National Public Radio's weekly program "Justice Talking" is sponsoring a debate between Howard Dean and Ralph Nader for 90 minutes on July 9. Says Dean, "I am anxious to debate Ralph Nader in order to speak about why he wants to run for president. This is the most important election in my lifetime and a third party candidate could make a difference - this November and for years to come." Says Nader: "This is an opportunity to discuss how to reinvigorate our democracy by providing voters with more choices and voices rather than our anemic two party corporate duopoly." Yeah, Ralphie, much better to have a ONE-PARTY corporate monoply, which is what your efforts to get Bush reelected will get us!

NY Times: "A record-keeping error [yeah, right - an 'accident'] sharply inflated the number of documents Howard Dean sealed when he stepped down as governor of Vermont last year, state officials said Friday. The sealing of Dr. Dean's papers for 10 years became a major issue in his presidential campaign. A revised count shows that Dr. Dean sealed 93 of the 283 boxes he gave the state when he left office" - just 33% of his papers - considerably less than his predecessors. "Judicial Watch [a rightwing front group [funded by Richard Mellon Scaife] that is dedicated to hounding Democrats while screening Repugs] filed suit in Vermont state court in December seeking to force the release of those papers. Former Gov. Madeleine Kunin sealed 46% of her papers for six years, while Richard Snelling sealed 40% of his for seven and a half years."

The depths to which Bush and his Congressional minions has sunk America is fueling Howard Dean's determination to help to take back America. "'We're in a civil war here,' he told The Independent 'This is not the time to be nice. I'm not interested in accommodating people who don't respect our point of view. 'When it comes to the war in Iraq, or the growing influence of Christian fundamentalism on public policy, or the mounting budget deficit exacerbated by targeted tax cuts for the wealthy, Dean...does not believe there is room for compromise with the Bush White House, or any of the like-minded politicians he characterises as 'right-wing wackos'. 'We must make sure not one congressional seat goes unopposed ... Never again are we going to be able to treat politics as a dirty business we don't want anything to do with. It is dirty, but it's on our doorstep and we're going to have to deal with it.'"

Dean's remarks at a rally with Massachusetts Senator at The George Washington University's Kogan Plaza: "John Kerry is a fighter with a distinguished record of service to this country, and I believe he has the experience, strength, and vision to get this country back on the right path. John Kerry is fighting every day to defeat President Bush because he knows that four more years of George W. Bush's right-wing ideological agenda at home and weak leadership in the world would be devastating to our country for many decades to come. The future of our country depends on defeating this president, and John Kerry is the candidate that can beat this President in November. If our party stands united, we will send George Bush back to Crawford Texas."

Common Dreams: "The Backbone Campaign presented a Backbone Award to Governor Howard Dean during his Seattle visit announcing his new organization, Democracy for America. The Award was given to Governor Dean for his extensive grassroots work during the campaign for the Democratic Nomination, as well as his progressive stance on issues such as civil unions, health care, the war on Iraq, independent media, and campaign finance laws.The Backbone Award was created to honor elected officials and community leaders who show extraordinary courage for speaking out on progressive issues and who help shape the dialogue needed to reform America. Said presenter Jason Sawatzki: 'Howard Dean... From your stand on the Vermont civil union legislation to your speech challenging the Bush administration at the DNC meeting a year ago in Iowa, you have shown the courage to step forward and alone, make a stand on issues based on principles and not polls.'"

Howard Dean is once again acting as a trail blazer for progressives. His new organization, Democracy for America, which makes its debut this week, is a grass-roots campaign to reconstruct our rightwing/corporate-damaged government from the bottom up. The group hopes to help put progressive new leaders into offices, from local governments to the US Congress. An AP report states: "The new organization will play a role in helping Kerry win the presidency in November. Democracy For America also will seek to influence the Democratic Party in much the way that conservatives helped to reshape the Republican Party more than 20 years ago." Except of course, Dean will be helping to dismantle the Evil Empire the GOP built!

Here's a particularly deceitful bit of AP spin. In the Meet the Press interview, Dean said after getting to know Kerry better in recent weeks, he saw that Kerry doesn't shift his position in response to political pressure, but sometimes "thinks aloud" as he ponders a complex issue. The AP version cut this statement and instead tacked on a later comment, taken out of context: "Dean had excoriated Kerry during the campaign as a Washington insider who shifted positions with each new poll and was beholden to special interests. But Dean, who had not won a single state when he dropped out on Feb. 18, said he's accepted the decision of the voters. "I don't get to be the captain of the team. That's not what the voters said," Dean said. "John Kerry gets to be the captain of the team."

From the new Change for America blog: "I think there are three things -- the first obviously is to make a real difference in November and the presidential election because if you want real change in this country the first thing you need to do is change presidents. Secondly we really need to focus on key House and Senate races and make a difference there as well. Third, and probably most important for the long term, is to focus a movement on grassroots involvement at the local community level with the express purpose of seeking out and electing new people to office at the district level that are dedicated to real change. One of the things I think that people don't realize about the Dean campaign is the dramatic difference this movement will make in 10 years... Few campaigns create change over successive election cycles. The Dean campaign has already done that... The Dean campaign lit a match and the fire will not go out."

Although Howard Dean's presidential campaign is over, he will always hold an honored place in the hearts of Americans who, until recently, were despairing of the nation's direction. Reports the Guardian: "Democrat and Republican strategists alike agree, the man from Vermont has served a vital purpose, galvanizing the party, and in Mr Dean's own boastful words this week, 'writing the Democratic platform for 2004'. Yesterday he vividly set out that legacy to his cheering followers. 'We showed that by standing up and telling the truth, you can actually win support from voters,' he said to tumultuous applause. 'We have exposed the dangerous radical nature of George W Bush's agenda. We have shown that it's a far better strategy to stand up against his right-wing agenda than it is to co-operate with it. We have led this party to discover where it heart and soul is." Thank you, Howard.

Howard Dean: "In the coming weeks, we will be launching a new initiative to continue the campaign you helped begin. Please continue to come to www.deanforamerica.com for updates and news as our new initiative develops. There is much work still to be done, and today is not an end--it is just the beginning. The truth is: change is tough. There is enormous institutional pressure in our country against change. There is enormous institutional pressure in Washington against change, in the Democratic Party against change. Yet, you have already started to change the Party and together we have transformed this race. Along the way, we've engaged hundreds of thousands of new Americans in the political process, as witnessed by this year's record participation in the primaries and caucuses... From the earliest days of our campaign, I have said that the power to change Washington rests not in my hands, but in yours. Always remember, you have the power to take our country back."

Steven Rosenfeld writes, "Jerry Brown's 1992 presidential campaign offers an instructive precedent. The former California governor didn't get the nomination, but did build an impressive national base of volunteers and campaign contributors. He was the first to use a 1-800 phone number, which was derided by pundits but did raise millions in mostly small contributions. Brown was content to go to the Democratic Convention and attempt to deliver a symbolic message to his party-which by then had all but forgotten Brown and instead embraced the Clinton-Gore ticket. One of his last remaining staffers, Jim Clark, who also was the California Democratic Party's secretary, then drafted a plan to analyze the fundraising database with the idea that the Brown organization could resurface in a new way... Needless to say, the candidate demurred. The plan wasn't executed and the lists got stale. A historic progressive organizing opportunity was squandered." Let's hope the Dean Machine does better!

Michael Hammerschlag writes: "From the beginning of Howard Dean's insurgent rise to the top of the Dem pack in the summer, through the other candidates' and DLC's harsh critiques, through Dean's fearless off the cuff 'gaffes'; the lurking question was: was the media going to destroy Howard Dean like they destroyed Al Gore -- that is, seize on some simple negative dishonest story line (that Boy Scout Al Gore is a liar), and repeat it wildly until almost every story had to 'prove' it (a Balt Sun commentary accused Gore of lying because he claimed a rally 'was the biggest'), instead of reporting the facts. Al Gore's reluctance to cozy up to the press wasn't seen in light of his exposure to the 6 year Clinton witchhunt and the radioactive right-wing hatreds that fueled it. No, mild-mannered dryly witty Al was cold. Also known as the echo chamber, the pack phenomenon had top paper reporters changing Gore quotes on the front page just to prove he was a liar. Let's call it the THEME LIE."

