NYT - Dean's New Steps Reshape Contest

[realFedUp]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/09/politics/campaigns/09DEMS.html?hp

November 9, 2003
Dean's New Steps Reshape Contest
By ADAM NAGOURNEY

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 — After months of being viewed by Democrats as an improbable if persistent candidate, Howard Dean has erased questions about his staying power and forced his rivals to upend their strategies to counter his increasing influence on the race, party leaders, strategists and even rival campaigns say.

In the past week, Dr. Dean lined up two important labor endorsements, and on Saturday he became the first Democrat to withdraw from the public campaign finance system. That strategy, though potentially risky, will allow him to far outspend his rivals and further establish himself as an unconventional driving force in the primaries.

snip-
When Dr. Dean turned up for a town hall meeting on Thursday night in Nashua, in the midst of the furor over his Confederate flag remark, so many people turned up that many parked their cars at the Nashua Airport, a half mile away. Dr. Dean drew at least four standing ovations in the course of his presentation, a wild reception that left little doubt about the intensity of enthusiasm among supporters that has led many Democrats to view him as such a potent candidate.

"Most of our friends jumped on the Dean bandwagon months ago," said Susan Katzenberg, a homemaker from Amherst who turned out to hear Dr. Dean that night. "They are going to be very hard to sway."

continued

[tsipple]

1. A Couple More Relevant Snippets

In an hourlong interview on a public radio program in Concord on Wednesday, Mr. Kerry, who two months ago publicly chastised his campaign manager for assailing Dr. Dean, again and again turned questions about his own views into attacks on Dr. Dean, until his host finally politely asked that Senator Kerry use his time to talk about Senator Kerry. (....)

At 11:30 the other night at Dr. Dean's New Hampshire headquarters in Manchester, the lights were on and the office was buzzing with paid aides and volunteers. A block away, at Mr. Kerry's headquarters, the lights were dark.

Two great articles today (Sunday), in the New York Times and the Washington Post. Front page for both, I believe.

[Cha]

2. I hope Dean is experiencing some

much needed Euphoria right now! After getting beat up by the scragglers for nothing..he deserves some major Props!

[Melinda]

3. WOW.

:bounce: WOW!:bounce:

[Don_G]

4. That Eliminates Kerry From My Short List

Dean sounds better and better.

[mouse7]

5. Gov. Dean has green-lighted big Joe Trippi screw-up here.

Gov. Dean stepped in something by accident on the way to the primaries... a whole bunch of money.

I don't want to hear from Dean staff people they knew all this money was out there all along. That claim is rubbish. The Dean staffers have ridden on the back of the people who run the various Dean blogs, websites, and groups for more than a year now as well as those who initially registered Dean on meetup.com. Joe Trippi is certainly no online mastermind either. Trippi is the most fortunate guy in politics in decades. Trippi happened to be the only guy on the Dean staff that knew how to log into the internet successfully enough to actually just get online 2 times out of 3 attempts when the independent Dean supporters who DO KNOW what they are doing on the net started the explosive growth of the Dean internet presence. Dean fired the campaign manager that completely ignored and infuriated the indy net people, and threw his then media consultant (Trippi) to temporarily (i.e. for a couple of days) stop the bleeding between Dean's campaign staff, and the source of ALL the energy and growth of the Dean Campaign, the indy net Dean supporters and their meetup.com organizational efforts. Trippi backed into the role of campaign manager because his head was still attached to his shoulders after those first couple of days of meetings, conference calls, amd chats with the indy net people. Trippi has been acting like some psychic political guru ever since. It's been mostly just been pretty humorous to watch up to this point. I mean... how seriously can one take watching someone pat themselves on the back for an image of baseball bat that fills in as contributions come in? United Way's been doing the "thermometer filling as pledges increase image" for decades, ya' know?

