Is Dean for Real?

 

 

He's got money, momentum, excitement. But is that enough to take him to the top?

 

By KAREN TUMULTY/BURLINGTON

 

http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101030811/story.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look back at nearly every campaign trail to the White House, and you will find embedded in the asphalt the flattened form of a once captivating outsider. The story line plays out as follows: he seizes the imagination with a compelling message and personality; he upsets the dynamic of the race; the media lavish attention and praise on him (there is talk that he has created a phenomenon that will change politics); he makes a rookie mistake or two under the TV lights; the reporters turn on him; his fanatical legions realize he wasn't the guy they thought he was; and finally his demise becomes part of the winner's heroic backstory.

 

The most watched and feared candidate of the moment may be rewriting that plot. It is true that Dr. Howard Dean, the testy ex-Governor of a speck of a state, fits the profile of the doomed insurgent, the Eugene McCarthys and John McCains who have come before. He is not only running outside the Establishment; he is attacking it at every opportunity.

 

But at a time when money talks louder than it ever has in politics, he is raising cash in unprecedented ways and in impressive amounts for a Democrat at this early stage. In a large field of candidates that has yet to produce a front runner around whom the party can rally, he's the only real excitement that the Democrats have to offer. And come February, if he pulls off wins in both Iowa and New Hampshire?both of which appear increasingly possible?the fast-forward campaign calendar of early primaries could catapult him to the nomination.

 

DEAN'S LEGIONS

A little more than a month ago, insiders were saying the Dean movement had all the resonance of a temper tantrum. Even activist Democrats, the line went, would eventually come to their senses and realize that this antiwar one-noter from liberal Vermont was out of synch with the politics of a post-9/11 world. And what about the Internet-driven rabble that packs his events, those 68,000 who have signed up for yet another of Dean's "Meetup" events at 340 spots across the country this Wednesday? Too young, too alienated, too inchoate to matter.

 

Then Dean's forces burst from their blogs (weblogs are the jungle drums of the Internet age) and made themselves heard in the old-fashioned language the political establishment understands: money. They deluged his campaign with $7.6 million in the second quarter (ended June 30), which was $1.7 million more than presumed front runner John Kerry, $2.5 million more than poll-topping Joe Lieberman, $3.1 million more than glamorous newcomer John Edwards, $3.8 million more than seasoned Dick Gephardt. As for the rest of the field?including a Senator, a Congressman, a former ambassador, a civil rights leader?not one raised even a third of what Dean had.

 

A year ago, Dean, 54, predicted he would come in "dead last in fund raising." Now he's ahead, and he has done it the hard way: $20, $50, $125 at a time. Half of it, he claims, came from people who had never before given to a politician. Small individual contributions have leverage because only the first $250 gets federal matching funds. And donors who haven't hit their $2,000 legal limit can be tapped again. So there's more where that came from.

 

Of course, what it takes to get the nomination is in many ways the reverse of what it takes to actually win the White House. Which is why Dean worries as many Democrats as he excites. However impressive his fund-raising abilities may look against a cast of untested rivals now, they would surely get him nowhere near the quarter-billion dollars that George Bush is likely to have for his campaign. Bush won't have to spend a penny of it until after the Democratic pick exhausts his bank account getting the nomination. Bush political strategist Karl Rove is making no secret of how he would relish using that money acquainting swing voters with a shrill Northeasterner who is antiwar and pro-gay union. And the Republican National Committee (R.N.C.) says it has only begun exploring Dean's record. "We'll be spending a lot of time in Vermont this August," says an official at the R.N.C.

 

The crowds at Dean's appearances are growing, and they are far more diverse than their "Deanie Baby" caricature. There are more retirees, more soccer moms and even an occasional wayward Republican mixed in with the twentysomethings and peaceniks. In Riverside County, Calif., Lou Stark, 86, is spending three hours a day distributing flyers for this week's Meetup and says, "You're never too old to be a Young Democrat." His newfound political activism has taken him from poring over the obits in the morning paper to surfing on the computer: "I want to see what's on the blog." Among Dean's supporters back in Vermont is businessman Bernard Rome, who raised money for George Bush's father in 1980?and hoped to unseat Dean in an unsuccessful bid for Vermont's G.O.P. gubernatorial nomination five years ago. Says Rome: "When he talked about health care, he was so damn articulate, I said, 'How can I run against him?'"