"CNN's top executive believes his network overplayed the infamous clip of Dean's 'scream' after the Iowa caucuses. 'It was a big story, but the challenge in a 24-hour news network is that you try to keep all of your different viewers throughout the day informed without overdoing it,' said Princell Hair, CNN's general manager... Roger Ailes, Fox News chairman, [proudly] told ABC News it was 'overplayed a bit.' While it's impossible to blame any one network or reporter, CBS News President Andrew Heyward said, the cumulative effect was the event was covered more than editorially justified. 'It's just inherent in the structure of the news media today, especially with the role that 24-hour cable plays,' Heyward said." Hey Andrew, why didn't the Networks pound Bush's campaign away when he called a reporter an "a**hole"? Why do you give Bush such a pass over all the moronic things he says? And why did CBS ban the MoveOn commercial as an "issue ad", but run the GOP Medicare propaganda ad?

WashPost: "'People are concerned. The people that run Bush's campaign are concerned,' said a top outside adviser to Bush in close contact with the campaign. 'For three or four weeks, the Democrats have been beating up not only on each other but also on Bush,' this GOP adviser said. 'A lot of the normal punching, which we thought they would be giving each other, destroyed Howard Dean. So it turned more quickly than anticipated to Bush. There was no way you could anticipate it.' Dean is also credited by many Democrats with playing a pivotal role in the party's revival, even as his once front-running candidacy clings to life with no victories so far. With his blunt-spoken style and early surge of grass-roots support, Dean enlivened interest in the contest and emboldened rivals to join his assault on Bush on issues including the Iraq war and health care."

"Howard Dean, his campaign for president short on cash and election wins, said Thursday he would be out of the race for the Democratic nomination if he did not win the Wisconsin primary. In an e-mail appeal for $100 donations, Dean stopped short of declaring he would abandon his bid if he lost in Wisconsin on Feb. 17. He earlier had vowed to remain in the race through March 2, the 'Super Tuesday' election day with 10 contests for delegates. 'All that you have worked for these past months is on the line on a single day, in a single state,' he wrote. 'The entire race has come down to this: we must win Wisconsin. ... We will get a boost this weekend in Washington, Michigan, and Maine, but our true test will be the Wisconsin primary. A win there will carry us to the big states of March 2 and narrow the field to two candidates. Anything less will put us out of this race.'" Dean has raised almost $500,000 since the email went out this morning.

MSNBC: "'My guess is the race is far from over and it won't be wrapped up' in Tuesday's round of contests, said Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J. 'I think as long as Howard Dean is going someplace and doing something constructive, I'm with him.' As of Monday, Dean had the support of 35 House members and two Democratic senators. As ex-officio 'superdelegates,' all Democratic House members, senators and governors have a vote at the Democratic National Convention this summer. Superdelegates account for nearly 40 percent of the 2,162 delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination. Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California...warned against a precipitous rush to rally around the front-runner. 'None of the other candidates has really received critical scrutiny,' she contended. 'If we end up selecting by a coronation a candidate who can't survive because of issues that later develop, that would be a disaster for the Democrats.'"

From OutragedCitizen.com: "Howard Dean may or may not receive the nomination but the Democratic contenders and Party owe a great deal to him for energizing what otherwise was about to be another lethargic campaign. 'One thing we know for sure. Dean excited the voters and got the attention of the nation while the other democratic candidates were finding their footing and while the media was saluting the commander in chief.'"

"Democrat Howard Dean shook up his faltering bid for the White House on Wednesday, replacing his campaign manager with a former Washington lobbyist tied to Al Gore. In a further sign of distress, the one-time front-runner implemented cost-cutting measures as he looked ahead to a series of costly primaries and caucuses, asking staff to defer their paychecks for two weeks. Dean aide Kate O'Conner said the former Vermont governor wanted Roy Neel to take over office operations under the title of chief executive officer. She said Dean asked campaign manager Joe Trippi to stay on as a campaign strategist who also would run the Internet operations, but Trippi quit instead of accepting the demotion."

After using the Internet to create a national political movement, Dean's campaign manager Joe Trippi resigned in the wake of Dean's disappointing finish in NH. Trippi posted his resignation on BlogForAmerica.com, and the response from Deaniacs was huge. "Dear Friends, The Governor has asked Roy Neel to come in as CEO of the campaign. I have resigned as campaign manager. I've always believed that the most important thing was to change our country and our politics. I'm proud of all of you and the work we have done together. I may be out of the campaign but I'm not out of the fight. Don't give up -- stay with Howard Dean's cause to change America. Thank you. Joe Trippi"

"I don't think Howard Dean's 'I Have A Scream' performance was weird, troubling, scary, revealing or nuts. I don't think it was a big deal in any way, shape or form. I thought it was standard pump-up-the-troops campaign stuff... But the press corps' decision that the Scream was serious is a bit more disturbing. One of the many character flaws common to the species 'reporter' -- one that I have in spades -- is an exaggerated pleasure in the fall of the mighty [except for George W. Bush, whom they pick up and dust off every time]... I've seen a lot of politicians do a lot weirder things. I've seen Ronald Reagan completely space out an answer during a presidential debate. I've seen Bush the Elder rumble on about how moose like to rub up to the Alaskan pipeline for, shall we say, gratification. I've heard Bush the Younger speak absolutely incomprehensible, illiterate gibberish on important issues... I've seen Tom DeLay fly to Texas when a gunman entered the Capitol."

Michael Hammerschlag writes: "I will send American troops anywhere in the world ... to defend the United States!' sounded Howard Dean in New Hampshire just before Christmas, in a clear response to his competitors' attacks on his foreign policy. The attacks are accurate only in that Dean doesn't have direct foreign policy experience, but this is a guy who traveled around the world (inc. inside the Iron Curtain), when he was only 17, who has visited 50 countries as chief executive of a state or tourist. That alone puts him head and shoulders above Bush, who as the princely son of a Veep and President, was never even curious enough to leave our shores. Most of the FP criticisms of Dean have been manifestly unfair, a knee jerk (and increasingly desperate) reaction to the vast appeal his courageous stance against the Iraq war has engendered."

"'The Editors' is a public affairs TV show that... features a roundtable panel of politicians, journalists, and policy wonks who discuss American and Canadian politics, foreign affairs, and social issues... While governor of Vermont, Howard Dean was a regular guest on the show, and NBC has now obtained the videotapes of 90 of his appearances from 1996 to 2002... Dean comes across in these tapes as having a wide-ranging intellect, a sharp tongue, and shifting views on some key issues. Yet he also shows that he's much more consistent on issues - like affirmative action and trade - than some of his opponents give him credit for. And despite the constant complaints that Dean has no foreign policy experience, he demonstrates a good grasp of international affairs... According to Ann McFeatters, the Dean you see on 'The Editors' is the same Dean you see on the campaign trail. 'He is very smart, likes an argument, likes to claw around and through a problem, and does speak his mind.'"

Arianna Huffington writes, "Like Kennedy, Dean's campaign was initially fueled by his anti-war outrage. Like Kennedy, Dean has found himself fighting not just to represent the Democratic Party but to remake it. Like Kennedy, Dean is offering an alternative moral vision for America, not just an alternative political platform. And like Kennedy, Dean has come under withering attack from his critics for the very attributes that his supporters find most attractive... 'I have traveled and I have listened to the young people of our nation,' Kennedy said during his announcement speech, 'and felt their anger about the war that they are sent to fight and about the world they are about to inherit.' And young people have been the spark that has lit the fuse of the Dean campaign. As he pointed out this weekend in Iowa, 'One-quarter of all the people who gave us money between June and September were under 30 years old.'"

AP: "Calling Howard Dean's campaign 'one of the best things to happen to American democracy in decades,' former Sen. Bill Bradley endorsed the Democratic front-runner Tuesday and praised his ability to engage voters. Bradley, who represented New Jersey in the U.S. Senate for 18 years, joined his rival for the 2000 nomination, Al Gore, in supporting Dean among the nine Democrats seeking to challenge Bush. The endorsement added to the momentum that has carried Dean to the head of the pack. 'His campaign offers America new hope,' Bradley said. 'His supporters are breathing fresh air into the lungs of our democracy. They're revitalizing politics, showing a way to escape the grip of big money and to confront the shame of forgetting those in need.'"

