Dean Crafts Own 'Southern Strategy'

Washington Post ^ | 12/8/03 | Jim VandeHei

[NYC Republican]

Former Vermont governor Howard Dean on Sunday accused the Republican Party of purposely dividing the country over "guns, God and gays" and "stirring up racial prejudices" to win presidential elections.

"In 1968, [Republican] Richard Nixon won the White House," Dean said in remarks prepared for delivery in South Carolina. "He did it in a shameful way: by dividing Americans against one another, stirring up racial prejudices and bringing out the worst in people. They called it the southern strategy, and the Republicans have been using it ever since." Republicans deny they divide the nation over race.

[GungaLaGunga]

That's his strategy? Richard Nixon was a divider? Another nail goes in the coffin....

[NYC Republican]

That's his strategy? Richard Nixon was a divider? Another nail goes in the coffin

Laughable, huh? He's insulting the good people of the South with this "strategy".

[.cnI redruM]

Watergate in Election 2004? I guess it's no more far-fetched than bringing Herbert Hoover out of mouth balls every time the Dems run against a GOP incumbent.

[c-b 1]

Secondly, a large number of influential Democrats, many of them former high-level advisers to President Bill Clinton and state leaders, are growing increasingly concerned that Dean's antiwar, anti-tax-cut campaign could doom the party's chances of winning back the White House and Congress. If Dean can't quickly exhibit an ability and willingness to broaden his appeal, especially in the South, these Democrats may join together in a campaign to stop him, several said.

Are Hillary's fingerprints on this?

[Conspiracy Guy]

Dean is the cream of the Democrap hopefuls. I hope he gets the nod.

[ZULU]

It will be easier for a camle to pass through the eye of a needle than for Dean to win a southern state.
(Has he got a steel rod shoved up his rectum into his head or something?? The guy never seems to be able to turn his head without moving his torso. He looks like he has no neck.)

By the way, that Wallace guy who replaced Tony Snow on FOX NEWs is a REAL loser. He has all the personality of a dead fish. When interviewing Andrew Card this weekend, he couldn't even let the guy finish answering a question without interrupting him.

They should dump this Wallace geek. Maybe replace him with Lorrie Dhu.

[alaskanfan]

"I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks" & then a few days later "I think the Confederate flag is a racist symbol." -- Howard Dean, apparently courting what he sees as the racist vote..... posted earlier today by Happy2BMe

Yes Mr. Dean your southern stratergy is quite clear.

[Heatseeker]

My sense of it is that Dean's "southern strategy" is for the primaries only: he has no hope for any southern state in the general.

There are a couple of prospective nominees who could pull Arkansas, and I think Clark or Edwards has an outside shot (very outside) at Georgia or North Carolina. Unfortunately for the Dems I doubt either of these can get the nomination.

The reality for them is that the South is lost and in the general I doubt you'd see the Dem candidate spend much time there. PA, AZ, and the midwest are the battlegrounds.

Just my humble opinions. I'm always interested in hearing others' takes on this.

[BlueNgold]

Umm how are we dividing the people when he is the one out hollering about these issues?
What he and other NE elites will never understand is that in the south the issues of religion, family, patriotism, and protection are subtexts, a daily part of life, and they do not need to be bandied about ... unless and until they are threatened. Many southerners will read his comments as a declaration that he in fact does intend to threaten those things they hold dear. He may even have trouble carrying Vermont if he keeps this up ... lol.

[You Dirty Rats]

What in the Wide World of Sports is Dean talking about? In 1968 it was a 'Rat, GEORGE WALLACE, who divided the 'RAT party over race and took votes away from HHH. Wallace carried six southern states!! He was the last 3rd party candidate to carry a state in a Presidential Election.

Jesse Jackson ought to remember what was going on in the South in 1968. Wasn't he at the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Howard Dean is more confused than John Dean.

[Billthedrill]

Well, what he said in Texas was that the election down there was all about those things, not that the Republicans had made it so. It's still a stupid ploy. What he's saying, in fact, is that those things aren't important enough to consider and that his priorities are. That isn't, actually, up to him, it's up to the voters, the ones who are being irritated by his pontificating in the matter. Somebody really needs to buy this guy a clue.

[uncbob]

bringing Herbert Hoover out of mouth balls every time the Dems run against a GOP incumbent.

democrats always been a bunch of scum who could care less about the country as long as they get power

Hoover tried to get the same type of legislation through congress that FDR later used to try and end the depresssion but the scum bag democrats in congress blocked it because they wanted to insure a bad economy so a dem could get elected president

[txzman]

The only people using race in this political season are the Dems,Dean, Jackson and black leaders who live off fostering hate.

[Sloth]

Dean's new strategy to court Southern voters: "You incestuous, barefoot rednecks need to crawl out from under your outhouses and vote for a candidate who truly understands your concerns, if not your uneducated hick accents."

[nicksaunt]

Is this man really this arrogant and stupid?

No need to respond, I know the answer.

[EDINVA]

the country wasn't divided along racial lines before Nixon? It wasn't a racial animus that guaranteed the Democrats a "solid south" ??? whatever am I missing here?

[.cnI redruM]

I think he's giving all us Southerners the finger and trying to tell us he thinks we're #1.

[longtermmemmory]

It is a strategy, he is trying bunch those groups into one anti-american (aka anti-democrat aka anti-liberal) group. It is a sneaky effort to create marginalization thought crimes.

Dean is spooky.

[colorado tanker]

You're right. Dizzy Dean doesn't even realize that Wallace took the Deep South in 1968. Nixon won despite losing the Deep South. What a Dim bulb.

BTW, after his third party effort failed, Wallace returned to the Dim party, as most of the segregationist Dims stayed with the Democrats. The South came over to the Republicans after the Dims split over Vietnam, 1968-1972, and the McGovern wing grabbed control. The Dims will never admit they gave the South away because they turned their back on the conservative, pro-military, pro-defense, wing of their party.

A higher percentage of Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 than Democrats. The claim the pubbies won over Southern voters after 1968 because of race is a blood libel.