Trippi has gone too far this time though. Exiting from the campaign finance system has Trippi's fingerprints all over it. Let's please remember that the ONLY thing Joe Trippi had a basic understanding of before entering the campaign was spending money and buying ads. He's a media consultant. That's what media consultants do. It's clearly all he understands to this day. Joe Trippi has NEVER UNDERSTOOD what could be accomplished by a huge army of volunteers that Dean has generated through meetup.com, and the various blogs. Volunteers don't cost tons of money (especially right when they would be quite useful... between the end of primaries and the convention). As a result, Trippi's self-delusion of his own importance in the "Dean movement" has lead him to throw out one of the most important developments in our political system since Nixon, campaign finance restrictions.

So when the Dems are getting completely and utterly buried in neo-conservative campaign cash in the Fall, please don't blame "Dean's supporters" for the exit from the campaign finance system. Joe Trippi basically push-polled through the result he wanted here. Joe Trippi gets to spend lots of money Democrats can't afford to donate because he doesn't understand how to do anything any differently.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mouse7]

8. Thanks for the welcome

Karl Rove? Not Hardly. ;)

Pulling out of campaign finance requirements helps Karl Rove. The more money matters in campaigns, the better it is for Karl Rove and the neo-cons.

Can the neo-cons still be beat with the funding coming from outside of campaign finance requirements? Sure... if helicopters keep getting shot out of the sky in Iraq at this rate, anything's possible. However, it's never going to be a 50/50 possibility. Progressives will always be at at massive disadvantage.

We need to create a system that the GOP cannot opt out of. Therefore, we won't have to worry about this silliness.

[Rose Siding]

28. New system? Great idea

And when we win we can work for that. But we are dealing with the current system and have just given ourselves a chance.

Your previous post leads me to believe you have some kind of grudge against Trippi but I'm confused about why. When has he claimed any credit for the way this campaign has run?

I've read that Dean told him repeatedly not to centralize the operation when that was Trippi's inclination. He gives Dean credit for not having done that but mostly he speaks of the supporters carrying things along.

Have you any links where he's done anything other than give credit to others?

[uberotto]

9. It's always nice when someone...

with a completely uninformed opinion takes the time to share it with us in detail.

TNR did a pretty good write-up discussing the Dean-Trippi connection, and how it came to be what it is today.

http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?pt=uPrIwAEG7fHpGFSjMCq7tR%3D%3D

[mouse7]

11. You mean like "The New Republic"

Because that's what's completely uninformed here.

Dean's former campaign director, Rick Ridder, had the campaign "so on top of the internet revolution" last Christmas that NONE of the systems that were supposed to compile to a database the info the Dean supporters would input to the official Dean website worked.

NONE OF IT WORKED UNTIL ALMOST FEBRUARY.

Go look at "The (original) Dean Blog" in the archives and notice all the discussions back in December and January about people just wanting to get an e-mail newletter up and running from Burlington.

The meetup.com stuff generated any and all momentum from the initial Dean blog, other blogs that followed shortly, as well as some various e-mail lists.

Ridder was moved to other tasks shortly after seeing just how bad the campaign was interfacing with exploding online growth of the indy Dean supporters. Trippi was brought in to help stop the bleeding because he was basically one of the few in the campaign office that could find anything on the net and was definitely the only person in the office who knew what a blog was. That doesn't make Trippi a genius. That just makes him the only person in Dean's staff that wasn't illiterate regarding the net.

Trippi was sent out to beg forgiveness from the people who really did the work. Then, because the rest of the staff couldn't really communicate with all the building online support, Trippi could tell Burlington anything he wanted about what was happening on the net, because he was basically one of the few who could even USE the net. No wonder Trippi ended that phase in as campaign manager. Should we act surprised if the only person who can speak Spanish in campaign office ends up as managing a campaign in S. Florida? NO. Same thing.

Even as recently as June, it was that original Dean blog that had more actual effect on the campaign than anything that came out of Dean's staffer's offices. The original blog set the $7 mil goal for the "bat" in June. Not Burlington.