Mad Kane writes, "In Election 2000 the 'Al Gore's a liar' myth (and the U.S. Supreme Court) propelled George W. Bush into the Presidency. Well, we have a new myth for Election 2004 -- the 'Howard Dean is unelectable' myth. And if Karl Rove has his way, that myth may garner Dubya a second term. I think it's time for Liberals, Democrats, and the media to sing a new tune. So let's all sing 'Dean's Electable' to 'Unforgettable,' by Irving Gordon.

Dean's electable. Dean worries Karl.
So electable, Rove's nails are gnarled.
It's the fear of Rove that Bush he'll beat,
That he'll send George Dub a huge defeat.
Never before has someone been more."

Sing the rest here...

Howard Dean leads the Democratic presidential field in the important battle for so-called "superdelegates," according to a new ABC News estimate - the first survey of its kind done this election cycle. Dean has amassed approximately 30 superdelegates more than his closest opponent.

"With more than $40 million now raised in his run for the White House, Howard Dean posted a resounding victory Wednesday in the yearlong dash for cash among Democratic presidential candidates, cementing his status as the contender to beat in the race. For all the importance of the Jan. 19 Iowa caucuses and the Jan. 27 New Hampshire primary, some analysts say the results of the 'money primary' in the year before a presidential election are an even better guide to who will become the nominee. Since 1980, no major-party candidate who led in donations received by Jan. 1 of an election year has failed to clinch the nomination... His quarterly [$15.3 million] and yearly totals both were records for a Democratic presidential candidate. Dean had set the previous quarterly mark when he raised $14.8 million from July 1 through Sept. 30. The $40 million he garnered during 2003 surpassed the $26 million President Clinton collected in 1995 for his reelection campaign."

"Howard Dean cited the higher terror alert and the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq in arguing that he was right to say Saddam Hussein 's capture didn't make America safer. 'They got all excited, but here we are,' Dean told a town-hall meeting. 'We've lost 10 more troops and F-16s are escorting foreign passenger jets into our air space because we're now more worried than we were before.' Last month, Dean's rivals assailed the front-runner when he said within a day of the Iraqi leader's capture that his apprehension had not made the US safer, a direct contradiction of Bush . Since then, the national terrorism alert has been raised to orange and U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq. 'I can assure you it's not Saddam who's threatening to bomb airplanes,' Dean said. 'It's al-Qaida. We've not paid attention to al-Qaida. We've spent $160 billion, lost over 400 servicemen, and wounded and permanently maimed over 2,000 people because we picked the wrong target.'" You Go, Howard!

Sidney Blumenthal: "By calling attention to Dean's boldness (or rashness) without any effectual action of their own, Dean's rivals are underscoring his fusion of acceptable political credentials as the only governor in the race who is also the insurgent... The sin of the 'Washington Democrats' in the eyes of Democrats isn't simply their fecklessness; it's that they have appeared as appeasers. Whether Dean or another Democrat can win the war is another war. But the first requirement for becoming the wartime leader is to understand that there is a war. Lieberman has declared that Dean is not in the mould of Clinton in 1992, as though attempting to repeat the past makes a New Democrat born again. But Dean's pragmatic strategy may be another version of that which Clinton adopted after he suffered the loss of the Democratic Congress in 1994. By defining his position apart from the rightwing Republicans and the 'Washington Democrats', as he calls them, Dean has reinvented triangulation."

LA Times reports, "There is one advantage that has proved even more valuable for the impulsive and irrepressible Dean: a Teflon coating. For weeks, frustrated opponents have attacked the Democratic front-runner on everything from his skimpy defense and foreign policy credentials to the secrecy he slapped on his gubernatorial records. Nothing has stuck... Stumbles, such as Dean's remark about Confederate flag-wavers, and factual misstatements, such as his assertion that no other candidate was discussing race before white audiences, have not only failed to slow his momentum but redoubled the commitment of Dean supporters. 'It's about all of us saying [expletive] to all the pundits,' said Michael Cannon, 49, a New Jersey state worker who attended a rally in Trenton with a Dean sweat shirt, T-shirt and button on the back of his cap. 'Whenever negative stories surface, that just proves to me that I should be behind him all the more,' Cannon said."

From Howard Dean's rebuttal to the Washington Editorial: "The Post's Dec. 18 editorial discussing my recent foreign policy speech ['Beyond the Mainstream'] badly misrepresents both my position and the central argument in the coming election on how best to strengthen America's security. To start: The Post repeatedly misstates my views. For example, I support missile defense efforts that make us more secure; I oppose deployment of any system not yet proven to work. I favor active talks with North Korea, backed by the threat of force, rather than a stubborn refusal to engage that has allowed the situation to become more dangerous by the day... More important, The Post's editorial comes close to equating the Bush administration's foreign policy -- including its signature doctrine of 'preemptive war' -- with the American foreign policy mainstream."

Eric Alterman writes, "In its self-appointed role as semiofficial punditocracy politburo, the Washington Post editorial board issued what ABC News's The Note properly termed 'a button-popping, eye-bugging anti-Dean editorial' that it undoubtedly hoped would serve as Dean's political death sentence. Expressing editorial shock and awe over Dean's unarguably accurate observation that Hussein's capture left the US no safer than before, Post editors termed the candidate's views to be 'not just unfounded but ludicrous' and complained of his 'departure from the Democratic mainstream.'... We've all been to this movie before, of course, just one election ago, and it's therefore no surprise that the anti-Dean media fury has increased exponentially with Al Gore's brave, antiestablishment endorsement... Today, the nation remains no less divided than four years ago, with about 20 percent of the vote up for grabs. The punditocracy has chosen its side. Perhaps it's time the rest of us choose ours."

Frank Rich writes, "The elusive piece of this phenomenon is cultural: the Internet. Rather than compare Dr. Dean to McGovern or Goldwater, it may make more sense to recall Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy. It was not until F.D.R.'s fireside chats on radio in 1933 that a medium in mass use for years became a political force. J.F.K. did the same for television, not only by vanquishing the camera-challenged Richard Nixon during the 1960 debates but by replacing the Eisenhower White House's prerecorded TV news conferences (which could be cleaned up with editing) with live broadcasts... Should Dr. Dean actually end up running against Bush next year, an utterly asymmetrical battle will be joined. The Bush-Cheney machine is a centralized hierarchy reflecting its pre-digital C.E.O. ethos (and the political training of Karl Rove); it is accustomed to broadcasting to voters from on high rather than drawing most of its grass-roots power from what bubbles up from insurgents below."

"Dean's domestic policy speech is definitely worth a read... He lays out both his 'New Social Contract' (Every American must have access to health care; Every American family must have access to affordable quality child care; Every American family must know that their child will be able to afford to go to college; Every American family must know that their retirement will be secure) and his corporate reform platform (Laws to make sure corporate boards of directors and auditors are independent of management; Rewards for whistleblowers who expose corporate wrongdoing; Fines and penalties imposed for breaking the law must be equal to the potential financial gains; Expansion of the concept of 'full disclosure' for corporations to include information on environmental standards and labor relations; 'It's time to look behind the fiction that allows corporations to become 'citizens' of places like Bermuda, and avoid paying income taxes on their foreign income'; Close the male/female pay gap."

"Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean has pulled away from the field in the Democratic Presidential nomination race: his support among Democratic primary voters nationwide has risen in the past month, and held steady after the news of Saddam Hussein's capture. But the race remains open: more than half of Democratic voters still have no opinion of Dean, most have not made up their minds for sure, and large numbers remain undecided. Dean has been a vociferous critic of the Iraq war. Most voters believe, as Dean does, that the U.S. is no safer from terror in the wake of the arrest of Saddam Hussein... Dean has said that while he applauds the U.S.' capture of Saddam, it will not make the U.S. any safer, and most voters agree. 85 percent of Democratic primary voters think the threat to the U.S. will either rise or stay just as it is following Saddam's capture -- a feeling shared by 78 percent of all voters nationwide."

