The South loves Howard Dean, Southern Dems love Howard Dean!

[Melodybe]

Thanks to Sean Hannity and the fuckwads talking up Dean's honesty in a blatent attempt to both devide democrats and play some reverse psychology on them, plenty of Fox veiwers and repubs love Dean.

One thing that southerners like about Howard Dean is that he acknowledges that we exist. When Dean mentioned rednecks, it perked up their ears. Dean mentions the South, unlike Kerry who seemed to do his best to avoid the south as a topic altogether.

I love that one of the first places he is coming as soon as he is head of the DNC is Mississippi. I love that the southern state democrats we the first to endorse Howard Dean for the job.

My repub father in law is very glad that Dean will be running the DNC. He likes hearing what Dean has to say even though he generally disagrees. He thinks overall that Dean is a good man of his word, and since Dean actually is a man of his word, the repubs in Washington are scared shitless.

Dean is one of our best weapons, the pubs are terrified of him with reason. He points out the evil in a clear and concise manner that immediately cuts through the bullshit, Wesley Clark BTW is also very good at this. It is like majic on the brainwashed, a few sentences from Dean and they get a dose of reality.

This next week is going to be very good for us, if the repubs think he'll keep his opinions to himself about Gannon and the FAA, they are sorely mistaken. I can't wait to hear what Dean's take will be!!!

One of the few things we can do is take Dean at his word. He is one of the few politicans on TV that has yet to lie to the American people. So far he has kept all his promises and even repubs respect that.

I am so happy about getting to see him on the 1st of March! I hope I get to meet him!

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. .

[Guaranteed]

2. He's their kind of guy. nt

[BattyDem]

3. That can't be true!

Dean's one of them "cappuccino-drinkin' libruls" that Southerners hate and can't relate to. :eyes:

Another media myth goes bust! :smoke:

[John Q. Citizen]

4. I'm from Montana and we are thrilled he's got it.

Dean has a very pro-active attitude about whatever and it's infectious.

Dean is to the right of me, but you are right about his straight forward way of dealing with issues.

He's credible and it scarces the pants off the Repos.

[coloradodem2005]

5. February 12th 2005. The birth of the new Democratic party.

The one that will kick some ass.

[BrklynLiberal]

6. Goes to show how wrong this article from the WaPo is.

Ailing Democrats Put Their Faith in Dr. Dean
Some Fear Choice Will Add to Red-State Blues

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15401-20...

By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 11, 2005; Page A01

Two questions swirled around the Democrats as their national committee assembled yesterday to select a new party chairman: Can Howard Dean cure what ails the party, or is Howard Dean symptomatic of why those ailments may be so difficult to cure?

The former Vermont governor is poised to claim the party chairmanship tomorrow. His victory represents a personal triumph one year after his presidential campaign was in ashes and symbolizes the strength of the party's revitalized grass roots in the aftermath of John F. Kerry's loss to President Bush in November.

But for a party grappling with the question of how it can become more competitive in the red states of the South, Midwest and Mountain West, the decision to elect as its chairman a confrontational New Englander with a liberal identity and a penchant for making controversial statements sends a message in the view of some Democrats that little has been learned from the losses in 2004.

"I think Howard Dean would be viewed as synonymous with being upper-East Coast liberal, and that just makes the burden on southern Democrats that much more difficult," said James F. "Jim" Kyle Jr. (D), the minority leader of the Tennessee Senate. "Hopefully he will try to be chairman of the entire party and not the chairman of a niche of the party members."

It was posted at this thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1229018

[Melodybe]

7. I know that is why I started this thread

If southerners hated Dean so much then why were the southern state Dems the first to endorse Dean for DNC chair?

It is a lie and we have to stop it dead in its tracks.

[w4rma]

10. The folks at the WP are out of touch, probably intentionally. (nt)

[SmokingJacket]

19. "Some fear..."

When will those stupid people quit using that ridiculous trope on us???

"Some people," "Some say," "It's been said that..."

:grr:

[Bouncy Ball]

8. I know he got us Texas Dems ALL fired up during the primaries

and once we get fired up, we never really simmer back down too quickly! LOL!

[fishwax]

17. Ditto in Oklahoma

Before the post-Iowa (media manipulated) crash and burn, Dean was by far the front runner in OK. I went to a state-wide televised forum of all the primary candidates in August, and his reception was so strong and enthusiastic that all the other candidates came off like the opening act for the Rolling Stones. And even though Clark won the primary here, the Dean organization remained strong. Oklahoma was among the first states to endorse the Dean chair candidacy, and other than the vice-chair of the state party, who was widely denounced, I never heard a single leader or rank and file democrat here disagree with the endorsement.

