DEMS FORM CIRCULAR FIRING SQUAD.
No wonder we lose elections.
Someone should tell John Edwards and Joe Biden to shut the fuck Hell up!
Howard Dean knows EXACTLY what he’s doing, and you are making it impossible for him to do his damn job.
Dean is a genius at getting the Democratic attack message out against the GOP.
He says something controversial. The GOP bitches and moans about it. And Howard Dean gets EXTENSIVE MEDA COVERAGE to expand on hs remark, and make the GOP look bad.
Case in point, the latest dustup about Republicans not earning an honest living.
His initial remark got little coverage, until the GOP starting bitchig about it. Then Dean got interviewed in TV about it and he responded thusly, according to CNN’s report:
“Dean said that he did not intend his remarks to refer to the more than 50 million American people who voted for President Bush’s re-election, but rather to Republican leaders whom he said do not understand the difficulties of waiting in line for eight hours to vote, as some did in Florida during the last election.
“We don’t go after voters,” he said. “But we do go after bad leadership,” and cited the national deficit and the war in Iraq as evidence of the Republican administration’s incompetence.”
RIGHT BEWTEEN THE GOP’s EYES!
It’s a brilliant strategy that got undermined by dumbshits Edwards and Biden who don’t understand what Dean is doing.
“Dean said Friday of his characteristically strong words, “I guess my job is to outrage the Republicans these days.”
By attacking Dean, these birdbrains are playing right into the GOP’s hands.
Dean gets more free coverage for Democratic attacks on the GOP than anybody except maybe Harry Reid. And he does it by creating a GOP backlash to a comment, and then getting to explain it unhindered on national TV shows.
But that only works if he doesn’t get stabbed in the back by his own party! Instead of Dean’s message that the GOP leadership are screwing hard-working Americans, the GOP message that Dean is peddling hate and attacking Bush voters is advanced by Edwards and Biden!
UPDATE: The obvious should also be pointed out. Namely that both Edwards and Biden, who are both probably going to run for President in 2008, think that attacking Dean will gain them some votes.
Putting aside the problem of insulting your BASE voters before the primaries have even begun, I predict that not a single Bush voter will support Edwards or Biden because they criticized Howard Dean. Even if they agree with their assassement of Dean, Biden and Edwards just look like pandering pussies who will shoot their own allies in the back for cheap political gain.
Dean gave them a gift! The opportunity to KICK THE STORY for another news cycle and REAPEAT his attack on the GOP leadership. Instead, they pull the trap door open under him.
This is going to be a LOOOOONG three years.
UPDATE: John Edwards tries to kiss base voter ass, while still saying he disagrees with Howard Dean:
“What a flap has arisen over a disagreement about the way something is said! I was in Nashville over the weekend, thanking the good people of Tennessee who supported the Democratic presidential ticket this year, when I was asked whether I thought that it was fair to say that people who were Republican hadn’t done a good day’s work. Of course, I didn’t think so, and I said that. I don’t think our DNC chair, Howard Dean, would put it that way again if asked either. I disagreed with him, and I said so. And, I want to be clear, I would have to say so again if I were asked again. I said a lot of good things about Howard’s outreach program and invigoration of the internet as a communication and fundraising tool, but no one wrote about that. Instead the headlines blared that I disagreed with Howard. And then the flap arose: A chasm! A split! A revolt!
[…]
We are both talking about the Republicans and their failure to address the needs of working people. We both agree with this basic truth: This Republican president and this Republican majority are not doing what they should be doing for working people in this country. That’s a core belief we need to fight for. And what’s more, we agree that we - all Democrats and all working people - should be complaining, criticizing, and generally speaking out about this critical failure of the Republican party and offering our positive vision for America. And we have.
Howard and I have been saying the same thing about this for years. Hear that? The same thing. For years. Have I ever put it some way that Howard wouldn’t agree with? Probably. And he put it in a way, once, just the other day, that I can’t agree with, since I come from a place where hard-working people, who are better served by the agenda and passion of the Democrats, somehow still vote Republican. But Howard and I are committed to a 50-state strategy that will reach out to those voters, in North Carolina, and in Kansas, and in Tennessee, across this country and tell the truth about what is happening in this country to their jobs, to their health care, to their forests and streams, to their vision of what this country is and should be.
This President is not fighting for our jobs. His administration has on numerous occasions said that the out-sourcing of American jobs is good for this country. Well, it may be good for Wall Street, but it is lousy on Main Street. If he thinks that jobs moving overseas is good for us, why would he ever fight for American jobs?”
If you didn’t like the headlines, John, you should have held your tongue.
What did you EXPECT the press to do?
June 6th, 2005 at 12:20 pm
I think you have it backwards. The Dems won the vote of every major city in the US. The crowd of people that we need to reach out to are the people in small towns who seem republican but just put religion first.
What we need is someone who can reach out to the people in the small republican town. Not some rich brat who grew up on the upper east side manhattan. Even if you like Dean, the people you are talking shit about don’t. That’s the problem.
Dean a genius? I wish.
June 6th, 2005 at 12:37 pm
The Democratic Party is never going to reach the “crowd of people in small towns” by marketing itself as a kinder, gentler GOP. It’s not the family wealth or place of origin of the party spokesperson that determines the effectiveness of the message, it’s the message itself.
