Text 10089, 123 rader
Skriven 2005-03-20 18:40:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Dean
============
I only hope this clown is still around in 2008....

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Spreading the message


PETER GORRIE
STAFF REPORTER

"Keep it simple" is the key to the White House, failed Democratic 
presidential candidate Howard Dean told members of his party from around 
the world last night.

One major reason his party lost the 2004 race to the "brain-dead" 
Republicans is that it has a "tendency to explain every issue in half an 
hour of detail," Dean told the semi-annual meeting of Democrats Abroad, 
which brought about 150 members from Canada and 30 other countries to 
the Toronto for two days.

"I'm going to be very disciplined about how we deliver messages. We can 
have policy deliberations in rooms like this. On TV, we have to be very 
focused."

The Democrats, in fact, will try to copy the Republicans, who are 
masters at making their message stick, he said. "The Democrats will have 
three things, maybe four, that we're going to talk about."

Dean's party is struggling to recover from the Nov. 2 American election, 
in which George W. Bush's team not only won the White House but also 
took firm control of the Senate and House of Representatives.

Last month, Dean, 56, was elected chairman of the Democratic National 
Committee, a powerful 440-member group that plans presidential 
nominating conventions, takes in most donations, and promotes the party 
and its candidates.

John McQueen, the Democrats' international campaign chair, has called 
that result "the most significant change in party leadership in more 
than a generation."

Dean won the job by acclamation, even though the party establishment, 
its congressional wing and many big donors and unions initially opposed 
him.

It was, said delegates to yesterday's meeting, a triumph of the 
grassroots. Dean built up enough support that party insiders had to bow 
to the inevitable.

Dean's presidential campaign was propelled by Web communications. And 
he's promoting a "bottom-up" Internet-connected party, run by state 
organizations rather than the centre. He has called for an end to the 
"consultant culture" — the legions of paid advisers employed by defeated 
candidate John Kerry that, critics complain, confused the candidate's 
thinking and messages.

Dean was the early front-runner in the race for the Democratic 
presidential nomination but bowed out after losing several primaries. 


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`The majority is on our side. We need to figure out how to talk 
differently about these issues.'

Howard Dean, Democrat

--------------------------------------------------------------------
 

A major blow was coverage of his so-called "I have a scream" speech, 
after he finished a poor third in the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 19, 2004.

In an effort to rally disappointed but noisy supporters in Des Moines, 
he rattled off the names of the next 13 battleground states. Followed 
by: "And then we're going to Washington, D.C. To take back the White 
House." Followed by: "YEAHHHH!!!" — a shout that was amplified by his 
hand-held microphone, replayed by the media hundreds of times, and 
became the butt of jokes, both unkind and kind.

The shrill was gone in yesterday's speech, but Dean appeared relaxed and 
enthusiastic. Party members treated him like a star and gave him three 
long standing ovations.

An example of the party's new discipline is its current focus on Bush's 
plan to privatize Social Security, said Dean, who was governor of 
Vermont for 10 years before quitting in 2002 to run for president.

The Democrats won't be distracted by other issues, "as long as we're 
kicking the living daylights out of them on Social Security."

"The Democratic Party will not win elections or build a lasting majority 
solely by changing its rhetoric, nor will we win by adopting the other 
side's positions," he said when he announced his bid to become party 
chair. "We must say what we mean — and mean real change when we say it."

While Dean wants focused policies, he acknowledged some issues aren't 
clear-cut and his party must work hard to come up with effective 
messages.

It will be difficult to win over the many Americans who appear to 
disagree with Democratic policies on social and moral issues, such as 
abortion, he said.

"The majority is on our side. We need to figure out how to talk 
differently about these issues."

And he said he hasn't made a lot of noise about Iraq, even though he 
opposed the U.S. invasion that was launched two years ago yesterday, 
because "we're there" and "the price of not succeeding is going to be 
enormous for America and for Iraq's neighbours."

Democrats Abroad, founded in 1964, has about 20,000 members in 45 
countries, including 5,000 in Canada.

It was established to encourage the 7 million American citizens living 
outside the United States to register to vote as Democrats.

It claims to have registered more than 250,000 voters worldwide, 
including 35,000 in Canada, in 2004. Its goal is 1 million registrations 
next year and 2 million for the 2008 U.S. presidential election.
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