 

HOW HE COULD SHOOT THE MOON

The primary process is one reason that political insurgents almost always end up as roadkill. It is stacked against them, and more so in the 2004 race than in the past. After the Iowa contest on Jan. 19, the primaries and caucuses will come like machine-gun rounds, putting a premium on the fundamentals of organizing and endorsements, experience and money. Jimmy Carter was the last Democrat to come from nowhere and win. But he had nearly three months after Iowa to build momentum before he needed to lock up the nomination. Next year two-thirds of the convention delegates will be selected within the first six weeks after the Iowa caucuses. And the Establishment has bestowed upon itself disproportionate influence in the outcome. Democratic Party rules automatically award elected officials and other party leaders 800 delegate spots, more than a third of the 2,160 needed to win.

 

The Dean phenomenon is fueled in part by his special appeal in the first two states, Iowa and New Hampshire. Dean has challenged Massachusetts' Kerry for home-field advantage in New Hampshire, and his iconoclastic, antiwar message gives him traction in Iowa. Two public polls last week showed Dean nudging ahead of Kerry in New Hampshire. Meanwhile, Gephardt's stronghold of Iowa has become, in the words of an operative from another campaign, "a three-way dogfight between Dean, Kerry and Gephardt." If Dean runs the table in those early weeks, the political establishment may have to fall in line.

 

Thanks to his money machine, Dean has started building respectable-size campaign staffs in Iowa and New Hampshire. Over the weekend he moved paid workers into eight new states, from Washington to Maine. In a singularly cocky move, he is running television ads this week in Austin, Texas, as both a welcome-home present to vacationing President Bush and an indictment of other Democrats. "You know, when you think about it, in the past 2 1/2 years we have lost over 2.5 million jobs," Dean tells the camera. "And has anyone really stood up against George Bush and his policies? Don't you think it's time somebody did?"

 

Dean has plenty of doubters. "They've very deftly and cleverly caught a wave here, and they're surfing it pretty smart," says Kerry campaign manager Jim Jordan. As for the Internet-driven engine of the Dean insurgency: "It's like watching my 13-year-old daughter instant-messaging," Jordan says. "It's not particularly about politics and policy. It's almost like a reality show."

 

Nonetheless, Kerry and others have begun to copy Dean's high-tech moves. Kerry has signed a contract with Meetup.com, the commercial site Dean is using to arrange monthly meetings for supporters around the country. Kerry and Lieberman have also hired Convio Inc., which provides the software engine not only for the Dean campaign but also for the 1,100 Dean supporters who have set up their own websites to promote his candidacy.

 

There is a Dr. Dean-like edge creeping into his rivals' rhetoric. Kerry's economic speech last week jabbed Dean with references to "real Democrats"?evoking the Vermonter's signature tag line about representing "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party." And in the most backhanded of acknowledgments, the R.N.C. issued a news release charting the leading Democrats' increasingly critical statements on whether President Bush misled the country about how dangerous Saddam Hussein really was. The gleeful R.N.C. headline: DEMS PLAY FOLLOW THE LEADER. FOR YEARS KEY DEMS RECOGNIZED WMD THREAT ... BUT NOW HOWARD DEAN HAS CHANGED THEIR MINDS.

 

WOOING THE ESTABLISHMENT

One of the forces working in dean's favor is the disarray and disenchantment within the Democratic Party. If he's angry, well, so are many committed rank-and-file Democrats, especially on the defining question of war with Iraq, on which all the other leading contenders voted with Bush. An insurgent has more room in a field as large as this one, in which no true front runner has yet emerged to marshal the party's institutional forces. Dean's outsider appeal has made all the other first-tier contenders blend into button-down sameness. Campaign manager Joe Trippi, 47, a veteran of six presidential races whose bare-knuckled style matches his candidate's, argues that the early focus on one upstart?which usually doesn't happen until January?has created "the strongest insurgency in the history of politics." Trippi also argues that the converse is true: "Whoever becomes the Washington establishment candidate will by default be the weakest in the history of the party."

