'It's not easy beating Dean' - Why Dean is Dem's best bet against Bush

[stickdog]

Dean is the Dem's best fund raiser, by far. He has the largest base of contributing supporters, by far. And the Dean supporters' growth curve isn't showing any signs of slowing down.

Dean is strongest with the Dem's weakest demographic: white males. At the same time, the Party's base voters can not only live with him -- they are excited and motivated to volunteer for and contribute to his candidacy.

Dean is also the strongest Dem candidate when it comes to independents, swing voters and new voters.

Dean already has the most potent grassroots organization of the candidates and he's just getting started with it. People-powered-Howard offers a fresh grassroots electoral approach that could conceivably bring 10%-15% of the nation's traditional non-voters to the polls. At the same time he provides such a dynamic counterpoint to Bush that that the majority of the Greens can feel good about voting for him as well.

Finally, the all-important swing voters tend to be critical of Bush on Iraq. Among the "major" cnadidates, only Dean is positioned to fully capitalize on this:

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20030729-032200-5137r.htm

Swing voters critical of Bush on Iraq

COLLEGE PARK, Md., July 29 (UPI) -- An analysis of recent polls indicates swing voters are considerably more critical of President Bush's handling of Iraq than the general population.

The surveys were conducted by Program on Internatioal Policy Attitudes/Knowledge Networks. The majority of those swing voters said Bush was misleading when he presented evidence to justify going to war and questioned the need of going to war.

Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes of the University of Maryland said, "The president is in some trouble with swing voters."

Swing voters are defined as respondents who said they were extremely confident that they would vote in the upcoming election and identified themselves as independents.

[poskonig]

1. Those are all positive points.

I feel really good about this campaign.

[SGrande]

2. Umm, best fundraiser?

George W. Bush (R)
$35,109,600

John Kerry (D)
$16,028,266

John Edwards (D)
$11,936,277

Howard Dean (D)
$10,545,457

Dick Gephardt (D)
$9,750,802

Joe Lieberman (D)
$8,151,575

Lyndon H. Larouche Jr (D)
$4,755,882

Bob Graham (D)
$3,136,326

Dennis Kucinich (D)
$1,718,354

Carol Moseley Braun (D)
$217,109

Al Sharpton (D)
$184,415

[Christian73]

4. SGrande has a point

in saying that Dean isn't the "best fundraiser" though he did have the best second quarter and it appears that his third is going rather well, whereas the money for Edwards seems to be drying up.

No Dem candidate is ever going to beat Bush money wise but there are others ways to get your message out. I think Dean's strongest point is that, unlike Bush who's always preaching to the converted, Dean is actually able to convert people into voters and get them excited about taking our country back.

[stickdog]

5. Where in the hell did you get THOSE numbers?

Here are the numbers that favor Dean:

Fund raising ability keeps IMPROVING

Biggest base of contributors

Biggest base of signed up supporters (potential contributors)

About 80% of the money Dean's collected is from people under the $250 federal matching level.

Dean is already ahead of Kerry if you add in the matching funds.

By the end of this quarter, Kerry will be in Dean's rearview mirror in every measure.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

8. This early in the season there is only one barometer-

Who's improving.

Who's declining.

The writing is just about on the wall, folks.

[ThorsteinVeblen]

3. The most important part of the article:

"Dean is strongest with the Dem's weakest demographic: white males"

Because he is not afraid to lead. He doesn't back down. He is not afraid to go against the status quo. He is not afraid to go with the status quo with it jibes with his values. He has a center, a heart and a fire burning in his guts.

He resonates with the American psyche.

[shance]

6. Hey SD - I want that Bush icon!

Is that a bumpersticker as well?

That's priceless :)

[stickdog]

10. Sorry, it's not a real bumpersticker ... yet.

See the bottom right of this page:

http://www.internetbumperstickers.com/politic.html

[DrFunkenstein]

15. This One Is The Most Appropriate

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[Frances]

7. You tell me who our candidate should be

Characteristics of previous presidents

Were Governor & campaigned as outsider: Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Shrub-ugh!

