DNC Winter meeting: Gov. Dean gets ovation after flag remarks

[sfecap]

The video:

(Start at 2:07 into the clip....)

http://www.c-span.org/search/basic.asp?ResultStart=1&ResultCount=10&BasicQueryText=Dean+DNC

Note that standing ovation after the very remarks that he is getting attacked for, from members of the DNC and audience, many who are minority Democrats.

Note also the date: 2/21/03

Ask yourself...if it wasn't "controversial" in front of the DNC then, why is it an issue now?

Can you say desperate candidates?

I knew you could.

[LuminousX]

1. Desperate Candidates

Yep. And that is the only explanation I can come up with regarding it also.

[shance]

2. Checkmate***

Thanks for the post.

:)

[Demobrat]

3. If that's really it.

If the best they can really do between the three of them is to manufacture a drama out of a stump speech line he's used dozens of times, and which has never before been received with anything but applause, I'd say they're basically screwed. They tried the mediscare. They've now played the race card. All they've got left is a bimbo eruption, and I just don't think that's gonna happen.

[dfong63]

4. they only way they can make hay out of these remarks,

... is to put words in Dean's mouth. desperation sounds like an on target diagnosis.

good for Dean, refusing to apologize for things he DIDN'T say.

[LuminousX]

5. kick

:kick:

[roguewolf5]

6. Can you say media?

I knew you could.

What you do in November is waaaay different than what you do in Feburary.

Its the media and the people that see it. I doubt the DNC is behind that remark now. And if you talk to most black people, they find what Dean said as disturbing as the flag itself.

The candidates dont have to be desperate, Dean is doing all the work for them.

[sfecap]

7. Nice try. LOL.

n/t

[dajabr]

8. The Flag Thing

Dean's recent comment about his appeal to Confederate-flag-toting truck drivers illustrates the difficulty he is having from both the right and the left. The flag remark has been part of Dean's campaign speeches since at least February, when he earned thunderous applause for telling the Democratic National Committee's winter meeting that "White folks in the South who drive pick-up trucks with Confederate flag decals in the back ought to be voting with us, and not them, because their kids don't have health insurance either and their kids need better schools too."

At the time, no one seemed to take the comment negatively. In fact, DeWayne Wickham, a left-leaning, African-American columnist for Gannett News Service, said the comment showed that Dean would confront the race issue "head on." But that was before Dean's campaign took off. Now his opponents won't let him off the hook so easily.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A352-2003Nov4_2.html

[LuminousX]

9. That's the best spin you can come up with? It all depends on the timing?

[roguewolf5]

10. Talk to the experts

What counts more for a candidate, raising money in the 1st Q or the 3 Q? Coming to front runner in March or December?

When does the nation pay more attention to primaries, Feburary or November?

its not spin, its the truth of campaigns.

[LuminousX]

11. When you have the DNC applauding a line one month

and a few candidates being upset nearly a year later at the same line, one can only assume it is political opportunism and not actual outrage.

[roguewolf5]

24. Or its both.

I would be kidding if i said this wasnt some political oppurtunism, but hell thats how you get yourself known right? Oppurtunities.

and its outrage as well i believe. People like Sharpton and Edwards probably have a good right to be pissed. You dont sit back and have someone pander to racial extremists and stereotype whole people.

[w4rma]

12. Dean & Sharpton hand in hand after the debates

"Democratic presidential hopeful former Gov. Howard Dean (news - web sites) of Vermont, left, clasps hands with Rev. Al Sharpton of New York, right, moments after the televised Rock the Vote Democratic presidential debate at Boston's Faneuil Hall, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2003. The two hopefuls had a heated exchanged during the debate concerning voters who display the Confederate flag."(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, Pool)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=650235

Howard Dean campaigns in Tallahassee

Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean told a Tallahassee audience today that southerners have to quit basing their votes on "race, guns, God and gays."