 

Campaigns attract only boutique audiences at this early stage, and the entire field remains largely unknown, even to Democrats. So one question is how well Dean's message will resonate as more people start paying attention; so far, the best he has polled is 12%, compared with Lieberman's 25% and Kerry's 14%. Another is whether the Establishment will try to rally its forces early behind anyone. All nine Democratic candidates will face questions from rank-and-file workers at the AFL-CIO's executive-council meeting in Chicago this week. But the panel appears in no hurry to give its endorsement, which requires support from two-thirds of member unions. Gephardt's long-standing ties to labor give him an edge, and he has already won the support of 10 major unions, including the Teamsters, whose endorsement is expected later this week. But some labor officials suggest privately they could take their support elsewhere if Gephardt doesn't begin to show some momentum.

 

Dean is taking advantage of this moment, with all its possibilities, to reach out to the party's traditional constituencies. While the crowds at his events are getting more mainstream, they remain largely white. After criticism last week that his campaign was ignoring African Americans, Dean sent the Congressional Black Caucus a letter talking about his record, including his commitment to fighting aids in Africa. "As your nominee and as your President, I will never take the African-American vote for granted," Dean wrote. He is trying to demonstrate that now. His campaign has hired Maria Echaveste, who as Bill Clinton's deputy chief of staff was the highest-ranking Hispanic to serve in the White House, and Christopher Edley, the Harvard Law School professor who headed Clinton's affirmative-action task force.

 

The excitement factor alone could be enough to make minority Democrats take a look at the brusque New Englander. Dean shows no sign of peaking too early, says Donna Brazile, who was Al Gore's 2000 campaign manager and is one of her party's more effective minority organizers. "He's all that and a stick of gum. He's that hot. The flavor has not left him." She mentions a conversation with a prominent bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the oldest African-American denomination. "I've seen all these cats, but I like Dean," the bishop told Brazile. "I've sent him money."

 

But the backlash has started. "It's kind of like the Mafia," says a strategist for another Democratic contender. "Everyone wants another family to hit him. You don't want to bring blood into your own house." The centrist Democratic Leadership Council (D.L.C.), which helped nurture Bill Clinton's political career, warned last week that the "far left" was taking over the party and pulling it over a cliff. No one had to ask whom the D.L.C.'s chairman, Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, was referring to when he posited, "Do we want to vent, or do we want to govern?" Although Dean's record as Vermont Governor defies ideological labels (see following story), it's not that record that matters now, the D.L.C. argues; it's his opposition to the war, his proposal to repeal the Bush tax cut and how he stokes the anger within the party. In a May memo D.L.C. leaders Al From and Bruce Reed planted Dean in what they called the party's "McGovern-Mondale wing, defined principally by weakness abroad and elitist interest-group liberalism at home. That's the wing that lost 49 states in two elections."

 

THE DOCTOR AS GAMBLER

Dean has been running for more than a year, but his campaign did not crystallize into a full-blown phenomenon until the last 10 days of June. It's instructive to look at those days because it is possible to see both the perils and the potential that lie ahead. He repeatedly took risks?from publicly challenging his donors to ante up more money to putting up early ads in Iowa?and showed that what might kill another politician in the big leagues seems only to make him stronger. Even his rather mealy-mouthed performance with Tim Russert on Meet the Press seemed to galvanize his supporters. They bombarded his website with attacks on Russert?and $93,000 in contributions that same day.

 

For Dean to ultimately succeed, he must win the biggest bet of all: that he is right about Iraq and the economy. If Saddam is killed or caught or if America clearly wins the peace, the Dean case begins to sound badly off-key. And if last week's 2.4% jump in second-quarter growth is a glimmer of a real recovery, Americans may want to hang on to their tax cuts rather than give them up for Dean's health-care and recovery plan. The Dean message that Democrats find so enticing now could be the formula for a Bush landslide.

 

"You ask me what the pitfalls are, what do we have to do from now?" Dean says. "I think we just have to keep doing what we are doing." It's working, all right. But now that Dean has proved to Democrats that he can stir their passions, there's one more thing he must do: convince them that he can win.

now I know what everyone is saying:

 

 

"Johnny, Why are you coming out with a topic on Howard Dean, a darkhorse candidate for President, especially when we are more than one year out of the election?"

 

 

Well let me tell you why.

 

 

Time and Newsweek both have felt that Mr. Dean is worthy of print, as he appears on the cover of both of these top magazines this week. Only one missing is World News and World Report to make the trifecta.

 

 

While I have no come out with any endorsements of any of the Democratic candidates yet, Dean is not going to go away. In fact I would not be very surprised to see him emerge as one of the front runners by next spring.

 

 

I know 99% of the population on this board will not read this article on this board let alone in Time. But its important nonethless.

 

 

If you do take the time to read it, post your thoughts on Mr. Dean.

well johnny,

 

 

I cant wait to check out my Time magazine this week. A lot of his support I would be willing to bet comes from those that want a change and a different type of politician.

 

 

Remember the man he models himself after, Jimmy Carter, currently is enjoying some of his highest popularity ever.

Yes!

 

My dad shook his hand while he was building support in NH. I have always supported him and he is for real.

 

He was the first to attack Bush. Lieby has no charisma so that is Dean's biggest challenger.

 

Dean will be in The White House in January 2005.

Whether or not we can say Howard Dean will be in the White House come 2005 is something we cannot predict yet.

 

 

But he will not go away. If he can win the Democratic nomination, he just might win the White House.

 

 

The most difficult thing will be to get past all the many Democratic candidates.

 

 

Bush is beatable, especially if our economy continues to stagnate and suffer, he needs to pull off magic and fast. He can conquer every country in the Middle East, it will NOT be enough to win re-election.

Of course it won't be enough, The Newest NBC/Wall Street polls have Bush's overall approval rating at 56%

 

It also says 7 out of 10 say's he has done a good job on The War on Terror BUT...

 

8 out of 10 say making more job's is most important meaning that Bush's War on Terror is not going to win him re-election.

I have now officially put all my support into the Dean campaign.

 

 

After reading through the issues....he will be best for this nation not only short term...but long term as well.

DEAN IN 2K4 !!!!!

 

i love that guy...it would be nice to put someone with a head in the white house for a change

DEAN IN 2K4 !!!!!

 

i love that guy...it would be nice to put someone with a head in the white house for a change

Yea it would be nice as we see that Bush doesnt have a head or honesty but Howard Dean winning the Democratic nomination, let alone the presidency? I think thats a little far-fetched

Who's Howard Dean? j/k

 

Yes, him actually being elected as president in 04' is way out there.

BTW wasn't he going through a famliy crisis a couple of weeks ago. It was good to see him put his famliy ahead of politics.

He was the first to attack Bush. Lieby has no charisma so that is Dean's biggest challenger.

 

Lieberman isn't his biggest opponent. In fact, Lieberman had no shot from the very beginning of getting the Democratic nomination. Picking Lieberman is the reason Gore lost in '00, because he's way too conservative.

 

I don't know anything about this guy, but he sounds interesting. Let's get real, though; Gephardt, Kerry, and Graham are the 3 front runners, and it's going to take a hell of a lot from Dean to take over any of those 3.

Let's get real, though; Gephardt, Kerry, and Graham are the 3 front runners, and it's going to take a hell of a lot from Dean to take over any of those 3.

He already has...

 

Dean is the obvious front runner, The Democrats know it and so do The Rep.

 

Graham is a joke. He's currently hovering at 10 or 9 in most polls. So don't even bring him in as a possible canidate.

 

Right now Dean has The Green Party's support something you need if you want to win the race as a democrat.

 

Dean is just continuing to pull away in the polls leaving Kerry and Edwards way behind.

http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/001100.html

 

I know it's from Dean's site but it still proves that Howard Dean is for real and Bob Graham is not a threat to ANYONE!

Believe in the Power of Dean.

 

 

 

He has the most momentum of any Democratic hopeful.

 

 

If you think he is either going away or someone without a real shot to win this thing....you are not informed properly.

 

 

Dean WILL be the Democratic nominee.