Had Elvis Factor: Reagan, Clinton, Shrub-ugh-to some people

Had energized base: Reagan, Clinton, Shrub-ugh

Appealed to voters who had been in the other party: Reagan

Appealed to macho vote: Reagan, Shrub-ugh

I think we need a candidate who was not in Congress during 9/11 so that there can be no muddying of the waters as to how the person cast his/her vote on Iraq.

We also need a candidate that white American males can vote for and not be called a wimp. In fact, we need a candidate who can make Bush look like the wimp he is, and that candidate has to be able to do with humor. As much as I disliked Reagan, he scored tons of points when he said to Carter, "There you go again." Reagan, unfortunately, succeeded in painting the honest, sincere Carter as a know-it-all. So we need a really smart man who can put Bush in his rightful place with humor.

Who is this man?

[xray s]

9. Right on target

"...we need a really smart man who can put Bush in his rightful place with humor"

I would love to see the debate that pits Bush against such a candidate. Bush would stammer, turn red, and say something incredibly stupid if he were ever confronted agressively about his damn agenda (PFNAC, energy, privatization of Medicare and Social Security, etc)

It would be a Kodak moment like no other in recent politics. Guaranteed.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

17. Even Elle Woods...

would kick his ass in a debate. And if you don't know who Elle Woods is, you obviously don't have a pre-teen daughter at home.

[Mairead]

11. That would be Sharpton, especially on the humor

Smirk wouldn't know what hit him. Like the old joke goes 'you jest try 'n turn yo haid'.

[DrFunkenstein]

16. Which President Had Sex With Marilyn Monroe?

You seem to be forgetting somebody crucial to Dem identity since he held office - Lyndon Johnson!

You also forgot war hero Ike.

And the only one to hang out with Elvis was Nixon.

BTW, white males already have a TV station. No need to pander to their insecure asses any more. Let's spin it the other way - how about someone women can feel secure about? No, not Hillary.

I think you reveal too much at the end: "Reagan, unfortunately, succeeded in painting the honest, sincere Carter as a know-it-all."

Personally, I'll settle for someone who can put Bush in his rightful place. I'll leave it to SNL to make the jokes.

[FARAFIELD]

12. hmm??

Im not sure that best fundraiser is Applicable. SInce Tipsy Mcdumbass (bush) is going to blow the drawers off of what any Dem can raise. SInce Bush will not accept Matching Funds there is no limit to what he can raise. Id say 170 million is enough to dwarf anything that any of our DEms could raise. IN fact whatever Dean (since he was mentioned) can raise he will have to use just to get the nomination. SO I dont think that any DEM other than GORE has a chance of even getting close. Also GORE, EDWARDS & Grahm actually have chances of Picking up states that werent won in 2000. Remember with the New Electoral COllege numbers GORE would only have to win 20 Electoral college VOTES. DEan as the nominee puts so many states in Play that its not even Funny. IMHO.

[stickdog]

18. Dean already has well over 225,000 supporters signed up.

Almost 100,000 different people have contributed to his campaign.

The campaign goal is to sign up 1,000,000 by January 1st. If a million people average a $100 contribution each, that's $100 million.

No other Democrat can come close.

[LuminousX]

13. Fundraising

I saw this article on Kerry's fundraising in Minnesota where Kerry pulled in more than Dean: $107,660 compared to $66,000.

Yet looking at the number of contributors was interesting: 129 to 248.

Fundamentally, at the end of the day, it is about the number of people who vote.

[resist]

14. And?

And he supports the death penalty and identifies himself as a fiscal conservative. Personally, for me that is political speak for don't expect any money for domestic programs. no thanks.

[stickdog]

19. Universal healthcare?

Perhaps you've heard of it?

Look, Bush is careening us toward unrecoverable bankruptcy.

We'll need a deficit hawk just to bring the deficit down to a manageable level.

Plus, Dean can legitimately attack Bush from the right for his cronyism, his "borrow 'n' spend" tactics and his basic fiscal irresponsibility. That will play very well with swing/Independent (and especially male) voters.