Howard Dean may inspire new generation of Reagan Democrats

The Detroit News ^ | 8/31/03 | Nolan Finley

[LdSentinal]

What's giving the bosses of Big Labor bellyaches as the nation heads into another presidential race? The prospect that Howard Dean might end up carrying the Democrats' water next fall.

Dean is the folksy physician from Vermont, a former governor who speaks to the heart of die-hard Democratic lefties. He is inspiring an army of aging hippies and youthful idealists who find in his liberal ideals hope for wresting America from the fat cats and returning it to the people.

[Theodore R.]

"Former Governor" Dean could become like "former Governor" Jimmuh Carter 28 years later. If he would start similing more, the media may yet compare him to the compassionate, learned, intellectual "new face" Carter! Then again, Carter's smile was all fake.

With this promise of VT-style health care though, Dean may be stronger than Republicans now think. So much can happen in just a few weeks time in politics.

[Drango]

DEAN/SHARPTON '04

[LdSentinal]

With this promise of VT-style health care though, Dean may be stronger than Republicans now think. So much can happen in just a few weeks time in politics.

I'm sorry, but I have no faith in a man who blasted the United States military for not doing enough in protecting the animals at the Baghdad zoo.

[LdSentinal]

Here are several moderate Dean supporters.

[Batrachian]

"But union members are flag-wavers, much more conservative on issues like national security and gun control, and not likely to fall in line behind an old school peacenik like Dean."

They are flag wavers until it's time to vote, then they vote Democrat. All Dean has to do is spout some protectionist/populist bilge and the union robots will fall in line. Not that we can't use a little protectionism, but neither party is offering it, and neither will Dean.

[zbigreddogz]

Hogwash. The rank-and-file union vote is always up for grabs when it comes to the President, especially if they end up with a candidate like Dean.

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

If they go in big numbers to Bush and the GOP, it increases the possibility that Republicans will win super majorities in the Senate and House, clearing the way for implementing the conservative agenda.

If our prayers are answered, it will reaffirm our belief in God!!

[Theodore R.]

I missed the line about the Baghdad Zoo, but that does sound so "Vermont-like," doesn't it?

Just don't underestimate the appeal of a snake-oil salesman offering people something for which they do not have to pay DIRECTLY. Maybe Dean can be stopped, but if the economy is still called "bad" in October 2004, who knows what folks might decide to do.

[Batrachian]

Then can you explain why they voted for Gore, a self-proclaimed environmentalist who wants to ban the internal combustion engine, and for Clinton who gave them NAFTA, and who they voted for twice?

Things have changed since Reagan.

[LdSentinal]

Just don't underestimate the appeal of a snake-oil salesman offering people something for which they do not have to pay DIRECTLY. Maybe Dean can be stopped, but if the economy is still called "bad" in October 2004, who knows what folks might decide to do.

You are correct with that assertion; however, Gephardt, Lieberman, Kerry, and John Edwards are more electable than Nikita Dean. When I changed my registration from a Republican to a Democrat to vote in their presidential primaries, I intended to vote for Lieberman due the inherent anti-semitism of liberal elites and that blacks won't be going to the polls to elect a Jew to he presidency. However, when I go to the polls on March 3, 2004, I am voting for Howard the Duck, because his supporters are absolute nut-jobs.

[No Dems 2004]

Howard Dean is a major-league loser. I trust and pray he'll never make it near the White House.

[Squat830]

It's like I told one of my Liberal friends "Please please PLEASE!! give HoDean the democratic nomination. He's so far left that W will crush this clown."

[onyx]

Get this about the "outsider" Howard Dean:

He is wooing major Democratic fund-raisers: breakfast with hotelier Jonathan Tisch this morning, later a meeting with financier Roy Furman, and a dinner in his honor at the home of billionaire George Soros.

“Howard Dean impressed me as a serious candidate with a broad vision and a fresh voice,” Soros says via email.
“Like Kerry, he is certainly a very attractive alternative to Bush.”

Furman, the vice-chairman of Jefferies & Company, was so enthused he agreed to dial for dollars for Dean. “Howard has magnetism. It doesn’t bother me that my friends don’t have the slightest idea who he is,” says Furman, an early supporter of that other small-state governor turned presidential long shot, Bill Clinton. “Dean will be discovered.”

The Vermonter-New Yorker also pitched his ideas to Rob Reiner, Larry David, Stephen Bing, Norman Lear, and Nora Ephron at a Spago lunch.

“I liked him,” Ephron says. “He has a modesty and a lack of razzle-dazzle that’s charming.”

http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/politics/national/n_8376/

[Capt. Tom]

I missed the line about the Baghdad Zoo, but that does sound so "Vermont-like," doesn't it?

Excerpt from http://bulldogbulletinarchives.lhhosting.com/page32B79.htm

Dean says the danger in Iraq is that the situation there has descended into full-blown Gorilla war, with some male Gorillas weighing up to 600 pounds. "Bush should've stationed troops to guard the Baghdad Zoo -- what the hell was he thinking?" he said. Asked how many troops are actively serving in the U.S. military, Dean said he still can't say precisely, but that aids will teach him well before being sworn in as president.

