Almost Is Not Good Enough

Yesterday Governor Dean made his first trip to Delaware since becoming Chairman of the DNC. A crowd of activists from three counties attended a grassroots fundraiser to benefit the Delaware Democratic Party by contributing $50 for the 50-State Stategy.

Here is what The News Journal had to say about the event:

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean brought a message familiar to every Delaware candidate in a Tuesday visit to rally the local party forces he is helping finance.

Person-to-person politics beats big media campaigns when it comes to winning over voters.

"You can't win a campaign with just expensive TV ads," Dean said. "You've got to go out and make yourself known. ... You have to go to people who didn't vote the way you voted and convince them of your position."

And that's why Dean has pressed through criticism to follow through on a "50-state" strategy for building stronger Democratic voting in all states, whether they are currently red or blue on the political map.

Extra funding from the national party has allowed the state party to hire a full-time communications manager and two field directors.

Now some would consider a state like Delaware, where Democrats hold almost every statewide office, pretty "blue" and doing ok by Democratic Party standards. Well almost isn't good enough for Governor Dean:

"We only have seven of nine [statewide] offices," said Dean, former governor of Vermont. "We're not 100 percent Democratic here yet. We still have work to do right here."

And the Delaware Democratic Party is doing that work, to make sure that we don't take any state for granted and we win races from the top of the ticket down:

Support from the national party is helping in a big way. The two-year DNC commitment means the party has five full-time people, and that translates into better organizing efforts and the ability to reach down below statewide and legislative races.

"It gets us beyond just being able to do triage and gives us the ability to go out, get the party organized and mobilized," she said. "And we know it's long-term -- at least through '08 -- so we can plan further ahead."

DelawareLiberal blogger Jason attended the event too, and gives his impression of Governor Dean:

[Dean's] common sense message is lost among people who want Dean to be a Democratic savior (like me) and people who want him to be the liberal bogeyman whose every utterance is used for the next GOP fundraising letter.

The bottom line is Dean is niether the savior nor the bogeyman that people make him out to be. He is what he has always been, a man who is using his position to say "what's so funny about honest and open government? What is so traitorous about a strong national defense that rests on telling the truth? And what is so crazy about health care system for everyone?"

There is nothing funny, traitorous or crazy about the Democratic Agenda, or our values. And no one is going to stop working - from the reddest of red states to the bluest of blue, until we set America in a new direction, starting with a Democratic Congress in November.

Comments (5) «

I'm glad to see the "cult of personality" fade out and the reality of "all politics is local" fade in. To blue skies across this beautiful country. It's up to us. We have a fine leader, but it's not going to be his success or failure--while he will shoulder the blame.

Work it, please! I hope we do not abandon the senior citizens who depend upon us to restore sanity. I pray that we restore the respect for faith and roll back the manipulation of the faithful. I hope that we achieve our goals during these critical midterms for our children and our future.

Truly, it is in our hands. Every day, every action--matters!

1

fade2bluz on August 2, 2006 at 08:08 PM

The way the GOP manages to win every election (aside from voter fraud that is) is by strengthening their base. This is something that we have been shy to do for quite some time and it is good to see that we are finally getting with the program.

It's good to see that we aren't taking things for granted anymore. In 2000, Gore took New Hampshire for granted and lost the election (once again, voter fraud aside). Let's just keep up the good work.

2

Private_Joker on August 2, 2006 at 10:40 PM

Almost But Lost. The old familiar invitation song sung for over a 100 years by Christians.

3

freeforall on August 3, 2006 at 03:45 PM

I know that a lot of Republicans do not like Howard Dean, and some so-called Democrats do not like him either.

I think that a lot of the Democratic leaders who don't like Dean are not real Democrats.

Some of them have been in Washington too long, and feel threatened by someone like Howard Dean.

But, I am glad that Howard Dean is committed to his 50-State Strategy. Too bad that the last Chairman of the Democratic Party did not seem to see the need to have one.

God Bless Howard Dean!

4

LavoniaW on August 4, 2006 at 04:20 AM

Dean's doing OK, considering the number of Republi-lite sell-outs he's having to deal with. We will just have to give him more real Democrats to work alongside in this election.

5

Butte on August 4, 2006 at 10:36 AM

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