Obviously, the whole staff is far more computer-literate now. But the reason Joe Trippi is campaign director is simple... he fooled around on a internet message boards for fun for a couple of years and happened to be the only person on Dean's staff to know what the word "blog" meant.

[Pastiche423]

15. So?

[mouse7]

17. Sooo.... you have media consultant running popular movement?

Joe Trippi is a media consultant. Period. He clearly should not be making decisions on matters of which he knows nothing. The people that should be making the big decisions in this campaign atre people who are used to knowing what to do with a people-based campaign. I would think people more experience in urban-center campaigns would be much better suited to the task.

Get out the people that know how to win big cities by knocking on doors and flyering the world and put THEM in charge of the campaigns.

The Dems have a far better chance of winning if we try to force the neo-cons onto our turf sometimes then we will ever have by attempting to compete $ for dollar against the richest people on the planet! Trippi has surrendered the home field advantage and forced Dems to now compete $ for $ against the neo-cons. That's sheer stupidity.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mouse7]

20. Nice... can't discredit truth, so you create insults toward me.

Trippi hasn't done anything for Dean but take credit for the work of others. Get it.

meetup.com? A single creative independent Dean volunteer started the sign ups at meetup.com, and the Dean Nation and the other blogs started doing the promotion.

In the TNR article in Dec '02/ Jan'03, where Trippi claims he was doing all this deep background research mumbo-jumbo, he was doing basically nothing on the net (nothing to do with Dean '04 anyway), and Rick Ridder couldn't even get the e-mail mailing list up and running for people who had signed up as interested at the official Dean site.

In February, they FINALLY got the official site working and 1 (count 'em) one auto-mailer was sent to the official Dean supporter list. Meanwhile, interest in Dean exploded. Because there was no official avenue for this net interest to be funneled, all these unofficial blogs, web sites, and mailing list appeared at the time of the first round of Dean meet-ups.

Notice what is missing here... any connection between the first meetups and Joe Trippi. That's because Trippi did not think of meetups... Mr. Joe Ordinary independent Dean supporter (I think he was a regular contributor at one of the original unofficial blogs, if memory serves me). There was NO CONNECTION BETWEEN the offical campaign and meetup for the first couple of months of meetups. That didn't come until long after Ridder was removed and Trippi (still media consultant) was sent out to tell the people leading the unofficial internet Dean movement that the Dean campaign would MAKE USE OF THE ASSETS the unofficial sites/blogs had created and would not continue to be internet-illiterate.

Trippi went from being the only guy who knew what a blog was to the guys who tried to take credit for all the work for all those months on all those unofficial sites and blogs. Trippi literally stole career-making resume pieces from 100s if not 1000s of people by doing this (Disclaimer: Yes, I am mad at what Trippi did to so many people by doing this... more than a few friends of mine.... nowhere near how mad I am for push-polling this campaign finance pullout.)

[NashVegas]

29. That's What Managers Do Outside of Politics, Too

Smrt managers let other people do the work and then take credit.

A smarter manager will go the extra step of staying out of people's hair while they do the work.

A brilliant manager will do all that, and at the same time, say nice things about their underlings behind their backs, knowing that if they get hired away, it will further their list of outside contacts.

[mouse7]

35. Too much neo-con management theory for Frisco.

Good managers don't use the word ME. You know that. Team, team, team, team and more team.

Good managers wouldn't take personal credit for anything. They would discuss the entire team's effort as a single entity.

As for the other stuff, some people work well with others, others allow more freedom. Depends on the person. Really doesn't have much to do with thread topic, though.

[NashVegas]

40. Well For That Matter

Joe Trippi - who's name, I don't think, is even mentioned in the article - isn't the thread topic either. But you've taken it upon yourself to make it so.

Good managers wouldn't take personal credit for anything.

Good managers take credit all the time. So do bad ones.

Can you point us to an article where Trippi specifically says he's responsible for every good thing to come out of Dean's internet campaign?