[Indiana_Dem]

9. I know several here in Indiana that like him!

I know more people here in Indiana that liked Dean more than any other presidential nominee.

[Melodybe]

11. I am kicking my own thread b/c it is so true

[cap]

12. I think Dean could make Mississippi competitive...

and very democratic on the local level if Dean himself can connect with blacks.

[seabeyond]

13. i said this last spring, really wanted him to come to south

i ran into a white texas good ole boy who was draggin feet in voting kerry. really didnt like bush. but man, he was enthused with dean and disappointed he didnt make it. he was the white male vote that is so elusive for dems in the south. surprised me.

[William Bloode]

14. The big reason is....

He's a fighter, not some wiffle, waffle, weak kneed pansy. Thats the problem with most N.E. Dems, they tend to come off that way. Down here we love us a fighter, even a dirty fighter as long as they have spine.

[tsuki]

16. "Ya know where he stands." That is praise down here. n/t

[fishwax]

18. exactly. committed dems in the south have to fight tooth and nail

to fight the slide towards the GOP that has been going on since the Civil Rights Act. I think with all his fighting rhetoric and his "rolling up the sleeves" mentality/rhetoric, he makes southern dems believe he'll fight that fight with them.

[dbt]

15. That bidness about "Confederate flags on their pickups" makes sense!

The party does actually need to talk to those guys, and Dr. Dean is the man for this job. We Southerners do NOT have a problem with Yankees who want to tell it like it is. As long as you ain't tryin' to bullshit us, we don't care how funny you talk!

Hell, some of us think that scream might've been a Rebel Yell...

:bounce:
dbt

[KurtNYC]

20. I would think that

even GOP registered people would want some better options. I would have felt a lot better about McCain being the GOP candidate in 2000 than *.

Great Dean article on strategy here: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/02/11/for_deans_movement_an_unlikely_inspiration?mode=PF

[Placebo]

21. Do they really?

I'd like to see some poll evidence or something.

[Hobarticus]

22. I must say, I'm ready for some straight shootin'...

Dean's the man to do it.

[underpants]

23. Didn't Deans organization gets some people elected in Mississippi?

The last time I saw him on the TV (CNN?) he mentioned that his organization got several people elected to local offices in Mississippi. Is that right?

I agree about Dean. I live in Virginia and if there is one thing people like around here it is people not beholden to "the powers" in DC or NYC that is where Dean's grass roots roots can come into play. Also they do like straight shooters and if nothing else Dean is that.

Lest we forget Dean was the first major national figure to stand up to W and announce that the war was not only wrong but done wrong. He opened up the gates for others to follow.

Lastly, Dean even making inroads in the south is akin to what W is trying to do in the black communities. Will massive numbers switch sides? Probably not but it is a start. Dean can say to southerners (as W is doing with blacks) that they are being taken for granted-why not come over to where you actually have a voice? The New England Vermont thing could be a tough barrier to punch threw but Dean can do it.

I LOVE that the party isn't sitting back and twiddling their thumbs. The DNC doesn't need a decade of think tanking like the Republicans did in the 70's we have an incredible number of volunteers to call on. 2004 was a great success in bringing people out who never really got involved before, I saw it first hand.

[SheepyMcSheepster]

24. this southerner believes it

i don't have any proof of this, however, being born and raised in the south, i know am attracted to his straight forward and blatantly honest approach. people are looking for honesty and no minced words.

[autorank]

25. We love him here in VA...but of course we're the VT of the South!

Just kidding but we will always hope for that in The Old Dominion.

I personally had no problem with Dean's remark on guys in pickup trucks. He was being inclusive, he was saying we want every vote, and he was doing something neither of our last two Presidential candidates did...go South and campaign to everybody.

I'd like to see Dean talking to guys in foreign cars in Northern Virginia as well...but Howard, get in your own pickup, get a 'travel kit' and do a tour of the south. This would be just great and he'd learn a lot.

[Individualist]

27. so does this one

I was also born and grew up in the south, and his straightforward manner has tremendous appeal to me.

[BrklynLiberal]

26. Afternoon kick

:kick:

[Fleshdancer]

28. I and 3,000 other Texans rallied for him a year before the primaries

I can't speak for the entire South (obviously) but Dean has a ton of stupport here in TX.