"Howard Dean, facing renewed criticism from his Democratic rivals for opposing the war to oust Saddam Hussein, continued his assault on President Bush's Iraq policy Monday while outlining a multilateral strategy for fighting terrorism and a new Dean doctrine for using military force. Nearly 24 hours after Hussein's capture was announced to the world, Dean used the third major foreign policy address of his campaign to defend his opposition to the war and to denounce Bush for 'leading America in a radical and dangerous direction' and 'badly' damaging U.S. alliances around the world with his policies in Iraq and elsewhere. 'The capture of Saddam has not made America safer,' Dean said in a speech here to the nonpartisan Pacific Council of International Policy. 'The difficulties and tragedies we have faced in Iraq show the administration launched the war in the wrong way, at the wrong time, with inadequate planning, insufficient help and at extraordinary costs so far of $166 billion.'"

The Anti Defamation League writes, "A widely circulated, unsigned e-mail portrays Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean as an outright enemy of the Jewish state. The message claims that Gov. Dean has 'promised that if he is elected president, the United States will no longer support Israel the way it has in the past under both Democratic and Republican presidents.' This e-mail, which relates to comments made by Dean in early September, is malicious, misleading and factually inaccurate. In response to concerns about his September speech, Gov. Dean has assured the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish organizations of his support for the State of Israel and his belief in the importance of strong U.S. - Israeli relations."

"Dr. Dean offered rare words of praise for this White House in what aides described as a concerted effort to appear above the fray. 'This is a great day of pride in the American military, a great day for the Iraqis, a great day for the American people and, frankly, a great day for the administration,' Dr. Dean said. He refused to speculate on what it might mean for the presidential campaign or his own candidacy. 'This is a day to celebrate the fact that Saddam's been caught. We'll have to wait to see what happens to the campaign later.' And at a fund-raiser in San Francisco, a center of the antiwar movement, Dr. Dean assured the crowd of 1,800 people that he was not bowed by the news from abroad. 'He is a bad person and we are all better off with him in captivity, but you should know that my views on Iraq have not changed one bit,' he said to a standing ovation. 'Some people said, 'Oh, Saddam Hussein, he's caught, now the whole campaign's going to go away.' I don't think so.'"

WashPost: "Howard Dean said he would offer a package deal to North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programs and he embraced an unofficial peace plan that establishes the borders of a Palestinian state -- breaking dramatically with the approaches of the Bush administration. Dean, who has risen to the top of the Democratic field in part because of his vehement opposition to the war in Iraq, also said he favors immediate elections in Iraq to replace the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, which he said is viewed by the average Iraqi as 'simply a council of American-chosen puppets.' Dean further said he would end funding for the deployment of a missile defense system, a centerpiece of Resident Bush's presidential campaign four years ago... During the interview, Dean said [the use of force] was appropriate in three instances: after an attack on the United States, when there is clear evidence of an imminent attack and in cases of genocide when other world bodies failed to act."

Michael Tomasky: "Insurgents do win sometimes. Because the standard historical analogies to Dean (McGovern, Barry Goldwater) have now run their course, let me add two more to the mix. The first is Andrew Jackson... Say all you want about 1828 being ancient history, but some things are eternal. Bringing new constituencies into the process and transforming politics through that infusion is one of them. Yesterday it was the pamphleteer, today it's the blogger; but the impulse and the ardor are the same.... Insiders need to start thinking about making their peace with Deanism. The party needs a rebuilt base, and Dean is doing that in a way that has no precedent... [Bush] has the powers of incumbency, money and a feared (actually, overly feared) political operation. But his numbers are soft. Gore's 2000 states plus Ohio or Arizona is a long, long way from being an impossible task-for Dean or for any of the aforementioned. So let the race begin. And expect the impossible. It happens often."

LA Times reports, "Howard Dean, known to many voters as a staunch opponent of the Iraq war, enthusiastically supports missile defense development and declines to back a proposal to ban weapons in space... Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio, staked out the most [visionary] positions in the field, calling for nuclear disarmament and other initiatives to scale back the military." Hey Howard, you insist in every speech that your campaign is "about us." Well, WE oppose Star Wars and Space Weapons. And we'll be really pissed if you try to "triangulate" Karl Rove's "McGovernization" by taking knee-jerk hawkish positions that will worsen deficits and make America LESS secure. We call on you to do what you did with public funding - put these issues to a vote of your supporters. Show us what you're made of, Howard!

On 12-9-03 - exactly THREE YEARS after the Supreme Court halted a state-wide recount in Florida - "President Al Gore plans to endorse Howard Dean for president, giving the insurgent candidate the kind of establishment support his campaign has been lacking and providing additional momentum to his front-running campaign. Gore, who won the popular vote in 2000, plans to endorse Dean at a Tuesday morning rally in Harlem, then fly to Iowa for what the campaign was billing Monday as an event that would 'change the face' of the Dean campaign... Gore's decision to back a candidate who was once a dark horse in the race represents a blow to all the other major candidates, especially to Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT), who was Gore's vice presidential running mate in 2000. 'This is huge,' said Donna Brazile, Gore's 2000 campaign manager. 'This gives Dean the credibility he's been lacking, from someone from the inside of the party. This will give Dean a tremendous boost in locking down the nomination.'"

"Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean said Sunday he will let a judge determine which of his sealed records from Dean's years as Vermont's governor should be made public. Speaking on 'Fox News Sunday,' Dean said he has decided to use a lawsuit by the government watchdog group Judicial Watch, suing to open the records, as a mechanism to determine which records should be released and which should be kept sealed. 'What we think the best thing to do is to let the judge go through every single document and decide for himself what ought to be revealed and what not to be revealed,' Dean said... The fairest system is to have a judge review the documents, Dean said Sunday. 'Clearly our campaign can't review the documents, because nobody would believe that we weren't doing something political,' he said. 'So let an independent third party -- and I think the Judicial Watch suit gives us the opportunity to let a judge go through every single document.'"

Suzanne Nossel writes, "Insiders worry about Dean's 'anger,' concerned that what plays well with party diehards turns off ordinary voters. But this view misreads both Dean and the electorate. It is precisely because of Dean's combative temperament that, despite opposing the war, he isn't seen as soft on Saddam Hussein, or on much of anything... Instead of trying to put him back in his bottle, Democrats should work on bottling what he's got. Candidate John Kerry, for one, is onto this. Since his recent campaign shake-up, the Massachusetts senator has offered a pared-down, feisty, and straight-from-the-gut pitch... Dean has done more than just draw new voters. His 'power to the people' message, reliance on small donors, and use of the Internet have enlivened the race, offering a counterpoint to party rank-and-file defeatism in the face of the Bush juggernaut. His methods may also point to one way Democrats can begin to counter the Republican money machine."

Greider writes, "Howard Dean is an odd duck, certainly, in the milieu of the contemporary Democratic Party. He is, I surmise, a tough and savvy politician of the old school--a shrewd, intuitive pol who develops his own sense of where the people are and where events are likely to take public opinion, then has the guts to act on his perceptions. That approach--leading, it's called--seems dangerously unscientific in this era of high-quality polling and focus groups, the data interpreted for politicians by expensive consultants. The press corps has not had much experience with Democrats of this type, so reporters read Dean's style as emotional, possibly a character flaw. He reminds me of olden days when Democrats were a more contentious bunch, always fighting noisily among themselves and often with creative results."

Constance Rice writes, "Dean is right for three reasons. First, he's right politically. Without a vision big enough to embrace Southern white men - angry or not - this country cannot be diverted from its current path toward corporation-focused, downwardly mobile plutocracy and turned back toward people-focused, upwardly mobile democracy. Second, one of Martin Luther King's most profound insights came in his warning that to avoid elimination as the irrelevant unskilled, poor whites and poor blacks had to band together in a 'grand alliance' and demand from politicians jobs, justice and opportunity for everyone. King realized that the grand old bargain this country had always offered to poor whites - namely, accept your poverty and we will ensure your racial caste superiority over blacks - must be destroyed before universal opportunity could be realized." Constance, a civil rights lawyer, is Condi's second cousin.