[mouse7]

41. Bad argumentation, bad management

Nothing like asking for the ridiculous. I never said Trippi claimed he's responsible for EVERY good thing.

You should know better.

Both the article and myself mentioned the meetup.com situation. Both the article and myself mention that Trippi claims many early online achievements that were absolutely impossible for anyone with the Dean official staff to accomplish, due to the fact that Dean's official online presence was so poor almost all the way through the 1st quarter 2003.


I also want you to show me some quotes from some well-respected management coursebooks where it instructs someone as good technique to take credit for the accomplishments of others.

[NashVegas]

43. You're Right, I Should Know Better

Goodbye.

[JNelson6563]

23. haha big deal!

This reminds me of my own little tale but of course on a much smaller scale.

I spent some 20 in retail/marketing. Cut my teeth in the family business where one does everything. Went into the corporate world some years later. Learned every aspect of the game.

Along come the Clinton years. I was horrified at the direction politics was taking and got real interested. Watched closely. Found DU and other good sources. Found my nearly invisible local party. Helped out in a few events, making full use of my marketing experience to help raise some bigger $$ than they were used to.

They elected me to the board. They named me membership chair. I've successfully increased membership, brought in some serious cash and raised a small army of volunteers. These successes have created an energy and enthusiasm throughout the board.

Our bank account is at unprecedented levels as is our membership.

But what the hell do I know, eh? Me and Trippi, a couple of fish out of water just floundering. We deserve no credit for anything as we're not actually experts at what we are currently being successful at and we were not the original founders of the movements we are so deeply involved in.

Mmmm hmmm. Ok.

Julie

[mouse7]

24. Well, if you don't know the difference, here's help...

Julie,

Have you taken credit for work countless times that you know for a fact someone other than you did? Did you steal credit for ideas concieved of by many, many other people?

I'm being specific about this. Not being the front person who happens to be on the podium to accept credit for the group as a whole. I mean literally saying you did something others clearly did, and doing it a whole lot?

Next... did you assume yourself from that point on to "get it" better than everyone else, and proceed to try to tear down something equally as massive as a campaign finance reform system because you were clearly smarter than all those that toiled on it for decades?

Somehow, Julie, I think you're pretty much in the clear here, blamewise.

[JNelson6563]

26. No, of course I didn't

take credit for the whole. It will always be my Chair up at the podium and credit will go to her as the guiding hand. That is more than ok by me as she has been nothing but supportive and encouraging to me. She is a great lady by all accounts.

That said, I understand what you mean about the campaign financing thing but I hope you will concede the unique situation. As it stands, any candidate who accepts the matching funds (at least those with $$$-raising capabilities) will be effectively rendering themselves impotent against Jr.

So do we render ourselves impotent and brace ourselves for another 4 years of fascists on principle?

As to your gripe with Trippi, I'm not sure what to make of it. I have moved into management positions in established businesses. Make a few adjustments, build on what's already there and the sucesses (or failures) are a reflection of me as the mgr. Delegating and resource management are key. You can have all the stellar worker bees in the world but without guidance etc. you have nothing.

Lastly, I have no problem with Trippi being brought in later than the very beginning. He was smart enough to make good use of the successful parts of the campaign. Look at the problems in the Clark campaign when their grass-roots organizers on-line got disregarded...it's starting to recover but what a set-back! Do you think that campaign mgr. was smart? I don't.

It's the nature of the beast, guy at the top gets the credit/blame. The campaign $$ business is a problem but we must not let it become our achilles heel.

Julie

[jamesinca]

16. I am glad to hear that you can't stand Joe Trippi

What are your feelings about Dean?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Should we act surprised if the only person who can speak Spanish in campaign office ends up as managing a campaign in S. Florida? NO. Same thing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By your own admission though, he is the only one that could log onto a web site so he was put in charge of this. So why do you hate Joe Trippi for being able to log on to a web site? Is your last name Ridder by chance?

