If Dean loses, will he quit? The Dean third party threat.

Slate ^ | 12/17/03 | Mickey Kaus

[bdeaner]

I hadn't thought of this scenario before. With Dean as a third party candidate, the Rats would be royally screwed. Looks like they are screwed either way.

[bdeaner]

Headline should read:
"If Dean loses, will he quit?"

[Consort]

Maybe he'll quit and be quite quiet.

[1Old Pro]

He should quietly quite.

[dirtboy]

He's quite an idiot.

[CWOJackson]

Perhaps he and buchanan could start their own party and run as co-presidents.

[11th Earl of Mar]

I had not quit thought about this. Do you think he is series?

[massadvj]

Dean is going to quite? This is Hugh!!! Wahta a maroon.

[Miss Marple]

It doesn't matter if Dean leaves for the Greens or stays a democrat. If he loses the nomination, his followers will not vote for Gephardt or Kerry. They will, like RFK's followers in 1968, simply stay home or vote for the Green candidate as a sour grapes maneuver.

[Huck]

Quite while your ahead.

[Constitution Day]

Whiners never quite and quiters never whine.

[Dont Mention the War]

a fluid two-party system in which the #2, or even #1 banner is up for grabs every election, to be captured by one of several competing self-started Internet-organized groups that may not even have existed the year before.

I'm sorry, but this is crap. There is nothing special about the Internet at all when it comes to politics, except that it makes information dissemination a bit easier. There is no reason whatsoever that Dean couldn't have accomplished what he did without using the Internet much at all. Besides, if anything, it was the Iraq war that made him the frontrunner, because it allowed him to tap into the steaming pile of far-left hatred that was stirred up by our major military success (a pile of hatred that makes up almost all of the Democratic Party base these days). If there hadn't been a war, Dean would be little more than an angrier Dennis Kucinich. Does anyone here seriously believe that Howard Dean became HOWARD DEAN because he made himself look cool to a bunch of semi-literate college students "cause he's online dude and the others aren't!"? Please.

By the way, anyone that's done any serious poking around on Dean's "Internet presence" has discovered that, in large measure, it doesn't exist. Yes, many mailing lists were created, many Meetup gatherings are constantly scheduled. But what you're never told is that 98.5% of those mailing lists are dormant, have less than ten subscribers each, or both; and that the vast majority of those Meetups have about five people show up, when anyone shows at all. (Anyone can create a "gathering" on the Meetup site. It doesn't mean a single person will actually sign up, much less show up, but you can be sure it will be counted in the Dean statistics regardless.) Even the emails and cell phone text messages from Dean HQ have slowed to a trickle. It was all a front to suck in donations. It's served its purpose and will now largely be abandoned as he focuses on winning Iowa and New Hampshire, where the voters expect to meet the candidates in person, not via a webcam.

[eureka!]

Tuogh crowd, eh? ;^)

[spokeshave]

This is hugh....even series

[eureka!]

vey series...

[rintense]

He might quit, but I doubt he'll be quiet.

[Zack Nguyen]

If Dean loses the first three or four primaries, it will be quite difficult or him to win the nomination. If he loses six he is finished. Both parties design their primaries this way, specifically to keep maverick independent candidates out, and candidates who favor the party elite in. That is why this Dean thing is so surprising. His is a solely grassroots phenomenon, which both parties have tried to stamp out.

It might be, as another poster pointed out, the Democrats Goldwater. He may lose, but will become the face of the Democrat Party within 10 years.

[bdeaner]

Tuogh crowd, eh? ;^)

Quite. ;^)

[RckyRaCoCo]

quite it or i'm gonna loose it.

[.cnI redruM]

Give this pore guy a brak. Everyone misspels a werd or to.