Obama Faces the Test Dean Failed: Broadening Support

[oberliner]

He raises tens of millions of dollars over a few months. His supporters are passionate, almost fanatical. And his grass-roots movement threatens a more established rival.

A description of Howard Dean in 2003 or Sen. Barack Obama today?

Obama campaign advisers -- many of them campaign veterans who watched Dean's slow rise and rapid descent at close range -- reject the comparison, arguing that their candidate and organization won't repeat the mistakes of the former Vermont governor.

But as Obama has shattered fundraising records over the past few months while continuing to trail Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) by double digits in polls, the challenge for the senator from Illinois has become clear: He must turn the intense devotion of his backers into a force that can win primaries, expanding his base of support beyond the narrow band of Democratic elites who backed Dean.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/16/AR2007071601831.html?nav=rss_email/components?nav=slate

[madfloridian]

1. "Narrow band of Democratic elites who backed Dean" LOL

Talk about a hit piece.

Obama is not Dean, he is Obama.

I am part of that so-called narrow band of elites...and it was not so narrow.

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. Seems to me that the elites were against Dean,

his support was typified by youth and the on-line grassroots. Hardly what you'd call Democratic elites.

They (or we) were marginalized then as 'Deaniacs', before the 'scream' made it a moot point.

Don't worry - Obama will 'scream' or 'sigh' or something for the corporate media to jump on, as soon as he begins to threaten Hillary.

[madfloridian]

4. Yep

We were crazy and nutroots long before Iowa happened. We were called fringe in spring of 2003....and it never stopped.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/62

[madfloridian]

2. More "Democratic elite"...the narrow band.

http://gallery.cloudview.com/gallery/17751#599365

Or these
http://gallery.cloudview.com/gallery/19251#679723

[wyldwolf]

5. yeah, but those pics demonstrate a very small molecule of the Dem electorate

Pew Research studied the "Deaniacs" and they were a narrow band of elites.

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. How flattering, to be called an 'elite'.

Somehow, when I visualize an 'elite' I don't see someone taking home $1600/mo, living in a 540sq ft apartment, and driving a 10 year old car.

I wonder how Pew defines 'elites'.

[oberliner]

6. If Obama wants to get the nomination

he'll need to win more primaries than Dean did.

[polichick]

7. Obama may be just enough of an insider to dodge...

...the "mistakes" that the media and DC Dems made with Dean. (They weren't HD's mistakes.)

Dean started out as a conservative Dem but allowed himself to follow the lead of the people ~ a True Blue uprising that made me so proud!

[Odin2005]

8. Obama is Dean 2.0, which is why I support him.

The revolution will not be televised, it will be sent over the internet.

[madfloridian]

9. Obama is Obama....Dean is Dean. One is not like the other.

.

[illinoisprogressive]

10. It's silly to compare one person and their campaign with another.

it is silly because Dean is himself and his ran his campaign his way.
Obama is his own self and runs his campaign his way. No two people or campaigns are alike.