Until there is true campaign finance reform, we can not allow ourselves to be held back by it. I have seen several post on here that Dean is a hot head, short fuse kind of person. I also see a lot of criticism of Democrats that they roll over and take it, with a smile. Democrats, on there knees for the GOP. So what do you want, a level playing field which you seem to complain about, or somebody who is going to throw in the towel financially before the primaries even start so you can complain about the lost opportunity there?

If you want to complain about something go after Edwards, Liberman, Kerry, Clark or Gephardt for deciding that the D.C. primary was not important. It is only for show and means nothing in the polls, but it does show that the candidate cares enough about those people to show up. If you want to complain about something go after Al Gore for only making a feeble effort in the South and allowing that to go to Bush uncontested.

[mouse7]

19. Only thing more free is Neo-con cashflow to Bush

By the way... no, Ridder was even more clueless than Trippi. Ridder didn't even see a use for the net.

I don't "hate" Trippi for being the only person in the campaign that knew what a blog was. However, this binge of self-promotion that he's been on since about May has been highly annoying. I don't like people who take full credit for the hard work of others, and Trippi DID NOT do 99.9% of the concept work he is crediting himself with. As a result, a man of limited skills is now taken the Peter Principle train straight to the Dean campaign manager desk, and is now dismantling decades of hard work progressives have made into trying to remove the influence of money from politics, and chucking it in the trash.

Trippi is an inside-the-beltway, media-consultant-hack who picked up one stupid vocabulary word more than most (blog) and has ridden it to a position he is not capable of handling.

By the way... you are truely misinformed if you think you are freeing ANYTHING by forcing Democrats to play on the neo-con-elite big money home turf. The neo-cons are going to kick our collective butts in the money game... bad. If we win in November, it will be because way to many American lives have been lost in the Iraqi Quagmire, not becasue of any help from Joe Trippi, thank you. It is the job of good progressives to REDUCE, not increase the value of cash in politics. We should be working on a campaign finance system the GOP ARE NOT ALLOWED opt out of.

[jamesinca]

21. Until the election reform truly is, don't back down

they may kick our collective butt in the money raising arena, but we will still need the cash around to fight the lies and spin that $200 million can produce. Dean is topped out on the fund raising if he accepts the matching funds. He needs to raise as much as he can between now and then, unlimited.

Take the Presidency and get rid of the loopholes. That is the first step. He will need the money to fight the lies and spin. He will need the money to take on such things as FOX who was recently found guilty of charging Dems more for ads and air time then Repugs.

Until you can get your story out there, that takes money, you need to pay dearly in financial terms. Bush does not have to pay to get on meet the press or have his comments in the papers. Dean would have to buy an advertisement or get invited onto the talkshows. Bush could make a call and he would be on, no invitation needed. It takes money to do this. Until the reform is truly a reform, it makes no sense to limit yourself to small money.

[mouse7]

22. one small problem with your theory... GOP HAS THE MONEY!

hey... knock, knock, anyone in there, hello...

You've GOT to be kidding me. Just where in the hell do you think Democrats are going to pull this big wad of cash you seem to feel Democrats have to spend on elections? Democrats don't have money for doctors and prescriptions... where in the hell are they supposed to get hundreds of millions of dollars to keep up with the Neo-Con cash machine?

James, you have the same problem Joe Trippi does. You're both real damn good at spending OTHER people's money. Screw whether Democrats take their full dose of their prescriptions this month, we've got TV TIME to buy!

Doh! That's right... we're supposed to be LIMITING THE MONEY THE GOP spends. Ooops.

[UpInArms]

27. welcome to DU mouse7

but you are really totally completely wrong -

there are so many more people that will feel able to give $5 to $100 to the Dean campaign - those that "can't afford" so many other things will spend their money to get their government back.

The little people will combine to make the big engine that is needed to push the bush out.

I have literally no money, but I have been and will continue to give whatever little bits I can scrape together to Dean.

And I am not the only one that I know in that boat - many many many people are doing the same thing.

