Howard Dean takes on Diebold

[drfemoe]

Melbourne, Australia: Governor Dean,

I am an American living in Australia and am a supporter of your candidacy. I have been very disturbed to read the various stories about the security concerns surrounding the makers of electronic voting machines being used increasingly in our elections. Most alarming have been the allegations surrounding Diebold Election Systems and their attacks on those who have questioned their products and their behavior. Could you please discuss your feelings on this matter, the implications you think it has on our democracy, and what you would propose be done to address it?

Thank you and good luck.

Howard Dean: The chairman of Diebold has sent a letter saying that he will do everything he can to get Bush reelected. This does not engender confidence in the American electoral system. If I become the Democratic nominee we will have teams, particularly in jurisdictions like Florida, who will be conducting poll watching activities to prevent the kind of Republican abuses that took place in the last election. We will do more work on the voting machine issue as the campaign moves along.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58372-2003Nov3.html

[deutsey]

1. Good answer!

:thumbsup:

[Cha]

2. Thank you, Aussie, for supporting our

candidate! And bringing up this uber important issue.

And thank you. drfemoe, for bringing on this Dean exchange with People interested in our campaign!

[Feanorcurufinwe]

3. Why can't Dean give a straight answer to a simple question?

The first question asked in this forum - and Dean totally ducks it:

Thank you for joining us online today. Yesterday you said you were sorry for any "pain" you caused by saying you wanted to "be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks." How much damage do you think that comment, and your perceived unwillingness to retract it, has inflicted on the Dean campaign?

Howard Dean: I have retracted and apologized for that statement. I still firmly believe we need a dialogue on race in this country and I think we need to appeal to white southern voters if we are going to have any success in the south. I think the way to do it is to appeal to things we have in common such as the need for jobs and education.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58372-2003Nov3.html

So Howard, How much damage do you think that comment, and your perceived unwillingness to retract it, has inflicted on the Dean campaign?

[drfemoe]

5. Why don't you ask him that?

[MercutioATC]

7. This has exactly WHAT to do with the Diebold issue?

You're really getting desparate when you start posting random slams on off-topic threads...

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. Getting?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

12. I opened the link provided in this thread

and Dean ducks the first question. Sorry if pointing that out makes you uncomfortable.

Dean going after Diebold? Because he answered a question by saying we'll have poll watchers? How bold. That really gets to the heart of the issue. Bush is shaking with fear, I'm sure.

[MercutioATC]

13. I don't see it as a dodge. I think it's a valid answer.

He gave an even better-phrased answer to Wolf Blitzer tonight. He said that if he had to do it over he wouldn't have used a symbol al racially divisive as the Confederate flag and he's apologized for that. He also said that despite this, race relations and bring southern whites back to the Democratic party were two central issues in his campaign that weren't going away.

As far as Diebold, Dean is the only candidate that I've seen that's said that the President of Diebold has said he'd do anything to get Busg re-elected which doesn't speak well for the impartiality of Diebold voting systems. That's bold enough for me at this stage.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

14. ??

He was asked:

Yesterday you said you were sorry for any "pain" you caused by saying you wanted to "be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks." How much damage do you think that comment, and your perceived unwillingness to retract it, has inflicted on the Dean campaign?

and he answered:

I have retracted and apologized for that statement. I still firmly believe we need a dialogue on race in this country and I think we need to appeal to white southern voters if we are going to have any success in the south. I think the way to do it is to appeal to things we have in common such as the need for jobs and education.

Where in his answer does he discuss how much damage the episode inflicted on the campaign?

1. I have retracted and apologized for that statement.

Doesn't address the question in the first sentence.

2. I still firmly believe we need a dialogue on race in this country and I think we need to appeal to white southern voters if we are going to have any success in the south.

Doesn't address the question in the second sentence.

3. I think the way to do it is to appeal to things we have in common such as the need for jobs and education.

Doesn't address the question in the last sentence.

So just where does Dean answer the question? If he'd said: "It hasn't inflicted damage" -- that would be an answer. But he didn't say that, did he? Or anything that addressed the actual question he was asked.

[MercutioATC]

15. Fine, he explained the comment and "dodged" the damage question.

Is this the best you can come up with? He addressed the issue of the remark, but failed to answer how much damage his campaign had sustained from it?

Would that all of his criticizms were so easily dismissed...

(on edit)

And, once again, you're posting off-topic. What the hell does this have to do with Diebold?