Adam NaGOPny writes, "After months of being viewed by Democrats as an improbable if persistent candidate, Howard Dean has erased questions about his staying power and forced his rivals to upend their strategies to counter his increasing influence on the race, party leaders, strategists and even rival campaigns say. In the past week, Dr. Dean lined up two important labor endorsements, and on Saturday he became the first Democrat to withdraw from the public campaign finance system. That strategy, though potentially risky, will allow him to far outspend his rivals and further establish himself as an unconventional driving force in the primaries. While Dr. Dean was shaken this week by attacks on his statement that he wanted to be 'the candidate for guys with Confederate flags,' he thus far seems to have endured the harsh criticism in a way that even his competitors said demonstrated the resilience of his candidacy and the intense loyalty of his supporters." Eat your hearts out, Timesmen.

Garance Franke-Ruta: "The more one watches Dean on the stump (and watches his admirers watching him), the more it becomes apparent that he comes out of, and is reviving, a tradition of small-town, New England civic and religious fervor that is all but forgotten in American politics. He is something the country has not seen in a very long time. He is, essentially, a northern evangelist... Instead of fearing the legacy of northeastern liberalism, he has embraced it as the philosophy that founded contemporary democracy, created America, kept it whole during the 19th century and fought to expand the franchise so that African Americans and women could participate as full citizens... Congregationalism, the dominant religion of colonial and early federal life, had by the 20th century become an obscure New England denomination about as relevant to modern life as covered bridges. Yet the legacy of the Congregationalists is one of the most powerful forces in the history of the American North."

Dean for America press release: "Governor Howard Dean, M.D. announced today his six point plan to create a thriving renewable energy industry to provide clean, reliable, and secure power for millions of Americans. Dean joined local Worth County, Iowa residents in a discussion of the economic impact of renewable energy on communities in Worth County, home to a wind farm and future home to ethanol processing. 'It's time we start investing in those resources we have right here and stop relying on foreign oil and fossil fuels.'... Governor Dean proposes creating a renewable portfolio standard, requiring more American biofuels, boosting wind energy transmission, creating a solar power tax credit, extending the production tax credit, and investing in renewable energy and efficiency as part of the Fund to Restore America. The Dean plan would create 15,000 new energy related jobs in Iowa and $126 billion in new local property tax revenue by 2020."

PentaPost is so terrified of Howard Dean that they have erected a scarecrow called "McGovernMondaleDukakis" to keep Democrats away. According to Tom Edsall, "Dean's nomination could lead to a repetition of the crushing general election defeats the Democratic Party suffered under George McGovern, Walter F. Mondale and Michael S. Dukakis." What evidence is there for a "crushing" Dean defeat? Get this - an unnamed REPUBLICAN consultant says "with Dean, all you know is that he is anti-war and anti-Bush, it's hard to tell what he stands for." This REPUBLICAN says when Reagan ran successfully in 1979-80, his supporters would "have tears in their eyes about how Reagan would transform America." Yeah, we STILL have tears in our eyes about how Reagan transformed America - creating a $3 TRILLION debt, poisoning the planet building tens of thousands of nuclear weapons, supporting terrorists in Central America, sending Rumsfeld to help Saddam buy WMD's, and selling arms to Iran to murder Iraqis.

"For hours on end, 'Dean Divers' camp out at the state archives housed in an 1890 mansion, scouring public records, documents and correspondences in a search of crucial details about former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, the Democratic presidential front-runner. With Dean's surge in the presidential race, an increasing number of representatives from rival campaigns, the news media and even Dean aides have descended upon the archives, wading through thousands of pages of material from the former governor's nearly 12 years in office. 'We've gotten requests for everything, every piece of paper,' Vermont Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz said. This effort to compile a dossier on Dean - either to use against him or to boost his candidacy - extends beyond the archives in the secretary of state's office." Hooray for full disclosure and openness! Compare this to Bush's systematic and scandalous scrubbing of his personal, family, and official records.

"At his meeting with reporters from USA TODAY and Gannett News Service, Howard Dean fired a string of zingers at Resident Bush: 'His view of life starts at about $250,000 a year and goes up.' 'I think the p/resident's philosophy is that if you're rich, you deserve it, and if you're poor, you deserve it.' 'I want repeal of the $87 billion worth of tax cuts that he gave away to Ken Lay and his friends at Enron (to finance the administration's budget request for Iraq). This is insane, what he's doing. I'm not going to let him run a war on a credit card.' 'Conducting the foreign policy of the United States (with North Korea) based on the petulance of the chief executive is not the right way to conduct foreign policy.' We are 'never going to be able to regain the credibility the United States had as a moral beacon in the world as long as this man is in the White House.'" It sounds like USA Today is in shock at Dean's truthtelling- you GO, Howard!

"Howard Dean received a standing ovation from an Arab-American audience on Saturday when he attacked leading conservatives and figures from the religious right. Dean, one of seven Democratic presidential candidates to address the Arab American Institute's national leadership conference in Dearborn, pointed to an American flag and named some of the people he said it did not belong to. 'It does not belong to General Boykin, or John Ashcroft , or Rush Limbaugh or Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson,' the former Vermont governor said to cheers in the packed hotel conference room in the Detroit suburb which is home to one of the highest concentrations of Muslims and Arabs outside the Middle East. 'This flag belongs to every single American, including every single American in this room, and is the hope and aspiration for many other folks who are not yet citizens,' he said."

"Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean accused Republicans on Thursday of running up the federal budget deficit so they can undermine the fiscal underpinnings of Medicare and Social Security. 'I think their principal motivation is to undo the pillars of the New Deal, particularly Medicare and Social Security, by making the budget deficit so big that those programs can't be sustained,' he said at a lunch with USA TODAY... In an economic plan he released Thursday, Dean made balancing the federal budget a top priority. He argued that fiscal discipline would help create jobs and restore cuts in government aid... Dean, the last major Democratic candidate to release an economic plan, proposed a two-year, $100 billion 'Fund to Restore America' that he said would add more than 1 million jobs. Aid would be used by states and cities for homeland security and other needs."

"Governor Dean issued the following statement today regarding today's Dean for America Third Quarter FEC filing. The filing will reflect that the campaign raised $14.8 million in the third quarter from 168,000 Americans contributing an average of $73.69: 'Today's filing-the largest ever by a Democratic presidential campaign-is about more than simply donations given and cash spent. It is a report on the state of the American republic. It is a statement by a growing segment of American citizens that they no longer will accept the political status quo. This report documents an American citizenry that is awakening to reclaim their democracy and restore their republic... The American people are frustrated that last October the Congress abdicated their Constitutional role of deciding the issue of war and peace. They feel betrayed by a Democratic Party establishment that rolled over and provided no opposition, no debate, to a mistaken war and continued attacks on our civil liberties."

The Observer UK writes: "While the mainstream media looked the other way, Dean spent much of 2002 criss-crossing the US, canvassing opinion and seeking support. Unlike the other early Democrat hopefuls, he reckoned that the best way to proceed was to tackle the Bush junta head-on and so he came out with vocal opposition to the US invasion of Iraq, the Bush tax cuts and the spiralling federal budget deficit... But the most significant thing about Dean is his use of the internet. [Joe Trippi] had the brilliant idea of harnessing the net to foster the growth of a country-wide virtual organisation of supporters. He also [hired] Zephyr Teachout, who understood that a truly networked campaign cannot be centrally directed - it has to concede freedom and initiative to those at the edge of the network, with all the risks that entails. And guess what? It's working."

Howard Dean declared, "Today's recall election in California was not about Gray Davis or Arnold Schwarzenegger. This recall was about the frustration so many people are feeling about the way things are going. All across America, George Bush's massive tax cuts for the wealthy are undermining state budgets, causing cutbacks in services and increases in local property taxes. Were recalls held in every state, it's quite possible that 50 governors would find themselves paying the price for one president's ruinous national economic policies. Tonight the voters in California directed their frustration with the country's direction on their incumbent governor. Come next November, that anger might be directed at a different incumbent...in the White House."