We know that we have to fight the $200 million dollar corporate fascist group and we are strong enough to do it.

I don't care if Joe Trippi takes credit for the lunar eclipse - it really doesn't matter in the big picture.

Quit being myopic and get to the big picture.

[mouse7]

34. Big Picture is neo-cons haven't broken a sweat raising $ yet

Big Picture is that Dean supporters are already, in some cases, denying themselves things that are important to their way of life in order to donate.

Do you REALLY think progressives are the only ones who can cut back to feed their favorite current cause?

You're kidding, right?

How much did Neo-cons hand sight unseen to Jim and Tammy to build them an Evangelical Christian Disneyland?

The right not only has the cash, but the right doesn't even need to justify spending that cash. If Franklin Graham or Falwell tell those freaks Jesus said give Bush money, Bush will double his bankroll in a weekend.

STOP thinking progressives in ANY way, shape, or form could possibly compete with the neo-cons in cash. You know you never believed it before this campaign season. You're parroting Trippi's words like Freepers parrot Smirk's words, and you don't care how little sense your own words make as they come out of your mouth.

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

38. I am one of those people

who have denied myself something in order to donate to Dr. Dean. I don't see what about this would trouble you. I am willing to forgoe some nice meals and new clothes so I can contribute to the guy I think holds the best ideals and chance to win the White House. There is literally an army of people willing to do the same. THAT is campaign finance reform.

[mouse7]

39. Unfortunately, a far bigger neo-con army out there doing more

Who told you campaign finance reform was allowiing all the rivh people to spend all the money they want.

That's what Joe Trippi is trying to convince you to accept.

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

42. That's not what I've gotten out of Trippi

I understand that the very rich people in this country think nothing of throwing $2000 to Bush so they don't have to pay a fair share of taxes or live up to environmental laws while they rape the environment and screw their workers. That's where Bush* can get so much money.

On the other hand, Dean's campaign has gotten the masses (ie the 'regular' people who don't have money to burn) to donate what little they can. There are many more average people than wealthy people out there, and when we all work together and donate a little, our little donations can equal the donations of the wealthy. WE can buy our president's loyalty. WE don't have to be subservient to the rich, who buy policy and politicians. WE, the average people, can own our president.

That's what I've gotten out of Dean's campaign.

[mouse7]

44. Trippi needs to look at FreeRepublic.com

As much as I detest freepers, one is being incredibly stupid if one doesn't realistically access the enemy.

The GOP has their "masses" in bulk at places like freeperland. Those dimwits open their wallets/veins whenever and whereever some neo-con fanatic says Jesus told him to get them to send their freeper cash.

If you don't think poor trailer trash can't generate some serios bucks, you need to take another look at the Christian Broadcasting Network HQ bldg. again

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

45. Who said they don't donate too?

The point is that Dean is getting HUGE amounts of money from his supporters--so much money that he just rejected $18 million from the government because he is confident that his supporters will give him that much and much more.

Your arguments are pretty thin, when you look at the numbers.

Fact is that ANY of the dem candidates will have to compete with the Bush* money machine. Dean has already proven that he has the support to do it. Kerry and Clark are thinking of taking the same path, the path of the pragmatic.

Face it, the Dean campaign IS campaign finance reform. It's doing what was intended to do--give the power to the people and take it from the wealthiest Americans. Everyone should be applauding that, not just Dean supporters.

Out of curiosity, which candidate do you support, and has s/he done as much to bring power to the people?

[mouse7]

46. have numbers all over thread(s).. you say HUGE and claim win?

Your entire argument is that Dean is getting "huge amounts of money".

I have very specific facts amounts time after time all over this thread. Your claim that the term "huge" answers my multiple specific factual arguments all over this thread is...well... goofy.

The only thing the Dean campaign has proven in regard to campaign finance reform is that it refuses to participate in campaign finance reform when it has the opportununity to.

Actions speak louder than words. Dean ACTIONS now prove he's against CFR. The rest is just empty words.