[drfemoe]

18. pick apart the answer

but look at the questions .. It ASSUMES his comments "damaged" his campaign.

I think some people want to see Dean grovel ..

"How much damage do you think that comment, and your perceived unwillingness to retract it, has inflicted on the Dean campaign?"

He said he has retracted and apologized .. that is an indication he did take steps to address 'damage control', so to say. I would further assume that he thinks it is EVER SO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT to talk about the effects his policies will have on people who NEED THEM.

He's more interested in talking about the real issues even when someone asks a loaded question .. "tell me, how much pain and damage have you inflicted on YOUR CAMPAIGN". Dean is more interested in the American people than the 'perception of his campaign'.

I know this is hard to understand because the rest of the bunch will focus on minutiae until the cows come home. Dean doesn't do that.

by the way .. if you think ANY politician answers each question point by point, I would ask you to watch more politicians answering questions. Start with Clark at the last debate when the mods had to ask him to please answer the questions. Or Kerry when he goes on about Dean until the interviewer asks him to talk about Kerry. Were they answering the QUESTIONS?

If anyone is REALLY interested in just "how" this bobble has "damaged" his "campaign" you could search his blog and see that the folks involved have different opinions on the matter. I don't know of anyone who has given up on Dean because of this ruckus. Maybe you do. It doesn't matter because the campaign is still going strong .. so who really GIVES A FLYING F**K about this question?

eom

[drfemoe]

17. Exactly

This isn't the first time he has made a statement on this issue.

The flag controversy has been discussed and I'm not going to get railroaded into another debate about the FLAG on this thread.

I'll post something from the blackcommentator if I want to revisit that topic.

[drfemoe]

16. He asked

how much it "hurt Dean's campaign" ...

This is not a SLAM .. where do you see that?

I'm sharing some good news that the washingtonpost is quoting Dean addressing the diebold issue.

If it doesn't interest you, feel free to move on. If you want to post at least you can pay attention to what the question was.

EDIT .. misunderstood your post .. zorry

[MercutioATC]

19. The post you're responding to is mine to Feanorcurufinwe.

...where Feanorcurufinwe went off-topic and posted that Dean didn't answer the first question in the linked article (which had nothing to do with Diebold).

Did I miss something here?

[drfemoe]

21. yeah . my bad

you did good

I was :boring: at the keyboard.

[MercutioATC]

23. I just wanted to be sure...

I knew I was agreeing with you and I didn't want any hard feelings...

:hi:

[wryter2000]

4. That's my guy

And thanks for bringing that to our attention. :bounce:

[burr]

6. At least one person wants our votes!

Dean is the only candidate willing to say they should be counted.

Hopefully he'll speak in more detail on this issue. :thumbsup:

[LWolf]

11. Correction.

A thank you to Dr. Dean for his remarks.

But he is not the only candidate willing to speak up about it.

Dennis Kucinich has spoken publicly numerous times. The first time I heard him discuss it was at the peace day house party I attended in September. He was there. He spoke with us at length. He specifically said he wanted public ownership of the codes and he wanted a paper trail. And he is a cosponsor of the Holt bill, HR 2239.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:HR02239:@@@P

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

8. With Dean's army of volunteers

and the immense coverage he gets in the news, I would be quite disappointed if he didn't use that to make sure, as he puts it, "that this time the person with the most votes is going to the White House."

I was tickled about a month ago when Dean was asked about Diebold, and not only was he aware of the situation, but he said back then that he had a plan for dealing with the voting machine problems.

Chalk up another reason to support the good doctor.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

10. A Du'er passed some info to a Dean staffer in Seattle re: Diebold

back in March. Subsequently, other Du'ers either asked him about it or gave his staff more info. In his statement on foregoing matching funds last week, he specifically mentioned it in his speech. He gets it.

[Pez]

20. if only he'd take on right-wing special interests like the NRA

i bet he'll conduct "poll watching activities" if he's the nominee... question is, why did he bend over for special interests in vermont, at the expense of the environment, and not beat back the repuke NRA lobbyists instead of working with them? and will he be so vigilant in the poll watching if he's not the nominee?


DEAN for DEAN.

[drfemoe]

22. who knows

If Kerry gets the nom . the Kennedys can watch out for him.

If it's Clark, the Clintons can take on poll watch duties.

Dean, his volunteers will do whatever they can to make sure this issue doesn't go away.

And thanks to Dennis for his efforts. I'm in favor of anyone who wants to protect FAIR elections.