Dean, making his first campaign foray into North Florida, spoke at a rally in Jacksonville then addressed more than 500 people at a luncheon of the Capital Tiger Bay Club.
…
Dean said he hopes to reassemble a coalition of conservative southern voters like President Franklin Roosevelt had in the "solid South" 70 years ago. Although his opposition to the war in Iraq and his criticism of the Bush tax cuts do not score well in polls in the South, Dean said he hopes working families will support his call for improving education and health care.
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/7181952.htm
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=108&topic_id=76824

Did these SOUTHERN, BLACK, Baptists have a problem with Dean's remarks?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=108&topic_id=73335

John Nichols: Rebel flag flap shows media failure

If you want to understand just about everything that is wrong with the way American politics is practiced these days - and especially with the malpractice of the media - consider the absurd controversy about Howard Dean's comment that "I want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks."
…
What isn't being reported is this reality: Every single presidential candidate who is now expressing concern about Dean's remark has sat in meetings where political operatives, pollsters and consultants have discussed strategies for winning the votes of white working-class males. These voters, whose economic interests would be at least somewhat better served by Democratic policies but who tend to vote Republican for social and cultural reasons, have fueled the rise of the GOP in recent years. And Democrats are obsessed with figuring out how to reach them.

So why has the Dean comment proved to be so controversial? Good question. It has something to do with the desperation of the other candidates, who have had a hard time keeping up with the former Vermont governor's fund-raising juggernaut and highly effective grass-roots campaign. But, in truth, it has a lot more to do with the media.

Too many political reporters practice stenography to power. They simply take down what candidates have to say. This week, the other candidates are trying to paint Dean as the reincarnation of Jefferson Davis, and the media are dutifully reporting it.

More responsible and engaged media would stop to ask the deeper questions: Why do so many white working-class males vote against their own economic interests? Is it because they are racists who really do embrace the Confederacy's legacy? Is it because the Democratic Party has so abandoned populist economic messages that even voters in what were once traditional Democratic constituencies have lost faith in the party and its candidates? The answers to these questions are complicated; but they are at the core of any serious examination of our politics.

Unfortunately, most politicians are unwilling to engage in real discussions about race and economics, let alone the complex zones in which they intersect. And as the current controversy illustrates, most political reporters have lost the inclination, and perhaps even the ability, to demand better of the politicians.
…
http://www.madison.com/captimes/opinion/column/nichols/60451.php

[killbotfactory]

16. It even made Kucinich smile.

Awww....

[mmonk]

17. He needs to listen to Edwards about

his remarks.

[sandnsea]

13. Not the same words

He had been saying folks with confederate flags in their pickup trucks should be voting Democratic because their kids need health care too. This will raise one eyebrow, with a wait and see what he does response.

This weekend he said he wants to be the candidate "for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks." This is different. This is saying he wants those voters, flag and all, which means to alot of people, racism and all.

It's different, although I know most Deanie's won't see it.

[LuminousX]

14. Because reasonable minds see it in context.

That statement wasn't made in a vacuum, it was made in the overall context of how he has been addressing the issue.

Although, I know you won't see it that way.

[sandnsea]

20. I understand that

But he went further this time. One is inviting the Christian Coalition to listen to you and vote for you. The other is being the candidate for the Christian Coalition. It's different.

And I really do want to know if he's going to talk to white folks about racism. Not just all races should vote together. But real racism that white folks practice.

[sfecap]

15. Nice try...thanks for playing!

LOL.

[mandyky]

18. Next to Dean's stance on guns

this issue had me standing and cheering in my living room, as I watched the DNC winter meeting speech. The candidates bashing him on this, NOW, have lost me and my support. These same candidates were pink tutus til Dean gained support by telling it like it was about shrub, they have followed his lead and now try to claim he is a racist when they know better.It is really sickening. As much as Dean is a fiscal conservative, he IS the only REAL Democrat running.

[Desertrose]

19. Dean is more opportunist than

anything else.....

My fairly moderate repub ex is visiting from the east & said that if Dean gets it, the dems will lose.....I must say I agree.....

I have seen nothing that impresses me about Dean- sorry I have tried....

Peace
DR

[mmonk]

21. I'd like to be your candidate

[roguewolf5]

25. HAHA

*zing*

[genius]

22. Does this mean the DNC wants to join Dean and go back to being the

party of white racists who beat, kill and torture slaves? I hope not. If so, we need to leave and create a Democratic Nice People's Party. Nothing upsets me like racism and Dean's attitude is intolerable. Sharpton's right. Dean owes every black person in America an apology.

[LuminousX]

26. Are you honestly saying Dean is a racist who wants slavery?

[Freddie Stubbs]

23. He wasn't the frontrunner back then

So the other candidates ignored him.

[LuminousX]

27. so it is contextual outrage?

[mzmolly]

28. This needs to be in GD as well. Thanks!

:toast: