Dean doesn't know when to quit

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-02-09 08:38pm

You have to register, so don't even bother

GREEN BAY, Wis., Jan. 9 — Reversing his statement to get out of the race if he failed to win Wisconsin's primary on Feb. 17, Howard Dean said today that "it's not going to be the end of the line" and that "we're going to find a way to stay in one way or the other."

Dr. Dean acknowledged that his statements, made in a series of interviews with television stations here, were an "obvious contradiction" to a fund-raising e-mail message sent to supporters last week saying that his campaign would be over unless he won in Wisconsin. Asked today whether he would drop out if he lost next week, Dr. Dean said, "No." Asked if he were in it for the long haul, he responded, "Yup."

"There's too many people who've come up to me and said whatever you do, `Don't drop out,' " Dr. Dean said. "I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen in Wisconsin, but we're going to find a way to stay in one way or the other.`

Dr. Dean flew around this state today with a new slogan, a new speech and a new policy proposal, urging voters in Wisconsin to use their Feb. 17 primary to keep the Democratic nominating contest going.

"The media claims that this contest is over," Dr. Dean told 300 people gathered in a Madison hotel ballroom, before flying here. "They say that Wisconsin's voice doesn't count, that your votes don't count. They expect you to rubber-stamp everybody else's choice.

EmperorSolo51 · Post by **EmperorSolo51** » 2004-02-09 08:40pm

This only reaffirms my suspicion that Howard Dean will run as an independent in November.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-02-09 08:42pm

EmperorSolo51 wrote:This only reaffirms my suspicion that Howard Dean will run as an independent in November.

that would be juuuuuust peachey!

Kerry + Dean + Nader = four more years of Bush

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2004-02-09 08:45pm

No, Dean won't run as an independant. He'll quit after he loses every state on Super Tuesday.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-02-09 08:49pm

Howedar wrote:No, Dean won't run as an independant. He'll quit after he loses every state on Super Tuesday.

nah, he'll win Rhode Island. that'll keep him going!

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2004-02-09 10:40pm

Howedar wrote:No, Dean won't run as an independant. He'll quit after he loses every state on Super Tuesday.

I don't know. He might well keep trying right through November.

beyond hope · Post by **beyond hope** » 2004-02-09 10:50pm

Dean Now Says He Will Stay in Race After Wisconsin

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2004-02-10 01:57pm

This is why I think New Hampshire and Iowa's results shouldn't be advertised. It's just totally stupid that these two states can determine the leader, just because they vote before anyone else.

I'm willing to bet that many people that liked Dean dropped him just because he was no longer the media-hyped front-runner.

GrandMasterTerwynn · Post by **GrandMasterTerwynn** » 2004-02-10 02:17pm

Ehh, Dean is done. His campaign has become a shambling almost-corpse operating on the last of the blood circulating through its brain on momentum alone. Yes, he's reversed on his decision to quit if he blows Vermont, but he'll probably reverse again unless some god smiles upon him and he scores some major victories. Which he probably won't, given that, at this point, John Kerry has better than a 3-to-1 lead in the hunt for delegates, and given the fact that Dean is is getting to that point where his major competition is Al Sharpton.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-02-10 03:34pm

LadyTevar wrote:This is why I think New Hampshire and Iowa's results shouldn't be advertised. It's just totally stupid that these two states can determine the leader, just because they vote before anyone else.

I'm willing to bet that many people that liked Dean dropped him just because he was no longer the media-hyped front-runner.

wow! Lady Tevar and I agree on a topic in the political forum? Say it ain't so! I agree wholeheartedly. the whole primary process needs to be redesigned from top to bottom. Make it all happen in one day, or at least in a week. And why does it have to start so damn early?

Tribun · Post by **Tribun** » 2004-02-10 03:43pm

Dean is dead....accept it.

By the way, if he tried to do it as the thierd candidate for presedential election.
See that nice head down left?
http://bilder.tentakelvilla.de/samnmax/ ... sam015.gif
Sam:"So THAT is it, what happens to the third candidate for the presidential elections!"

theski · Post by **theski** » 2004-02-10 03:48pm

And the Independent UK puts the nail in the Deaniacs coffin....

