Dean confident he has lock on DNC chair

[Robbynice]

Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... ondncchair

One year after voters rejected his presidential candidacy in a campaign that sought to rewrite traditional rules of politics, Howard Dean (news - web sites) is on the verge of taking the reins of the Democratic Party as it fights to regroup from a punishing year of defeat.

The former Vermont governor, a physician-turned-political firebrand, said Friday he has secured enough votes to be elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee (news - web sites). Though the move will not be ratified until the group votes in Washington next Saturday, rivals continued to drop out of the race, and Dean made plans to move into Democratic headquarters and begin plotting a strategy to rebuild the demoralized party.

"He has learned a lot from his experience running for president," said Linda Honold, the chairwoman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, who decided to support Dean over more than a half-dozen other candidates. "If he hadn't, that would have bothered me."

For Dean, the party chairmanship offers another chapter in an unlikely rise from small-state governor to leading presidential contender to fallen candidate. Along the way he became a Democratic phenomenon, gaining a devoted following through the Internet and in grass-roots political circles.

While Dean based his presidential candidacy on staunch opposition to the war in Iraq (news - web sites), his platform for Democratic leader comes with far less controversy. For weeks, advisers said, he has spent six to eight hours most days calling party officials in all 50 states to ask them for their support as he pledges to rebuild the party to win back the White House, Congress and a majority of gubernatorial seats across the country.

"He's got new energy," said Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) (D-Mass.), who talks frequently with Dean and approved of his candidacy to lead the Democratic Party. "He understands that our party has to go South and go West. He understands that there is a real opportunity to take the kind of activism that was very evident in his last campaign to the Democratic chairmanship."

Several senior Democratic officials said Friday that Dean almost certainly had secured the votes needed to assume the chairmanship, an insider's position in Washington where raising money, recruiting candidates and setting the party's direction are bedrock.

A former mayor of Denver dropped his bid to challenge Dean last week, followed by a former congressman from Texas and then party strategist Donnie Fowler of South Carolina, who endorsed Dean on Friday night.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman (news, bio, voting record) (D-Conn.), who also unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination last year, said: "He wasn't my first choice. I felt we needed a bridge-builder at this point. But I will respect whatever decision the DNC makes. And if it's Howard, I'll go along."

Lieberman and other moderates voiced concern that Dean's reputation for stirring controversy with his sharp rhetoric could set back the party as it studies what went wrong in the 2004 election cycle, in which President Bush (news - web sites) won re-election and Republicans increased the size of their majorities in the House and Senate. Dean, however, has worked to assure Democratic leaders that he had matured and would not speak against the party's interests.

"I would be less controversial if I didn't make absolute statements," Dean said in an interview during the height of his presidential campaign. "I would also be less appealing."

While prominent Democrats made several attempts to draw others into the race to compete against Dean, U.S. senators and party officials said they were growing comfortable with the idea of Dean at the helm of the national party.

"Ninety-nine percent of the American people couldn't name the chairman of either political party," said Sen. d#$% Durbin (D-Ill.). "I hope that if Gov. Dean is our chairman, he understands it's important to serve all the wings of the party."

While Democratic leaders in the Senate and House worried whether Dean would present a unified message on Social Security (news - web sites) reform and other issues facing Congress, other Democrats downplayed the concern over Dean and his well-known penchant for speaking his mind.

"How can you be off-message with 45 different messages?" said Sen. Tom Harkin (news, bio, voting record) (D-Iowa). "We all have a different message. He'll be great."

[balo]

I see him as the right man for the job. We need someone that can better streamline the Democratic Party back to winning ways and to objectivity. Dean is the lean machine to get the work done.

How they ever came to giving Kerry the nod for the Presidential race is beyond me.

[muzines]

This is the problem for the democrats. They are making another mistake with this guy. Just listen to what Lieberman said, who is one of the democrats I respect. Kennedy is just a loose cannon, and his candidates always lose elections. He also backed kerry big time. These guys need to understand that this country has moved away from them, and that the way to get it back is not to go the other way, which they are doing. Dean is even more left wing than McAuliffe, but good luck to them, anyway.