Roll Call reports: "A memo being circulated by a prominent Republican polling firm argues that GOPers run a serious risk of underestimating former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D) as a general election candidate against Resident Bush... Dean has leapt to the top of the polls in key primary states as well as the money chase by touting himself as the consummate outsider candidate in a field filled with Members of Congress. 'The difference between Howard Dean and the rest of the Democrat[ic] candidates is that Dean comes across as a true believer to the base but will not appear threatening to folks in the middle,' [Pollsters Bob Moore and Hans Kaiser of Moore Information] write. 'We are whistling past the graveyard if we think Howard Dean will be a pushover.'... Officials involved in Bush's re-election campaign as well as several Republican pollsters say they long ago came to the realization that Dean was a political force that needed to be taken seriously."

NY Times reports: "Howard Dean turned heads this week when he raised more money, almost $15 million, than his rivals for the second consecutive quarter. His performance can be attributed to a carefully planned strategy to maximize both small donors and traditional larger contributors. The campaign is adept at turning small donors, some of whom gave as little as $10 each, into fund-raisers who solicit similar amounts from family, friends and neighbors. It also conducted a more traditional effort to draw in bigger fund-raisers who generally do business in six figures. Those two efforts combined brought Dr. Dean about $14.8 million since July, and the cash is still being counted. Though the campaign may fall short of its $15 million goal when it files reports this month with the Federal Election Commission, it has set a single-quarter record for a Democratic presidential candidate."

"Howard Dean invoked Boston's revolutionary legacy on Tuesday as he urged Americans to dump their latter-day 'king' - George W. Bush - whom he accused of threatening democracy and caring only for the very rich. In a speech to thousands of supporters, Dean said next year's election was about protecting American democracy from 'a narrow band of right-wing ideologues' who were trampling the U.S. Constitution. 'This democracy and the flag of the United States do not belong to Rush Limbaugh, and Jerry Falwell, and Tom DeLay, and John Ashcroft, and Dick Cheney,' Dean said as he listed prominent conservatives. 'This flag and this country belong to us and we want our country back.' Dean drew parallels between his own grass-roots campaign and the Boston Tea Party... He said that like King George III, the British monarch against whom American colonists rebelled, Bush had 'forgotten his own people' and was listening only to special interests."

NBC's Felix Schein: "It is the most outlandish challenge of this campaign season. A threshold, which if achieved, would completely alter the race for the presidency, likely result in the first dropouts of this campaign and rewrite political history. Yet, it also is a mark that the Dean campaign seriously (99.9%) doubts it can reach, calling it more of a challenge and a call to action than a realistic or achievable ambition. The challenge - raise $40 million in the 3rd quarter. Can the Dean campaign get anywhere close, and if so, how close? He is behind the target. In an open letter Campaign Manager Joe Trippi notes that if all 400,000 of the Dean for America Volunteers were to send $100 dollars to the campaign, Dean for America would raise $40m dollars this quarter.... [P]ublicly stating one's potential ambitions has been known to backfire in political circles and this is certainly a risky proposition. Thus, there must be some confidence that this will turn out to turn heads."

"Having demonstrated his mastery of the Internet, Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean is taking on . . . the conference call? His campaign announced last week that it will try to break the world record for the largest-ever conference call. That record, according to the good people at the Guinness Book of World Records, was set in September 2000, when 3,310 people rang into a call hosted by the British teen-pop group S Club 7. Dean will host his call Sept. 29 -- the day before the deadline for reporting third-quarter fundraising totals -- when he will chat with supporters attending house parties for the candidate across the country. Campaign manager Joe Trippi declined to estimate how many people might join the call. But he promised to shatter the world record."

The UK Independent reports: "Howard Dean, presidential front-runner in the Democratic Party, has asked retired General Wesley Clark to join his campaign, should the former Nato commander decide not to join the race himself. The move will strengthen speculation that if Mr Dean wins the nomination, he will select General Clark as his running mate to challenge George Bush in 2004. Mr Dean's campaign officials confirmed the men had a private meeting in California at the weekend. Neither side would give details, but General Clark told The Washington Post it had been 'a complete tour of the horizon', implying that the vice-presidency had been discussed. There has been speculation that General Clark's public musings on whether to make a run for the White House mask his true ambition, of the vice-presidency. Though General Clark has been in contact with other candidates, for many analysts a Dean-Clark tandem has always seemed to make special sense."

"Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean has vaulted into the lead among Iowa Democrats polled this week.... The poll, conducted Aug. 25 through Aug. 27, shows that if the Iowa caucuses were held today, 25 percent of those polled would support Dean. Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt is second with 21 percent, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry is third with 16 percent and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman is fourth with 12 percent. The other candidates are all in single digits. This newest poll is a huge leap forward for Dean. In the last KCCI NewsChannel 8 poll conducted June, 2003, Dean was in third place with 11 percent. Richard Gephardt was in first place in June with 27 percent. Dean's surging poll numbers track with another poll released in New Hampshire this week showing him building a big lead among Democrats in that state."

"Democrat Howard Dean has jumped out to a commanding 21-point lead over rival John Kerry in the latest New Hampshire poll. Dean, who held a single-digit advantage in a recent survey, led Kerry 38 percent to 17 percent in the Zogby International poll of likely primary voters.... Kerry, the Massachusetts senator, led in New Hampshire polls earlier this year, including a 26 percent to 13 percent advantage in February. The two candidates were essentially tied in a poll by Zogby in June. The August survey comes as Dean has shown political strength in his fund raising, drawn large crowds for his 'Sleepless Summer' tour and appeared in television ads in New Hampshire, which is slated to hold its primary Jan. 27. Pollster John Zogby said Dean's support was in all regions of the state, among men and women, Democrats and independents, liberals and moderates.... 'His support is really across the board,' Zogby said of the former Vermont governor."

"Howard Dean has pulled ahead of Sen. John Kerry in New Hampshire for the first time in a monthly poll ranking the Democratic presidential candidates, a shift that the pollster attributed to new television advertising by the former Vermont governor. Dean received 28 percent of the vote in the August survey conducted by the American Research Group Inc. of Manchester, N.H., compared with 21 percent for Kerry, according to results released Tuesday. A similar poll in July showed Kerry leading Dean 25 percent to 19 percent. 'What voters want is somebody who's going to fight George W. Bush, and they basically play back the Dean advertising when they say 'Dean' in response to poll questions about which candidate they prefer, said pollster Dick Bennett. 'The other thing is that his favorability is up more than Kerry's, which indicates it's from the advertising.'"

"I am running for president because it is time to rebuild the American community, reclaim our democratic heritage and restore our country to its rightful place as a moral leader. Today, our nation is in crisis... Our country's founders feared that those with economic power would one day try to seize political power. And under this administration, that fear is becoming a reality. The very ideal of American community is under the biggest assault in our history by the radical agenda of those in power and a flood of special interest money. But in order to change America, we are first going to have to change the Democratic Party, and make it stand for its principles once again... When America has been threatened with a radical conservative agenda in the past, it has been the working people and unions that rose up to resist and to take the country back from the special interests. It is time to do that again."

Katha Pollitt writes: "Right now, Dean is the only viable candidate who speaks to the anger, fear and loathing a large number of ordinary citizens feel about the direction Bush has taken the country, while the mainstream media blandly kowtow and the Democratic Party twiddles its thumbs. He has gone out and actually asked for the help of these citizens, rather than taking them for granted. That is why 70,000 people have sent him money, and why 84,000 have shown up to work for him... His willingness to challenge Bush without looking over his shoulder at the last undecided voter in Ohio is the big story... What the media see as progressive self-delusion is actually the opposite: a bare-knuckled pragmatism born from the debacle of the 2000 elections. If Kucinich can capture the public's imagination, great. If Kerry acquires more backbone and fire, fine. Right now, though, it looks like Howard Dean is Ralph Nader's gift to the Democratic Party."

