Statement from Governor Dean

[Khephra]

Statement from Governor Dean

MANCHESTER--Democratic presidential candidate Governor Howard Dean, M.D., issued the following statement today:

"Today’s news further confirms that the Bush administration's security policy is a deepening failure. Invading Iraq has not made us more secure, in fact, it has made us less secure. In addition to emboldening terrorists, this administration's focus on Iraq has diverted attention away from crucial security needs here at home.

"Today, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Bush administration's own emergency preparedness agency feels 'America may not be much better prepared to deal with a big terrorist attack than it was before 9/11.'

"I am very concerned by FEMA's findings, and I am furious with this administration's inattention to American safety. President Bush claims his administration has made security its number one priority, yet their own agency concedes that more than two years after the tragedy of September 11, they have failed to make us more secure.

"Meanwhile, Congress continues to give this President blank checks for his failed security policy. Congress is currently in the process of signing off on an $87 billion check to Halliburton and other corporate contributors to the Bush campaign.

"Making America safer means focusing resources on stabilizing Iraq, getting our troops home safely, and shoring up our security here at home. It is the duty of the Bush administration and Congress to make sure that the money they're spending on security is actually making America safer. Right now, Washington politicians are failing the American public."

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http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=10195&JServSessionIdr002=hqvvcsrhq1.app193a&news_iv_ctrl=1301

[madrchsod]

1. has it been only

clark and dean that has spoken up today?

[Demobrat]

2. He's pissed.

Good.

[Cha]

3. We knew this would happen. When has the

bushmurderinc ever done ANY thing for the American People except the Billion $$$$$$$$ corporations?

Right now, Washington politicians are failing the American public."

[MrSoundAndVision]

4. he even already sounds like a president...

and I'm sure that was intentional, anyway, please read http://www.kucinich.us to find out a bit of why Kucinich is a better candidate than Dean. Kucinich is the man to lead this country out of the darkness of corporate-defined identity and into a future of educating our children about peace, about Ghandi (don't know about him? Get an encyclopedia), and find out why Kucinich won the 2003 Ghandi award. Please just give him a chance, and check out his site, and listen to a speech or watch a video.

I'll admit it, I am here (at this forum, and mostly here at DU) to plead to you Deaners out there to just give Kucinich a chance. I know that those of you who are avid Dean supporters also agree with many (and perhaps most) of the Kucinich policy but don't think he can win. I'll submit here and now that it is the right wing media that has convinced the masses he can't win. It was also the right wing media who marched us into war. It was also the right wing media who told Gore not to be so hard on Bush or risk being branded a bully (his compliance with that request was the biggest mistake of his career). I urge you not to let the right wing media convince you to deny Kucinich a chance.

I know you're here (at the DU) because you REALLY DO! care for the issues and the direction of the world, and let me say that it is people like us, like the DU and it's organizers, that are going to change things in this country. I think it is the duty of each of us here to thoroughly research each candidate, even Carol Moseley-Braun and her staunch liberalism yet lack of support for withdrawal from Iraq and Wes Clark and his carefully crafted Un-Dean-like-yet-not-offensively-liberal stands on the issues. Think about the sort of attractive appeal of the military side of John Kerry, and the wit of Al Sharpton. But, take them all seriously. I think that once you find out about what exactly happened in Cleveland with Kucinich, and what he stood for, you'll be as impressed as I am. He is a man of vision, and that vision is great and even includes, well, probably poor cousins of Republicans who don't know any better. Help us. The revolution will not be televised! Be part of it. http://www.kucinich.us

[sendero]

5. I appreciate...

... your honesty. And perhaps even your username and what it references :) A lot of folks come on here with a serious anti-candidate rant and try to hide their motivation. I don't appreciate that, and find it counter-productive. If you want to trod on a candidate you ought to at least own up to who do support and why.

But seriously, I like Mr. Kucinich, but I don't think he is presidential material. I won't bore you with my reasoning, a lot of it is 'intuitive' and not easily put into words, but the distillation of it would be "I can't see Kucinich beating Bush*".

I *can* see Dean doing the job, I can also admit that Clark and possibly Kerry could do it. But Mr. K does not have the intangibles IMHO.

[KCDem]

6. I hope you'll still be here if Dean/Clark/Kerry gets the nomination.

I respect you and what you're doing--hell, I'd vote for Kucinich if I thought he had a chance. Hell, I'm in Texas so I might as well. But stay with us, okay? We're a good group of people whose main goal is to get the Shrub OUT!

[Pastiche423]

7. Yes, he does sound presidential

President Dean has a wonderful ring to it.

[Voltaire99]

9. Kucinich is one in a million

I'll be grateful to Dennis ever after for being one of the first officeholders in the nation to speak sense - and decency - after 9/11. His "Prayer for America" speech is a landmark in the post-democratic era, a reminder to Americans of what civilized government looks like.

As inheritor of the Wellstone tradition, Kucinich is also, unhappily, ostracized by party leaders. We can hardly hope that the corporate minds who have laid the Democratic Party low will ever warm to him. But we can hope to chase them out and elevate his values to a central position in the party.

He'd make an excellent president. I hope he stays in the campaign a long, long time; like Sharpton, he is one of the main forces for keeping the other candidates honest.

[Dagaz]

8. Will this sell?

Sit back and take a realistic look. I ask because I'me in the SF Bay area so I get the kool aid answers. Will the average middle of the road voter decide that Dean has a better Iraq policy than Bush? Will he/she decide that keeping Saddam in power is better than the mess we have now?

[thinkahead]

10. It sells well

especially when you hear him speak it.