[LS]

Well, the Teamsters endorsed Reagan and he won large percentages of the union vote. It's not impossible, and, given that the alternative is Nikita Dean, it's not even unlikely.

[Recovering_Democrat]

Dean...will bring out college students who otherwise wouldn't vote.

I disagree with the writer on this point. College students are not going to go through the fire for Howard Dean. Look, college students who think, and there are damn few of those these days, will not vote for Howie. Dean is going to motivate the already-whacked out idiots in college...and he'll be lucky if 33% of those remember to wake up on Election Day to go vote for him.

OTOH, the voter fraud potential for liberals in upcoming election cycles is very important...if the socialists can find a way to steal votes--and I believe they are constantly looking for tactics--we'll have a real problem keeping this country free.

[Timesink]

Dean is the folksy physician from Vermont...

Folksy? He is the living EMBODIMENT of the Elite Limousine Liberal Snob! Here's a bit of a Dean bio grabbed off the net:

Dean was born into a wealthy New York family in 1948. The oldest of four brothers and the son of a wealthy, conservative stock broker, he grew up in the Hamptons and the Upper-East side where he attended elite private schools. In 1967 he entered Yale University. While at Yale, Dean discovered that he had an innate sympathy for the civil rights movement and the plight of the poor. He steered clear of radical protests and student demonstrations, later saying that he “instinctively distrusted ideologues,” but he also came to oppose the escalating Vietnam War.

[onyx]

Look how connected Dean supporter Steve Grossman is:

"Michael Dukakis, tapped Grossman as a cochairman of his 1988 presidential bid. “I always saw myself as a grassroots activist,” Grossman says. “As a kid, I went door to door to get petitions signed with my uncle in southeastern
Massachusetts.”

After Dukakis’s campaign fizzled, Grossman found himself working with an unexpected patron. Future Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown was in the running for DNC chairman, but his stint heading Jesse Jackson’s '88 Democratic convention
operation seemed to hinder his chances of attracting Jewish support. Grossman called Brown -- who didn’t know him -- and offered help. Brown won the position and elevated Grossman to the DNC board.

Later, as president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Grossman met another future patron: then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton. Grossman had been assigned to brief the governor before a speech to AIPAC; he was
struck “by how a person who did not have a great deal of knowledge could absorb so much information and give such an extraordinary speech the next day,” he says. “I thought to myself, This is a man whom, if he ever runs for President,
I will do everything I can to elect.’”

In January 1997, while at home in Boston watching a football game on TV, Grossman received a call from Vice-President Gore asking him to come to Washington to talk about “the future of the party.” Figuring the conversation
would include an offer to become national chairman of the DNC, Grossman talked over the idea with his family. His father told him that “you don’t say no to the President.” He agreed to take the job, provided he could still live part time in Boston.

Though a few years earlier Grossman had helped the Massachusetts Democratic Party climb out of its debts, the DNC’s financial house was in far worse order. At its worst, the DNC was $15.3 million in the red, much of that for
legal expenses related to fundraising investigations. But Grossman has managed to reduce that number by more than half.



http://www.princeton67.com/notes/980610.htm

[Capt. Tom]

So much can happen in just a few weeks time in politics.

Carters entry into the Democrat field in 1976 was a joke. About on the level of the no name nobody Dean from an insignificant state. Carter didn't stand a chance against this field.

There were others like him who didn't have a chance also. Look the field over and pick the winners.

The losers like Harris, Carter, Wallace, Brown,Shapp, Roden,are easy to spot. But things happen don't they?

Bentsen, Lloyd Democratic presidential hopeful in 1976.

Brown, Jerry Presidential hopeful in 1976, 1980, and 1992, Democratic Party.

Byrd, Robert Presidential hopeful in 1976, Democratic Party.

Carter, Jimmy elected in 1976.

Church, Frank Presidential hopeful in 1976, Democratic Party.

Harris, Fred Presidential hopeful in 1976, Democratic Party.

Humphrey, Hubert H. Democratic Party nominee for president in 1968. Democratic presidential hopeful in 1976.

Jackson, Henry M. "Scoop" Democratic hopeful for president in 1972 and 1976.

Kennedy, Edward M. "Ted" Presidential hopeful in 1976 and 1980, Democratic Party.

Muskie, Edmund S. Democratic presidential hopeful in 1972, 1976, and 1980.

Roden, George Presidential hopeful in 1976, Democratic Party.

Shapp, Milton Presidential hopeful in 1976, Democratic Party.

Shriver, Sargent Presidential hopeful in 1976, Democratic Party.

Udall, Morris "Mo" Presidential hopeful in 1976, Democratic Party.

Wallace, George C. Presidential nominee of the American Independent Party in 1968. Democratic presidential hopeful in 1972 and 1976.