Howard Dean

no he doesn't make sausages
he's one of the presidential nominees for the democratic party
I agreed w/ his agenda and views.
I have no knowledge of his background etc.
Except that he was gov. of Vermont
YES
the place where they let gay people marry.
ATM this guy would prolly be the one to recieve my vote
any thoughts on him or his platform?

[Satchel]

I like his platform, not so sure about him though. However, if he wins the nom, he gets my vote.

lol, he'll never get the nomination!!!

hes to practical, successfull, logical, honest.

[djork]

he should make sausages

[Adam D]

I've followed Dean to some degree, at least early on because I, like many on the left, took notice of his anti-war statements. Then he further garnered support from many progressives and liberals when he started discussing his seemingly progressive platform.

So a lot of progressives and solid liberals started backing him.


A lot of his publicity and support comes from his acidic tone towards Bush and the other Democratic candidates. The more publicity he gets and the more popular he seems to be, the less he discusses the issues and the more mud he slings. I'm ok with his acidic tone towards Bush and the war, but when that constitutes the entirety of his message, that looks to me and my poli sci major to suggest that if he were to win the election in 2004 he wouldn't support "the issues" any moreso than he is now. The only issue he is still discussing is his balancing of the budget in Vermont, which is great and all but I would really rather hear about the issues his website (deanforamerica.com I think it is) says he stands for. But he's not. If he won't talk about them now I can't believe he will talk about them if he gets in office.

Like Clinton, he began with a more liberal stance and is quickly moving towards the center (perhaps even slightly to the right as Clinton did) as he gets more popular. See the article I posted earlier this week where he abandoned the Left and proclaimed himself a centrist. That's fine and all, but if he's going to call himself a centrist he cannot claim himself a social progressive.

There are candidates there who do stand for something, and will discuss those issues, and I think now is the time people are pushed towards looking at issues over mudslinging. I think there are a lot of people who are upset with the deficit, the economy, the ongoing war, unemployment, etc. and whether or not the president is responsible for any of those I think people want a leader who is going to take a stand on these issues that will help people. Personally, my choice for the Democratic Party is Dennis Kucinich (http://www.kucinich.us) who has an excellent track record for voting on his beliefs and is the leader of the Progressive Caucus in Congress.

If people don't take a stance for a better candidate, I suspect that Dean's acidic rhetoric will win him the nomination. And then we will end up with a candidate like Clinton, who won't stand for any issues and will stab the left from liberals to radicals squarely in the back. And if Dean wins the nomination, I don't know that I could vote for him simply as the best option to get Bush out of office, because I really don't think Dean will be that much different on many issues.