 

 

What happens after that we shall see.

 

 

Dean is appealing to many voters...the key is appealing to those that have not voted in the past....and there are the traditional Democrats who will vote Democrat no matter what.

 

 

Watch out folks. Bush's worst nightmare has just begun.

If Dean is Bush's biggest nightmare, then you haven't heard of a certain Osama Bin Laden and the other terrorists around the world.

 

Get in touch with reality.

will someone (Das Texas) give me an overview of what his platform is, and what he plans to bring to the table. Maybe where he stands on the usual issues as well?

Dean is Bush's biggest dometic nightmare, especially in the 04 election.

 

 

 

Now lets look at issues instead.

Here is an overview of Dean's economic stance...

 

 

The economic policies of the Bush Administration are misguided, unfair and unsuccessful.

 

They fail to meet the basic standard of economic justice: decent, well-paying jobs for all who want them. They are policies that have created a legacy of debt for future generations. Huge tax cuts that benefit the wealthy are starving essential government services like education and homeland security, and forcing states and local governments to increase sales, income and property taxes. While America?s wealthiest individuals - those in the top 2 per cent of income brackets - receive the bulk of the tax cuts, America?s middle class is left behind.

 

Since this Administration took office, nearly 3 million Americans have seen their jobs disappear. The unemployment rate has risen to over 6%. Nine million people are unemployed, and countless more have joined the ranks of discouraged workers and dropped out of the labor market entirely. Millions of Americans from young people just out of school to others who are the victims of massive layoffs are underemployed in jobs that fail to take advantage of their talents or reward their reasonable expectations. Too many of our fellow citizens are laboring at subsistence pay levels without benefits or prospects of advancement.

 

Month after month, for nearly three years, manufacturers have fired more workers than they hired, and the world-class manufacturing sector that has been the heart of America?s strength continues to shrink.

 

Meanwhile, the federal budget deficit now estimated to be more than $450 billion this year soars out of control, with no relief in sight. The Bush Administration philosophy has become ?borrow and spend? and let our children and grandchildren pick up the pieces.

 

But the truth is that this Administration?s economic agenda is about far more than budgets and deficits. The ideologues gathered around the President have a more ambitious goal -- to repeal the progressive legacy of the Twentieth Century. They want to return to a time when private wealth was insulated from the graduated income tax, and the many labored for the benefit of the few. They would ignore the widening gap between rich and poor, shred the safety nets that provide at least some protection for the unfortunate, and dismantle the safeguards that protect consumers and workers alike.

 

I believe we must take drastic actions to repair the damage that this President is inflicting on our economy.

 

As Governor for more than 10 years, I guided the Vermont economy through two Bush recessions. Despite economic uncertainty, I was able to reduce taxes, maintain a balanced budget, expand health care and increase funding for education.

 

My economic policies for America are based on four fundamentals:

Repeal the Bush tax cuts, and use those funds to pay for universal health care, homeland security, and investments in job creation that benefit all Americans.

Set the nation on the path to a balanced budget, recognizing that we cannot have social or economic justice without a sound fiscal foundation.

Create a fairer and simpler system of taxation.

Assure that Social Security and Medicare are adequately funded to meet the needs of the next generation of retirees.

 

I know what it takes to generate economic growth. As President, I will work tirelessly to put the American economy back on the road to prosperity not just for the favored few, but for all.

ok theres one issue.

Here is his stance on education....patience my friends...

 

 

"The President's education bill is the second

largest unfunded mandate (after special

education) in the history of federal education

legislation. It is the largest reduction of local

school board decision-making power in history."

 

Vermont was several years ahead of the federal government in improving standards and accountability in our classrooms, so I was delighted when the President took up education reform early in his term. Unfortunately, the President's bill not only costs states a fortune, but also takes away local control of the schools and is essentially another unfunded mandate.

 

This new federal law will result in the identification - or mis-identification - of between 30 and 65 percent of all community schools (depending on your state) as failing. The enormous cost of coming into federal compliance will fall on local property taxpayers.