The people in those small towns need to find out that they are screwing themselves when they vote Republican, and they’ll never find that out from Joe Biden. Edwards will talk a better game, but his record shows that he’s full of crap. Dean is on point and on message - he has the courage of his convictions and that’s what will get the message across to middle America.
June 6th, 2005 at 1:22 pm
Edwards did the same thing to him during the campaign when Dean wanted to talk about race issues. I really want to like Edwards, but damn, he’s making it difficult. As for Biden (D-MBNA), he’s the classic character who waits in the trench until all the dead and wounded are on the battlefield dead and dying and only then rushes onto the field to proclaim his unswerving fealty to the cause. He’s horrible.
June 6th, 2005 at 1:55 pm
You nailed it Hesiod!
Biden can be a brilliant, pragmatic statesman at times, and a crass political opportunist around Election time. Although, he was protecting his state’s credit card company constituents, his vote for the Bankruptcy Bill will be his eventual albatross.
Edwards’ pandering however, disappoints me more. Because, he obviously believes he has not earned any political capitol with the Democratic base, or the American electorate, for that matter.
So, by playing from the GOP Talking Points like it’s November 3, 2004, Edwards believes the last 7 disastrous months of Bush’s second term have changed nothing.
June 6th, 2005 at 2:08 pm
“I really want to like Edwards, but damn, he’s making it difficult.”
I’m tired of his rookie, lameass mistakes. He’s growing squishier by the day, and I won’t vote for anybody who shrinks from aggressively confronting the menace of today’s theofascist Republican party. If John Edwards can’t bring himself to at least shut the fuck up when appropriate, he might as well stop his perpetual campaigning right now. His brand of mealy-mouth platitudes is the last thing the Democratic Party needs today… or tomorrow. Those that aren’t strengthening the party are weakening it, and they need to be held accountable for putting their own interests above those of rank & file Dems.
Step up or step off, Edwards. And quit acting like a goddamn Teletubby.
June 6th, 2005 at 2:38 pm
Step up or step off, Edwards. And quit acting like a goddamn Teletubby.
LOL
June 6th, 2005 at 3:02 pm
Kerry thought he could get to the top by appearing stronger on defense, but otherwise centrist. Edwards thinks he can get there by appearing stronger on wallet issues, but otherwise centrist.
Dean, who’s not in the race for 2008, is a delegated point man reaching to the roots, talking the truth, baiting the press to get face time. There’s a time to move to the center but it sure as hell shouldn’t be in an off-year. Move the public to the Left as far as you can in the off years. Move to the center too soon and when Super Tuesday comes, you can only move to the Right.
Edwards still doesn’t get it. Dean does. Maybe Kerry does now. (Biden isn’t even a contender so I dismiss him totally). But if the economy gets a boost in the next two years, Edwards won’t have an issue left.
I keep looking for good governors to jump in, like Warner and Richardson, plus I’m keeping my eye out for Feingold, who’s just as smart as Dean.
A VA/WI ticket would be hard for the GOP to beat. But in the meantime, you’re exactly right. Except I don’t think the firing squad hurts Dean as long as he continues to ignore them and do his thing.
June 7th, 2005 at 9:44 am
I think Edwards should be cut some slack. Don’t lump him with Biden.
Also, why hold Edwards to a higher standard than you would for Dean? No one is perfect in making public statements - that goes for all of our best politicians. Edwards took the care to come out and expain, in his follow-up, why he said what he said, and proceeded to send out a uniting message. Did you hear Biden do anything of the sort? David Sirota recently said:
Edwards only spoke for HIMSELF when he was pressed by the media. Could he have supported Dean better in his reply (even though Dean’s gaffe was admittedly not an easy one to defend?) Sure, but he is not perfect. I think his follow-up statement shows that he thought Dean’s message was basically right, even though he would have chosen to phrase it differently.
Check out Daily Kos, where Kos has a headline: Edwards: Dean Was Right
June 7th, 2005 at 1:37 pm
What Edwards’ clarification tells me is that he has a long, long way to go in terms of media savy.
The chorus of condemnation that enveloped Edwards was not unwarranted because rank & file Dems are accustomed to seeing party leaders stick knives in the backs of those who most aggressively challenge the Republican Machine. And we’re damn tired of it.
Edwards vs. Dean vs. Mothra
The days of Dem politicians trying to be all things to all people must come to an end. It’s up to Edwards and other Dems to speak in unambiguous terms, recognize the pattern of the corporate media gotcha and avoid these kinds of set-ups.
June 10th, 2005 at 6:13 am
The problem is that SOME Democrats (who we all probably can identify) don’t have the courage of tehir convictions.
Did anybody notice a very prominent 2008 contender who d NOT blast Howard Dean?
Someone with the initials H.R.C?
That’s right, kiddies. She’s not dumb. She wants the nomination. What good does it do Edwards or Biden or Bill Richardson to make themselves more palatable to the centrists and independents if they can’t even get past the pissed off Democratic primary voters?
Here’s how this works, dumbasses. By criticizing Dean, it makes YOU look weak, and the party look unprincipled.
It makes you look like a pandering, blubbering coward. Exactly the kind of person who voters don’t want in the White House.