Nico Pitney passionately supported the Greens in 2000 and 2002 and calls Kucinich a guiding light in Congress, but he is supporting Howard Dean, despite some policy disagreements. "Apart from his platform and its flaws, however, Dean should be commended by progressives for accomplishing what social justice movements so often work toward and only rarely achieve - his campaign is creatively utilizing the internet to facilitate large-scale independent organizing, and drawing significant numbers of new and disillusioned voters into the political process, getting many of them to contribute their time and energy away from the computer screen. Dean's campaign has developed an infrastructure to support grassroots activism unmatched by any in American history. The uniquely interactive nature of the campaign 'creates, embraces, enhances, validates, and rewards intimacy,' as one supporter wrote on the campaign's weblog."

"In 10 days, Dean has climbed from fourth place to a tie for second, passing a highly touted rival, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts... Analysts attribute Dean's surge to his feistiness, his ability to raise millions of dollars through the Internet and his firm anti-war position, which appeals to the activist liberal wing of his party. He also is attracting many young people eager to work for him in early-voting states such as Iowa and New Hampshire. However, Dean shows weakness among female voters, a key voting bloc for Democrats. Men are twice as supportive of Dean as women. Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, who was Al Gore's running mate in 2000, leads the Democrat pack. Dean and Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt tie for second. Kerry is next, dropping 3 points in 10 days. The other five candidates have single-digit support."

Daily Kos writes, "Lieberman attacks Dean. Kerry attacks Dean. The DLC attacks Dean. And yet Dean only gets stronger, on the cover of all three major US newsweeklies (Time, Newsweek, and US News), and making leaps and bounds in ALL the polls. His Meetup numbers continue to defy gravity, as does the campaign's signup list. These are all facts, not spin. Whether you love or hate Dean, you have to admit that he has been the center of attention in this race for the past few months, and by all objective methods has got the most solid results. While the other eight candidates issue press releases into the ether and struggle to reach voters, Dean speaks to hundreds, if not thousands, everywhere he goes. No one has ever seen anything like it... The formula to Dean's success is simple: He speaks like a Democrat, particularly the part about opposing Republicans. That resonates with those of us who saw DLC-types lead our party to disaster in 2002."

"'Too many Democrats in Washington have become so afraid of losing that they have remained silent or only halfheartedly fought the very agenda that is destroying the democratic dream of America,' said [Presidential contender] Howard Dean in remarks prepared for... a union hall audience Wednesday... 'Never has a p-resident talked so much about jobs while doing so much to destroy them'... The former Vermont governor, who often cites his record on balancing the state budget, proposed... an increase in the minimum wage, broadening unemployment insurance to cover part-time workers, more money for cash-strapped states and expanding high-speed Internet access... 'We must return to fiscal sanity for the sake of future generations, yes, but also for the sake of our national security,' he said. 'We cannot be a world-class country if we are the world's largest debtor.'"

On June 25, 2003, Howard Dean spoke to the Council on Foreign Relations. "I believe that the United States has a special role to play in world affairs. We have long been an inspiration to all those around the world seeking democracy, freedom and opportunity. Americans do not understand how we could have squandered the precious opportunity we had after September 11 to unite the world in opposition to the likes of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. America became America by rebelling against imperial power.America emerged from isolation to greatness by beating fascist power. America became synonymous with justice by supporting independence for colonies from an imperial world. America's ideals triumphed when it confronted communism to the point of extinction. America is not Rome. We do not dream of empire. We dream of liberty for all."

Howard Dean's declaration of his candidacy tied a number of his "ideas for the first time into a broad, thematic vision for the campaign. Though Dean started his race focused on the issues of health care and balanced budgets, his campaign caught fire in the press only after his position opposing unilateral American military action in Iraq made him a hero in anti-war circles. Now he's adding larger questions about American identity and the conservative assault on American democracy to his list of pet themes... 'This campaign is about more than issue differences on health care or tax policy, national security, jobs, the environment, our economy. . . . It's about who we are as Americans,' said Dean. It's about restoring 'the ideal of the American community,' he continued, a place where each person isn't only looking out for himself or herself, but where people look out for each other and recognize their obligations to and responsibility for their fellow citizens."

Howard Dean formally announced his presidential campaign Monday casting himself as a populist fighting Washington insiders and corporate America. Dean urged voters to overcome their 'profound fear and distrust' of the political system and stand against Bush. 'You have the power to take back the Democratic Party! You have the power to take our country back!' he said. 'You have the power! You have the power!' The fiery rhetoric brought roars from the crowd of about 5000. The crowd was five times larger than announcement events staged by presidential rivals Dick Gephardt and Bob Graham. Hundreds more supporters watched the speech at campaign sites across the country, a sign that Dean is building a formidable, Internet-driven organization.

Newsweek reports, "Showbiz liberals on both coasts are a big-and lucrative-base of support for Dean. He scored [Rob] Reiner's endorsement in February. Whoopi Goldberg and Melissa Etheridge hosted an event for him in April in NYC. On June 4, a top talent agent for ICM held a fund-raiser for Dean at her Upper West Side apartment. Hosted by Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, the party included Alec Baldwin, Michael Moore, Marvin Hamish and other showbiz types. "It was a very New York evening. He spoke to a whole new group of Democrats who felt like no one has spoken to them." At Reiner's home, 100 or so big names showed up to write checks-suits like Jim Wiatt, the president and CEO of the William Morris Agency, and Alan Horn, president of Warner Bros. Actors Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest also made appearances. Dean also has the support of Martin Sheen, Nora Ephron, Richard Donner and Norman Lear."

"TVSPY: Governor, what exactly is Howard Dean TV? DEAN: Howard Dean TV is essentially a way of getting our message out unfiltered over the Internet. It's been terrific. It's really been a great success. It allows people to go onto the Net, where they are able to see the direct message without being snipped into little sound bites and without being filtered by Rupert Murdoch and 'fair and balanced coverage'. TVSPY: What specifically can people watch as you go along the campaign trial? DEAN: There are actually a group of people who are doing videos of various speeches and Q&As, so people get a pretty good idea of what it is like to ask questions because other people are going to think of the same questions they have. If somebody wants to tune in, it is just a great way of seeing lot of things that the press won't cover. "

In the second in a series of nine Iowa town hall forums hosted by Senator Tom Harkin, Dean's fiery foreign policy criticisms drew a standing ovation. "This President (sic) has used humiliation as a weapon, not only against our enemies but against our friends,'' Dean also said Bush should get over his grudges against allies like Germany and France for their failure to support the war. "This president (sic) has exercised foreign policy by petulance.'' Bush talks tough about homeland security but in fact we're a lot less safe,'' he said, questioning why Bush turned his attention away from al Qaeda in Afghanistan and failed to provide funding for police and emergency units that would deal with an attack at home.

From Tapped: "ABC's The Note, er, notes that back before Howard Dean began stealing the thunder from Al From's preferred candidate (presumably the tepid Joe Lieberman), the Democratic Leadership Council was full of praise for the former Vermont governor. And indeed, the magic of Google makes you realize just how dishonest the DLC's recent hamfisted attack on Dean was... the DLC is so panicked over Dean's growing momentum that they've resorted to a crude, dishonest rendering of the candidate -- which, as so many other folks have pointed out, nicely does Karl Rove's work for him. If the DLC thinks a pro-gay-rights, pro-health-care, pro-gun, fiscally conservative politician is a McGovernite, then the term has absolutely no meaning." Also, see the entry about Tom DeLay. When DeLay was told by the manager of a DC steakhouse that he couldn't smoke there since "it's against the law of the federal government", the Bugman retorted, "I AM the Federal Government!"

Sam Skolnik writes for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: "Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean found a wildly receptive audience last night for his speech to more than 1,200 faithful at Seattle's Town Hall. The former Vermont governor received several standing ovations from the standing-room-only crowd for his attacks on President [sic] Bush. Dean offered lots of red meat to the crowd by shooting at Bush's foreign policy, his economic plan and what he called the resident's divisive rhetoric. 'This p-resident has set us against each other, not just by race,' Dean said, but on the basis of religion, gender and socioeconomic status." Give 'em Hell Howard!

