How do you feel now about Dean's Electability?

[Born_a_Democrat]

This question is coming from a hardcore Dean supporter. Up until Iowa I thought he WAS totally electable. Now I find myself wondering and questioning my own judgement.

Ultimately I want someone who will kick out the intruder, but I trully thought that was Dean.

[Born_a_Democrat]

1. woah

I never expected to see such a positive response to Dean now. I guess I'm the only one who let Iowa get to me....

Damn I feel so gullible now :dunce:

[reprehensor]

2. You are not alone.

But the question remains...do you think he can beat Bush? Do you believe in his message which the media doesn't talk about. If so, then Dean is still your man.

Kerry bores me to tears.

Dean is, was, and will always be a pariah to the far right. But fiscal conservatives like a man who can balance a budget.

[Wapsie B]

15. Iowa is not meant to deternine the winner,

just to narrow the field. It's just the first horse race of many.

[Clark Can WIN]

21. Your sign should read "Whores without corners"

or something like that.

[RedEarth]

3. I like Dean, however, I have never thought he was electable

Dean's personality is too brusk and unfortunately, after "the speech" I don't feel he has any chance at all. I have been leaning towards Clark since I think he has the best chance of beating bush....and that is my main objective. That being said, I would vote for anyone that the Dems nominate, even if it is Micky Mouse!

[uberotto]

4. Dean is the only one that I know is electable...

While I believe that the others have a high probability of winning against bush, by showing he can survive all of the attention (both good and bad) that he has recieved over the past couple of months, Dean has shown himself to be ready to take on bush.

None of the others have had to withstand the type of attacks that have been leveled at Dean, yet, so I don't know how they will do when the fighting really starts for them.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

5. Until this week, I thought Dean's 'electability' was a bogus argumend

But I've changed my mind.

[mbee]

6. His speech the other evening was fine by me. Does anyone

remember Father Bush saying something like shut up and sit down? Did he say this or was it someone else. Did he get a lot of media-flack for that?

[san antonio]

8. I don't know.

Did he scream like a WWF super-star when he said it?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

13. It was fine by me, too.

I had no problem with it. I didn't find it scary, or even all that different from other times I've seen Dean.

But I am not the American public, which, no one can deny, has reacted very strongly to it. It's been played constantly on talk radio, it's been joked about by every comedian in the US, it's been turned into hip-hop remixes. It has seared into the American consciousness the idea that Dean is not presidential material. Fair or not, it seems to have happened.

One other thing happened this week: Dean lost Iowa, badly. Not only did he fare poorly, but he failed to win most of the key demographics that supposedly were his strengths:

Among voters that describe themselves as 'liberal', Kerry received 33% of the vote, Dean received 24% of the vote.
Among voters that describe themselves as 'Democrats', Kerry received 36% of the vote, Dean received 20% of the vote.
Among voters that describe themselves as 'Strong Democrats', Kerry received 35% of the vote, Dean received 22% of the vote.
Among voters that describe themselves as 'Independents', Kerry received 34% of the vote, Dean received 21% of the vote.
Among voters that describe themselves as 'union households', Kerry received 29% of the vote, Dean received 19% of the vote.
Among voters that describe themselves as 'college graduates', Kerry received 33% of the vote, Dean received 24% of the vote.
Among voters that describe themselves as 'internet users', Kerry received 33% of the vote, Dean received 24% of the vote.
Among voters who 'somewhat disapprove' of the war in Iraq, Kerry received 34% of the vote, Dean received 14% of the vote.
Among voters who 'strongly disapprove' of the war in Iraq, Kerry received 34% of the vote, Dean received 29% of the vote.
Among first-time caucus goers, Kerry received 35% of the vote, Dean received 19% of the vote.
Among voters aged 17-29, Kerry received 35% of the vote, Dean received 25% of the vote.
Among voters aged 65+ (the group that votes the most), Kerry received 43% of the vote, Dean received 15% of the vote.
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/primaries/pages/epolls/IA/index.html

This totally surprised me -- last week I believed in Dean organizational power, the zeal of his followers, etc. -- today, I am highly sceptical of all that.

[mitchum]

7. Same as it ever was

[Bread and Circus]

9. Only 45% confidence in Dean is pretty poor.

[Terwilliger]

12. from the same website that Clark supporters denounced...

when Dean and Kucinich were voted #1 and #2 for many months

[THUNDER HANDS]

10. I voted for "don't know"

because I defy anyone on this board to tell me that they know what's going to happen next in this primary.

I think this is going to be an absolutely WILD primary. We could have the first three states have three different winners.

[Terwilliger]

11. Well, we know who the Clark supporters are

what does that leave for the normal vote?

[quaker bill]

16. The speech meme is a load of media hyped BS

It does not stack up to even one Jennifer Flowers story.

The 'unelectable' meme is just a bunch of oppo propoganda. There are perfectly good arguments to be made for how any of the candidates are 'unelectable'. Interestingly, I have seen most of them developed here.

[ThirdWheelLegend]

14. Electable sure, but why not do better? Centrist over Progressive?

I have always though Dean was electable, but I am voting for change.

Sure Dean is better than Bush, but so is moldy bread.

NAFTA, pro-illegal occupation, keeping health insurers in the profit, not cutting the military budget, death penalty....

Those are some very BIG issues. Sure civil-unions are cool, but Kucinich would make gay marriage federally recognized. Kucinich's position is better.

:shrug:

TWL

[AlinPA]

17. Matthews on MSNBC is brutal talking about his rally speech

- totally brutal. Our other candidates are going to face the same media smashing - they will pick up nay little thing and blow it up. This Dean thing is just the beginning.

[HuckleB]

18. Dean is very electable.

Somehow this question keeps coming to the surface in relation to Dean, but not for the other candidates (at least not as often). Yet, I struggle to see Kerry as more electable than Dean or Clark or Edwards. I struggle to picture him gaining the confidence of the middle-of-the-road folks. I hope I'm wrong, if he wins the nomination, but I am very worried about it.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

19. Dean has a LOT of staunch supporters

and oodles of money, but the echo chamber of his supporters seems unaware or dismissive of two things:

1) There are a lot of people who are neither media whores nor Republicans nor DLCers who simply don't like his personality or don't trust him. I don't, and neither do my relatives, which they told me at a gathering before I had given my opinion. I was surprised at the unanimity of their opinion, even though they all hate Bush. Getting these people to vote for Dean in the primary/caucus season is as likely as getting Hillary Clinton elected Queen of Free Republic, although they're likely to be ABB in the GE.

2) For all its money and volunteers, the campaign was not effective in its missionary work aimed at locals who might be favorably disposed to Dean. Perhaps they assumed that cheering crowds would translate into votes, but both Michael Dukakis and Ralph Nader could tell you differently. As a pro-Dean supporter noted on another thread a couple of days ago, you can't import a grassroots. In a small town in Iowa, if somebody from California is telling you to vote for Dean and the local fire chief whom you went to high school with is telling you to vote for Kerry, what's going to happen?

I was surprised at Dean's third-place finish. Based on what I had heard and seen while canvassing in Iowa, I expected the order to be Dean-Kerry-Edwards-Gephardt-Kucinich. I got the fourth and fifth place correct, but was completely wrong on the ordering of the top three.

[LWolf]

20. They are all electable.

"Electability" is a major campaign distraction. If democrats can't beat GWB with any of their candidates, it's an indication of incompetence, not electability. I sincerely hope that we will never have a president to beat with a record any worse than GWB. If we can't do it now....

Let's just make sure we don't have to do it with Lieberman. I don't want 8 years of Joe Lieberman.