I'm involved in social advocacy (helping clients in the mental health system) "in the real world" and I have a feling I know far more about the "pragmatic" side of things then 99% of people would ever care to know.

I decided earlier I would support the eventual party nominee.

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

47. I guess we will have to agree to disagree

[Pastiche423]

12. A most excellent article!

Thank you for posting it!

[mouse7]

14. Don't thank him for posting that rubbish

It's wrong far more than it's right. If you want to see the "history" of that period of the the Dean campaign, go read all the Dean blogs that were around at the end of 2002, beginning of 2003. There's a few of them out there.

Here's the link to the "original"... Dean Nation. They went online in Sept. 2002.

http://dean2004.blogspot.com/

[MGKrebs]

30. Here's Howard's email address.

I think you should write and tell him you could do a better job.

[e-mail]

[quaker bill]

25. Here is where you are wrong.

"lots of money Democrats can't afford to donate"

There are at least 2 million democrats that can afford to give $100 dollars to remove Bush* from office. 50 million people voted Democratic in 2000. If only the top 4 percent of earners in that group will donate Dean has Bush covered financially.

As poorly as Bush* has done for the country, and given the strength of the passion with which people oppose his re-appointment, it is not outside the realm of possibility that Dean could meet this goal.

Yes, it is a gamble. But so was being against the war when our other leaders were sucking up to the Shrubya* agenda.

Dr. Dean seems to place his wagers pretty well.

BTW I am one of the 2 million, have the cash, and will do more than my share.

[mouse7]

36. Your whole argument is flawed, QB.

All these Dean donation calculations leave out one detail... what happens when the neo-cons start REALLY pumping their base for cash? Neo cons handed tens of millions to Jim and Tammy for an Evangelical Christian Disneyland sight-unseen.

What happens when Franklin Graham or Falwell steps to their pulpit one Sunday and says "Jesus told me to tell you all to give $500 to Bush?"

What will happen? Bush's warchest will double in one weekend, that's what.

That's why the only thing that makes sense is to CONTROL the amount of money that the GOP can spend on elections.

[ldf]

31. huh?

you can rest assured that joe trippi's learning curve in this expericence is tremendous. he may have backed into it, but he now knows how it is done. and seems to be doing it quite well, thank you! that is how most of us learn. from others.

and i am so sorry about your mistake. giving up public financing has MY fingerprints all over it. it took me two seconds to vote, less to make the actual choice, along with over 100,000 other dean supporters. and the choice is a no-brainer.

my additional condolences about your lack of brain.

[mouse7]

37. less money+no money = more money? Doh! Wrong!

Under no circumstances can progressives come close to raising the money the neo-cons can.

There is no new progressive money source. The same people have the same money. They are just a more ticked because Smirk is a greater idiot then previously experienced.

The right still has all the money. They are crushing us in fundraising totals and they don't even have a campaign on the GOP side to focus their attention yet. The neo-cons haven't even broken a sweat raising money yet.

If I'm the one that's "missing his brain", why am I seeing that and you aren't?

[Gin]

33. I don't feel stepped on by giving to Dean.....I "DO" feel stepped on

by the thugs in the white house and congress.

I give willingly to Dean's campagin!

I want my country back!

Prune bush!

[Cronus Protagonist]

7. This is very good to hear

I'm much more hopeful that we'll not have a DLC candidate.

Click Here To See Fair & Balanced Buttons, Stickers & Magnets

[RevolutionStartsNow]

10. Feeling so good, I just dropped...

over $100 at CafePress for new Dean stuff. 2 tshirts, a hoodie, a GenDean shirt for my daughter, and a bumpersticker. My other Dean shirts are worn out from too much wearing and washing!

Can't wait until Wednesday... :bounce:

[Andromeda]

13. Kick!

:kick:

[tlb]

32. I wonder if George WIll is smiling to himself

as he thinks " Well they are finally by deed if not word saying I was right all along about campaign finance reform".