government of the people, by
the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Everything about Dr. Dean, from his choices in careers as an adult, to
his audacity in speaking truth to power, to how he conducts his campaign democratically as an “open-source” movement, conveys his right
to say those words. He first got into politics because he wanted a bike path in Burlington. (He got it by the way.)
If for nothing
else than to confound a pundit, it is worth checking out the Dean campaign for yourself: http://deanforamerica.com and
http://blogforamerica.com
We don’t need the pundits to tell us how to think, nor do we need the establishment to tell us what to do.
The revolution will not be punditized.
Sharon-
Thanks for
this personal perspective. mjh