 

Vermont, like many other states, already has a strong testing and accountability program. Now our system is at risk because of a new federally dictated definition of quality. To add insult to injury, the President's bill mandates that schools certify that they allow "Constitutionally" defined school prayer, and that they send the name and address of every rising senior to colleges and to the military. These matters ought to be left up to the local school boards, not dictated by the President and Congress.

 

I am proud of the Vermont approach. First, we require and pay for high standard (but not standardized) testing, and publish the school-by-school results annually. Second, we use professional development to help non-performing teachers and schools do a better job. The state can take over a failing school, although I'm happy to say that has never been necessary. Finally, the state pays a substantial share of new school construction.

 

The federal government must recognize that an enormous number of our teachers are retiring in the coming years and provide incentives to inspire a new generation of great teachers. In addition, Washington needs to provide a cost share to help local communities fix their most rundown schools - not only improving education, but providing construction jobs as well.

 

If we are serious about improving American education, however, we must not forget that the single most important factor in how a child learns has less to do with the quality of the building, the computers or even the teachers. The most important predictor is the attitude in that child's home toward education. We must involve parents again; we must insist that they participate in their children's education; and we must make schools and school boards responsive to parents. But we must under no circumstances abandon the public schools, as the Bush Administration seems bent on doing.

Security and Foreign Policy....

 

The United States has a special role to play in world affairs as an historic inspiration to those around the world seeking democracy, freedom, and opportunity. Our own fight for independence, democracy, and basic human rights has allowed us to act as a moral force in world affairs and a guiding light for other nations.

 

In the last century, our strength as a nation was measured more by the extent to which others emulated and respected us abroad than by the extent to which they feared and loathed us.

 

Under George W. Bush, this nation has lost its way. Not only are we less secure at home and abroad, we have squandered our role as the inspiration and guiding light for other peoples. I seek to restore America?s rightful place in the world and its moral leadership in world affairs.

 

We remain the sole superpower in the world as Madeleine Albright once put it, the "indispensable power" for addressing so many of the challenges around the world. But we cannot lead the world by force, and we cannot go it alone. We must lead toward clearly articulated and shared goals and with the cooperation and respect of friends and allies.

 

I seek to restore the best traditions of American leadership. Leadership in which our power is multiplied by the appeal of democratic ideals and by the knowledge that our country is a force for law around the world, not a law unto itself.

 

I will not divide the world into us versus them. Rather, I will rally the world around fundamental principles of decency, responsibility, freedom, and mutual respect. Our foreign and military policy must be about the notion of America leading the world not America against the world.

 

I opposed President Bush?s war in Iraq from the beginning. While Saddam Hussein?s regime was clearly evil and needed to be disarmed, it did not present an immediate threat to U.S. security that would justify going to war, particularly going to war alone. From the beginning, I felt that winning the war would not be the hard part winning the peace would be. This administration failed to plan for the postwar period as it did for the battle, and today we are paying the price.

 

My opposition to the war, however, is part of a comprehensive view of America?s role in the world that I presented to the Council on Foreign Relations on June 25th (click here for full text). In that speech, I laid out four goals for American leadership in the world:

First, defeat the threat posed by terrorists, tyrants, and technologies of mass destruction.

Second, strengthen our alliances and ensure Russia and China are fully integrated into a stable international order.

Third, enlarge the circle of beneficiaries of the growing world economy.

And fourth, ensure that life on our fragile planet is sustainable.

 

Fifty-five years ago, President Harry Truman delivered what was known as the Four Point speech. In it, he challenged Democrats and Republicans alike to come together to build strong and effective international organizations; to support arrangements that would spur global economic recovery; to join with free people everywhere in the defense of human liberty; and to draw upon the genius of our people to help societies who needed help in the battle against hunger and illness, ignorance and despair.

 

Harry Truman believed that a world in which even the poorest and most desperate had grounds for hope would be a world in which our own children could grow up in security and peace not because evil would then be absent from the globe, but because the forces of right would be united and strong.

 

Harry Truman had faith as I have faith, and as I believe the American people have faith, that if we are wise enough and determined enough in our opposition to hate and our promotion of tolerance; in our opposition to aggression and our fidelity to law; we will have allies not only among governments but among people everywhere.