"Howard Dean unveiled his plan [on Tuesday] to provide near-universal access to health care coverage by targeting federal assistance to those without insurance and penalizing large, profitable corporations that fail to offer it, saying the United States 'has fallen 50 years behind the social standards of what we consider the civilized world.' Senator Kerry will join Govenor Dean and RepresentativeGephardt by unveiling his plan on Thursday, May 15. Democrats face a serious intraparty debate over health care that could influence both the the nomination battle and the viability of their desire to make the issue a major point of difference with Bush in the 2004 election." Yes, Bush also has a health care plan, but the rest of us are on our own, unless we organize and elect a Democratic President.

In reply to a critical article in CommonDreams.org, Howard Dean writes, "It could well take decades to repair the damage this pResident and his cohort of right-wing ideological advisors have done to our standing in the international community. Theirs is a radical view of our role in the world. The pResident who campaigned on a platform of a humble foreign policy has instead begun implementing a foreign policy characterized by dominance, arrogance and intimidation. The tidal wave of support and goodwill that engulfed us after the tragedy of 9/11 has dried up and been replaced by undercurrents of distrust, skepticism and hostility by many who had been among our closest allies. This unilateral approach to foreign policy is a disaster... On day one of a Dean Presidency, I will reverse this attitude. I will tear up the Bush Doctrine. And I will steer us back into the company of the community of nations where we will exercise moral leadership once again." You go, Howard!

Charles Knight writes: "In his remarks to the Alliance for American Leadership, ...Dean addressed the problems of possible nuclear proliferation to North Korea and Iran....he made a point of saying that he would not rule out using military force to disarm either North Korea or Iran. In effect this supposedly 'anti-war' Democrat has announced his support for a policy in which Washington will decide which countries are allowed to have nuclear weapons and will reserve for itself the right to forcefully disarm those who do not voluntarily disarm by U.S. dictate. In this crucial regard Dean's position is in close accordance with the Bush doctrine of coercive disarmament and preventive war. Dean did seek to draw a distinction between his policy and that of Bush by advocating a return to the Clinton policy of 'constructive engagement.' However, in the context of a world with preventive counter-proliferation warfare this is a distinction not of principle, but only of pragmatic considerations."

Salon's Jake Tapper writes, "On Tuesday evening the most credible antiwar presidential candidate came into a crowd of wealthy liberals on the Upper West Side of Manhattan - 'ground zero of antiwar sentiment,' as described by Judith Hope, a former NYS Democratic Party chair - and he hardly mentioned the war at all. 'Nobody asked me about it,' explained Dr. Howard Dean, the feisty former governor of VT, when asked about his reticence. But surely Dean - who has distinguished himself from his better-financed and better-known primary opponents largely because of his spirited opposition to the Bush administration's foreign policy in Iraq - typically mentions Topic A at his campaign appearances? 'I said I was going to tone down my criticism of Bush once the war began,' Dean explained as he made his way from a DNC fundraiser at the posh Sambuca restaurant to a private fundraiser. 'I'm not gonna change my policy. I support the troops but I haven't changed my views on the policy.'"

"Tonight, for better or worse, America is at war ... Those Americans who opposed our going to war with Iraq, who wanted the UN to remove those weapons without war, need not apologize for giving voice to their conscience, last year, this year or next year. In a country devoted to the freedom of debate and dissent, it is every citizen's patriotic duty to speak out, even as we wish our troops well and pray for their safe return. Congressman Abraham Lincoln did this in criticizing the Mexican War of 1846, as did Senator Robert F. Kennedy in calling the war in Vietnam 'unsuitable, immoral and intolerable.' This is not Iraq, where doubters and dissenters are punished or silenced --this is the USA. We need to support our young people as they are sent to war by [Bush], and I have no doubt that American military power will prevail. But to ensure that our post-war policies are constructive and humane... concerned Americans should continue to speak out; and I intend to do so."

The Nation's David Corn says Howard Dean "is smart and sharp, and can exude a cool passion. And he's trying to cut a path for himself as an ideals-driven, angry but reasonable and rational, middle-loving, just-the-facts message-candidate who embraces pragmatism--one who takes on Bush Inc. for its warmongering and out-of-whack domestic priorities. He's also a Democrat who bemoans his own party for its general wimpiness, rightward drift and inability to kick Bush squarely in the teeth. With these themes, he may well have an appeal for die-hard Democrats not put off by his lack of national standing or his more cerebral than charismatic political stylings. Yet he is a message candidate who recoils from ideological politics. 'I don't really consider myself a progressive,' Dean remarks, 'though by national standards maybe I am.... I'm determined to change America. We are heading in the wrong direction.' And if he has to sound (mostly) like a liberal to accomplish such change, so be it."

David Corn writes, "Dean, as the buzz-watchers agree, generated the most positive vibes at the gathering. He hit the podium with a sharp declaration: 'What I want to know is why in the world the Democratic Party leadership is supporting the resident's unilateral attack on Iraq?" He then blasted the party's leaders for not challenging Resident Bush on whether there should be any new tax cuts; for obsessing over a patients' bill of rights rather than 'standing up' for providing health care insurance for all; and for going along with Bush's 'Leave No Child Behind' education legislation, which he claimed would leave behind 'every student, every teacher and every school board.' After this machine-gun opening, he paused and said, 'I'm Howard Dean and I'm here to represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.' Cue the applause? Actually, applause lights were not needed. Many in the crowd jumped up and cheered."

"Against the wishy-washy backdrop of pro-war Democrats, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean stands out because of his anti-war message. In a foreign policy address earlier this week at Drake University in Des Moines, Dean said Bush is too focused on 'the wrong war at the wrong time.' He suggested that the 'right war' would be to target al-Qaida, which caused the devastating 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. U.S. officials are convinced the malevolent al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is still alive after his last tape rallying radical Muslims to more violence. "What happened to the war against al-Qaida?" Dean asked in his Iowa speech. Dean also said he believed Bush should be spending money for the defense of our country by hiring more emergency workers and suggesting more security measures."

A quote from Howard Dean, one of the few viable candidates who doesn't want to be Republican-lite: Dean starts most meet 'n' greets by saying there are two reasons why he's running for president. "I'm horrified by the president's economic policy and I'm horrified by the president's foreign policy," he tells the Manchester crowd. "And the sad thing about what's going on here is the Democrats are voting for this kind of stuff. I think our party has decided that the way to be popular is to be almost as conservative as President [sic] Bush."

"Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean aimed his harshest criticism at Bush foreign policy, but he also targeted congressional rivals for the Democratic nomination. 'I do not believe the president [sic] should have been given a green light to drive the nation into conflict without the case having first been made to Congress and to the American people for why this war is necessary,' Dean said. He noted that Congress should have required that he go through the United Nations before acting." You Go, Howard!

MSNBC reports, "Dark-horse Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean opened fire Thursday on one of his rivals for the 2004 nomination, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, for voting to authorize Bush to use military force against Iraq. Dean questioned Kerry's vote to give Bush what he called 'a blank check to go to war' in a congressional resolution on disarming Iraq... Dean, the former governor of Vermont and a long-shot contender for the Democratic nomination, made it clear in his statement Thursday that he is offering himself as the genuine anti-war candidate in the race. Referring to Kerry, Dean said, 'I'm thrilled that there is now another Democrat speaking up for Americans who are concerned about the White House's unilateralist foreign policy and the likely war with Iraq. But I am proud to remain the only elected official running for president who stood up to President Bush on Iraq, who said the Iraqi resolution was wrong, and who would have voted against it.'"

"Above the Vermont Pub & Brewery in Burlington is the headquarters for a presidential hopeful. Vermont Governor Howard Dean...Dean says it's time for democrats to start acting like democrats. 'I think the Democrats have got to stop being a shadow of the Republican party...We need to be much bolder and braver. We need to talk about issues like health insurance' (and fully funding special education) 'instead of fighting about the patients bill of rights....We need a total remake of domestic policy.' It's a policy Dean says should be based on balanced budgets, investments in children, health care for all and renewable energy. 'They are not talked about. No one in Washington is bringing them up. They are all terrified of them, they think they are too far to the left. I think we have been co-opted by the right. When our party is supporting (Bush's) agenda there is something the matter with that. The president's agenda is not good for America and we ought to be bold enough to say so."