[juventuss]

Muzines, you always say what is wrong with democrats. but nothing wrong with republicans.

[muzines]

Muzines, you always say what is wrong with democrats. but nothing wrong with republicans.

the democrats have been losing since 2000. i don't think anything much is wrong with the Republicans as long as they are winning. You don't change or mess with a winning team. The dems have the problems, not the republicans.

[akamoke]

Muzines, you always say what is wrong with democrats. but nothing wrong with republicans.

the democrats have been losing since 2000. i don't think anything much is wrong with the Republicans as long as they are winning. You don't change or mess with a winning team. The dems have the problems, not the republicans.

Muzines, I beg to disagree to the extent that you have extreme right wingers calling the shots in the republican party..What will seal it for the republicans is if they move the country to the far right, remove all your civil liberties and overturn the abortion laws (not in favor of abortion unless circumstances demand it-- BUT this is a hot issue and it will divide the country if they touch it).

Howecer, if they keep mentioning their so called values but show a more "compassionate conservative front" ala George Bush, say what you may, but he is a good republican and he knows how to get people on his side.. regardless of what I think of his crookish friends, you need a moderate like Bush, Giuliana (not he himself but people with the same value systems) or Christine Whitman and I will vote for them any day..

Remember the so called Contract for America?, this is what happens when you allow some Right wing Loonies like Gingrich call the shots, the country will just swing back the other way...

Having said that the US is fickle, if the republicans rest on their laurels and take the country too far right, they will be voted out en masse..

The problem with the democrats is that they have a product but they don't know how to sell it..To me, the republicans have an imagination and they can sell it to you as the real deal.....

I won't nail the coffin of the democrats just yet, all they need is man/woman who can preach the family values and at the same time cite the positives of being a liberal (civil liberties, clean air, freedom of speech etc)

[mcal]

YOU CAN'T WIN ELECTIONS IF YOU TELL THE TRUTH. YOU HAVE TO BE A MASTER LIAR AND MANIPULATOR. THE PUBLIC LOVES THAT.

[akamoke]

YOU CAN'T WIN ELECTIONS IF YOU TELL THE TRUTH. YOU HAVE TO BE A MASTER LIAR AND MANIPULATOR. THE PUBLIC LOVES THAT.

I was watching the movie "American President" with Michael Dauglas and Annete Benning..There was a scene where the president was confronting his opponent in a press conference and he said (paraphrasing) that all the opponent does is to gather a few middle aged people with enough memory to remember the past , and tell them about family values etc..he goes on to say that you win elections by prying into the fears of people and offering them intangible solutions to their problems..

I thought that movie encapsulates the way this country works..for the longest time, the President (Michael Douglas' character) would not respond to attacks from the other guy (Richard Dryfuss -a great actor) and he kept slipping in the polls

[muzines]

In that movie, Douglas was also a member of the ACLU. Nobody can win a presidential election in this country today if they belong to the ACLU, they are worse than terrorists.

I find it funny when people say that Bush is dumb. I think Bush is smarter than Al Gore, and Kerry. Being smart is knowing who ur audience is and apeaking to them in the way that they can understand. Bush does this perfectly. After listening to the state of the union address, 80% of the people who watched it said that Bush made his case for overhauling social security. This is why the guy wins. He knows how to get down to people's levels and talk to them.

The problem is that many people in America are not very educated. When people like Kerry come to debates and use all these big words and say all these big things, the media raves that he won the debate. But when u ask the common people, they say that Bush won. this is because he speaks to them, they are his customers and he's making a sale. Kerry on the other hand sells to just the really educated people who consider him smart, while the people that matter say that he's stiff, unapproachable and condecending.

This is why democrats keep losing. You have to know who ur audience is and target ur message to them. I doubt that Dean can do this.

[living]

i have to agree with muzines in his last post, the dems i must say need someone fresher and i am afraid dean is not the person.