Surely, it is among the most astounding political implosions of modern times. The conventional and hitherto almost infallible wisdom has been that the candidate who entered the new year ahead in the polls and with the most money invariably won his party's nomination to run for president.

Instead, in barely three weeks remarkable even by the volatile standards of America politics, Howard Dean has faded from overwhelming favourite to rank outsider. But however devastating his collapse, he has blazed the trail that could end with another Democrat recapturing the White House this November.

At the turn of the year, the former Vermont governor seemed unassailable. He had amassed $40m, almost twice as much as his nearest rival, tapping the internet as no candidate before him. He held a 15-point lead among Democrats nationally, and was ahead in the key early primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

His fiery anti-Bush, anti-war rhetoric drew passionately committed followers, collectively known as "Deaniacs", into the political process for the first time. He became the darling of influential activist groups like MoveOn.org. So what went wrong? Basically, the Dean story, assuming it ends as the script now suggests it will, is one of "right message, wrong messenger".

Mr Dean's scathing attacks on the President, his denunciation of tax cuts lavished on the rich and his criticism of the Congressional Democrats for their failure to confront the Republican juggernaut, all galvanised the contest.

His best lines were un-ashamedly stolen by his rivals, witness the transformation of the stump speech of John Kerry, the front-runner, from tedious lecture to stinging tirade against the Bush administration. That has united the Democratic field against Mr Bush, rather than set them against each other, so much so that polls show Mr Kerry running ahead of Mr Bush if an election were held tomorrow.

But the hard-edged man from Vermont inspired enthusiasm rather than affection. As front-runner - and a politician little known at a national level - intense media scrutiny was inevitable, as polls and punditry gave way to real primary voting.

Many in the Democratic establishment were horrified by the prospect of Mr Dean as nominee, fearing an electoral rout to match that of George McGovern in 1972. But to say Mr Dean was the victim of a media/ insider conspiracy is nonsense.

Mr Dean destroyed himself. For months, false steps went unpunished; indeed his popularity actually went up last summer after a notably poor outing on the top Sunday talk show Meet the Press (whose host Tim Russert interviewed President George Bush at the weekend).

Eventually, Mr Dean's brutal honesty caught up with him. Saddam Hussein's capture would not make the US any safer, he said. True perhaps, but hardly a politic remark. He then suggested Osama bin Laden should enjoy due process.

Next, the anti-establishment candidate secured the endorsement of the former vice president Al Gore, the supreme insider. The rebel lost some of his fire. Uncharacteristically, he began to pander, for instance suddenly talking about his religion in a bid to woo southern voters. He put in a couple of insipid debate performances, and grew snappy on the stump. Then on 19 January, the Iowa caucuses turned the Democratic race on its head. Much has been made of Mr Dean's post-defeat "I have a Scream" rant to campaign workers. Maybe it was overplayed by broadcast and 24 hour cable networks (clips of it were shown 633 times in four days). Inevitably, the episode was mercilessly pilloried on the internet and by late-night talk-show hosts.

But the real damage had been done earlier that evening, when Iowa's voters relegated Mr Dean to an abject third in the caucuses. Mr Kerry never looked back. In New Hampshire, a rash of red front-garden posters told the story, "Dated Dean. Married Kerry". Democrats in the two states of face-to-face politics had inspected the former Vermont governor and decided they did not want him to carry their standard for the presidency.

Mr Dean is betting all on Wisconsin's primary on 17 February. Barring a miracle, it will be a losing bet.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/ame ... ory=489725

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2004-02-10 03:55pm

LadyTevar wrote:I'm willing to bet that many people that liked Dean dropped him just because he was no longer the media-hyped front-runner.

If you chose your candidate simply because of the media hype, you're an idiot and shouldn't have the right to vote anyway.

And Dean was never as strong a front runner as he was made out to be. Accept it and move on.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-02-10 07:28pm

Stormbringer wrote:
LadyTevar wrote:I'm willing to bet that many people that liked Dean dropped him just because he was no longer the media-hyped front-runner.
If you chose your candidate simply because of the media hype, you're an idiot and shouldn't have the right to vote anyway.

And Dean was never as strong a front runner as he was made out to be. Accept it and move on.

still, her point rings true. the primaries are a drawn out convoluted pile of shit that are drasticly in need of reform.