June 13, 2005
Defending Howard
If I don't defend Dean no one will. Accually New donkey and Political Animal do just fine jobs. Dean has been kicking a little ass as of late and has "gone too far." But here is the important part - He hasn't backed down. Dean is moving the rhetorical goalposts. When he doesn't back off from the harsh statement and when it turns out there are no bad consequences, it then becomes ok to say mean things about Republicans. Republicans say mean things about Democrats all the time. Dean is just leveling the playing field. The first week or two will be hard. But the long term pay-off will be great.
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I totally agree with you on this. He's got to determine the battlefield and bring the debate back to his terms. Dems won't win by playing be the Republicans rules. His problem now is getting the rest of his party behind him.
Did you catch Jon Carroll's column in the SF Guardian on Monday?
He starts by asking, "Why are the Democrats such weenies?" and moves on show, point by point, why voters are ready for a forceful politician.
My favorite part:
"Some Democrats think Dean is being too confrontational. We should be nice to the lying liars or people will think we're, gasp, partisan. "Partisan" is a good thing; it's what the Founding Fathers had in mind. The problem comes when one party stays very partisan and the other party starts modifying and mollifying and trying to find some mythical friendly center.
I loved Mister Rogers, but I never thought he'd make a good chairman of the Democratic Party."
http://snipurl.com/fkpn
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