Major Victor for Dean in NH!

The NH primary put Dean back on the map. He took silver when a week ago people were saying he's out of the race. He has more delegates that Kerry so far (isn't that amazing? The press (except CNN.COM) never covers that!)

Dean is the only campaign that has the ability to beat Bush. I hear from friends that the Bush campaign is flipping happy that Dean isn't in first place any more because they have no freakin' idea of how they'd campaign against him: he's financially conservative as they claim good politicians should be (ironically, Bush II hasn't been) but for all reasons that Republicans hate: he likes a balanced budget so that nobody can complain that "there isn't enough money for social justice programs". He signed Civil Unions into law in VT, but the same bill forbid Same-Sex Marriage. He was for the war in Iraq that Bush I did, and the war that removed the Taliban, but against the recent Iraq war (and he has good, thoughtful, reasons for all of these). He not only is in favor of healthcare for all, but he has an easy-to-explain plan that has already worked in VT.

He doesn't take shit from the media. They beat him up, he recovers. You know... 20 years ago America hated "the phone company". It was the thing we all hated, made fun of, etc. Lilly Tomlin's "operator" sketch was dead-on funny. Today, instead, we hate "the media". It isn't one company, but we treat it as one big monolithic entity that we all hate. And we love to see Dean kick their butt.

He has excited the Democratic, grass-roots base in a way that nobody has expected. He is well on his way to out-fundraising Bush himself, and doing it all in small donations. (He won't be nobody's bitch.)

However, what's really concerning me is that Kerry is the frontrunner when everyone knows how badly he'd do against Bush. He's a 6'7" tall version of Dukakis. The Republicans have boxes and boxes of dirt on him (and it's the good kind of "unprovable but juicy" stuff that they love... like voting for a good bill that they can twist into something bad, but a lot of voting on bad bills that they don't have to twist. He served as the 2nd to Dukakis, so they're able to make a lot of negative comparisons to that. Basically, if you remember with horror the Bush I vs. Dukakis debates, the Bush II vs. Kerry debates will really make you freak.

My hope is that someone sits Dean down and says, "Are you willing to do what it takes to win this?" It will be someone like Gore, and it will be behind closed doors. He'll realize what staff changes have to happen, and he'll realize that he needs to listen more to his speech writers, etc.

In the end, he's going to have a big in in at least 1 state in the next primary and come in 2nd in others. Then he'll win a lot of states in Super Tuesday... enough to set him up as the presumptive nominee.

And then he'll beat Bush II.

And I will be very, very happy.

Major Victory for Dean in NH!

The NH primary put Dean back on the map. He took silver when a week ago people were saying he's out of the race. He has more delegates that Kerry so far (isn't that amazing? The press (except CNN.COM) never covers that!)

Dean is the only campaign that has the ability to beat Bush. I hear from friends that the Bush campaign is flipping happy that Dean isn't in first place any more because they have no freakin' idea of how they'd campaign against him: he's financially conservative as they claim good politicians should be (ironically, Bush II hasn't been) but for all reasons that Republicans hate: he likes a balanced budget so that nobody can complain that "there isn't enough money for social justice programs". He signed Civil Unions into law in VT, but the same bill forbid Same-Sex Marriage. He was for the war in Iraq that Bush I did, and the war that removed the Taliban, but against the recent Iraq war (and he has good, thoughtful, reasons for all of these). He not only is in favor of healthcare for all, but he has an easy-to-explain plan that has already worked in VT.

He doesn't take shit from the media. They beat him up, he recovers. You know... 20 years ago America hated "the phone company". It was the thing we all hated, made fun of, etc. Lilly Tomlin's "operator" sketch was dead-on funny. Today, instead, we hate "the media". It isn't one company, but we treat it as one big monolithic entity that we all hate. And we love to see Dean kick their butt.

He has excited the Democratic, grass-roots base in a way that nobody has expected. He is well on his way to out-fundraising Bush himself, and doing it all in small donations. (He won't be nobody's bitch.)

However, what's really concerning me is that Kerry is the frontrunner when everyone knows how badly he'd do against Bush. He's a 6'7" tall version of Dukakis. The Republicans have boxes and boxes of dirt on him (and it's the good kind of "unprovable but juicy" stuff that they love... like voting for a good bill that they can twist into something bad, but a lot of voting on bad bills that they don't have to twist. He served as the 2nd to Dukakis, so they're able to make a lot of negative comparisons to that. Basically, if you remember with horror the Bush I vs. Dukakis debates, the Bush II vs. Kerry debates will really make you freak.

My hope is that someone sits Dean down and says, "Are you willing to do what it takes to win this?" It will be someone like Gore, and it will be behind closed doors. He'll realize what staff changes have to happen, and he'll realize that he needs to listen more to his speech writers, etc.

In the end, he's going to have a big in in at least 1 state in the next primary and come in 2nd in others. Then he'll win a lot of states in Super Tuesday... enough to set him up as the presumptive nominee.

And then he'll beat Bush II.

And I will be very, very happy.

Study: Most Self-Abuse Goes Unreported

http://www.theonion.com/4004/news1.html

Hattchett said the shelter provides a self-abuse hotline, but the 900-number seems to do more harm than good.

"We placed ads in the back of men's magazines and newsweeklies," Hattchett said. "The sisters find that the majority of the victims who reach out to them are unable to escape their tormentors, even during a short phone call. We thought having non-threatening, soft-voiced women answer the phones would make it easier for victims to discuss the problem, but most callers only seem interested in the operators' fashion choices or whether they like to 'party.'"

The Onion is the best source of news in this country... ever.

As I predicted this morning

(I'm not tooting my own horn, I'm just saying it was so obvious that even I could predict it)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20040128/ap_on_el_pr/dean

One day after absorbing a double-digit defeat in New Hampshire at the hands of rival John Kerry (news - web sites), Dean publicly and privately expressed his determination to remain in the race. At the same time, in a conference call with members of Congress who have endorsed him, he was told bluntly that finishing second wasn't good enough — that he had to show he could win a primary.