 

Such an alliance can never be beaten.

 

And the creation of such an alliance will be my goal if I am entrusted with the presidency of the United States. Because, this is what will keep America strong. This is what reflects the best in the American people. And this is the core of the national security message that I will be carrying to all of America throughout this campaign that I am committed to working constructively with friends and allies around the globe to help people in every corner of every continent to live in freedom, prosperity and peace.

You can find most of his ideas at www.deanforamerica.com

 

I love how he wants to improve The Rural Economy.

 

For those who say that Dean can't win just think of this...

 

Dean does not stand for The Democratic party he represents The Pissed Off American. A very big and growing number. Let's not forget he has The Green Party behind him which is about 5% ofd the vote.

Last for hte time being....Civil Rights

 

 

 

One of the reasons that I am running for president is to restore the ideal of the American community. Unfortunately, this ideal is under assault by the current Administration. The President pushes forward an agenda and policies that divide us. He divides us by race by using the word quota. He divides us by gender by attacking a woman's right to make her own health care decisions. He divides us by sexual orientation by supporting senators who have slandered gay Americans.

 

This is a campaign to unite and empower people everywhere. It is a call to every American, regardless of party, to join together in common purpose and for the common good to save and restore all that it means to be an American.

 

We seek an America where it is not enough to protect our own rights under the law, but where it is a duty and an obligation for each of us as Americans to make sure every American is equal under the law.

 

We seek an America where it is not enough to proclaim the words freedom, self-government, and democracy, but where it is a duty and a responsibility to participate together in common purpose with the sacrifice required of each of us to give those words meaning.

 

We seek an America where it is not enough that our own children have health care and good schools, but where our neighbors? children do as well.

 

This campaign is about who we are as Americans. It is the ideal of the American community that we seek to restore.

 

Fundamental to the restoration of the American community is the reaffirmation of the principles of Civil Rights and Justice. As President, I will tirelessly work to promote these principles:

I will support affirmative action, from which we have all benefited, because it has strengthened our institutions and provided opportunity.

I will unflinchingly defend a woman?s right to choose against those who would take away this right.

I will nominate federal judges with outstanding legal credentials, records of professional excellence, and demonstrated commitment to the constitutional principles of equality, liberty, and privacy.

I will work to expand equal rights to same sex couples and ban workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation, strengthen federal protections against anti-gay violence, give federal employees the right to name same-sex partners as beneficiaries, remove bias from our immigration laws, and end the military?s ?Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell? Policy.

I will work to ensure that racial profiling ends and will direct my Attorney General to use regulatory authority under existing anti-discrimination laws the 1964 Civil Rights Act to define racial profiling as discrimination, and to withhold federal funds from state and local law enforcement that violate those regulations.

I will appoint an Attorney General who sees our constitution not just as a document to be manipulated, ignored, and violated, but recognizes and respects it as the fabric that binds the American community together.

I will oppose expansion of the Patriot Act, efforts to remove sunset clauses included in the act, and will seek to repeal the portions of the Patriot Act that are unconstitutional.

I will put the weight of my office behind the Innocence Protection Act, proposed by Senator Patrick Leahy, which would expand access to DNA testing and strengthen the quality of lawyers for defendants facing the death penalty.

I will protect the civil rights of immigrants detained by the Department of Homeland Security.

I will work for federal legislation to restore the right to vote in any federal election for ex-felons who have paid their debt to society.

 

Together we have the power to halt this President?s divisive, destructive polices. Together we can restore the ideal of the American community. And integral to this restoration is the reaffirmation of the shared belief that everyone, regardless or race, sex, creed, sexual orientation, or immigration status is entitled to equal protection and justice.

and all of his stances that I have given come directly from his website.

Dean is trying to run for Prez by attcking Bush personally, but yet when Meet the Press asked him some questions he could not provide clear answers.

 

Here is the link, enjoy! http://www.msnbc.com/news/912159.asp

 

BTW, Dean had personal problems with his family. His 17 year old son broke into a Country Club and stole beer. http://www.whdh.com/features/articles/hiller/A102/

 

Courtesy of NBC News, MSNBC, and WHDH-TV in Boston.