Reply #18: Go ahead, blast away at me, but [View All]

[moggie12]

Dean has several drawbacks:

1) He doesn't know how to run an effective political campaign (yes, his campaign manager was a genius at using the Internet, but the ground game in Iowa was seriously lacking). So why would we put him in charge of coordinating our political apparatus??

2) He shoots his mouth off saying politically tone-deaf things. I still think one of the reasons Dean lost Iowa was because he said a few days before that he wouldn't, "pronounce Osama Bin Laden guilty before a trial". Was that statement noble and in accord with principles of our Constitution, etc, etc. Yes!! Was it politically stupid to say it out loud where all the reporters could hear you?? YES!!!!!! GOD YES!!!!!!!!

3) All the idealistic young people in orange hats jumping up and down about Dean make pragmatic old fogies like me nervous. The Dems are losing elections because the suburban middle class doesn't like what we stand for -- Dean as head of the Party will only exacerbate our problems.

4) Dean was the one who attacked his fellow Democrats in the primaries, assailing them for their Iraq War Resolution vote (even though Kerry, for example, had explicitly said in his statement at the time that we shouldn't go it alone and had stated other conditions that Bush blew by in his haste to launch an attack). Then Dean started in on the $87 billion. I was vehemently against the Iraq war, but once Bush got us into it, I think we had to follow-through: How could we not try to fix the place after we'd made a big mess of it??


I very much like Dean's populist message, especially his stand against excessive corporate/Wall Street influence on the Party. Unfortunately, I can't judge DNC candidates based only on what they stand for. We're electing a person, not just a message, and I find many serious flaws in the person. I'm sorry, but I just do.