Saturday, February 21, 2004
DEAN'S ROUGH RIDE
Dean's Rough Ride
by WILLIAM GREIDER
[from the March 8, 2004 issue of The Nation]
In forty years of observing presidential contests, I cannot remember another major candidate brutalized so intensely by the media, with the possible exception of George Wallace. Howard Dean contributed some fatal errors of his own, to be sure, but he also brought fresh air and new ideas, a crisp call to revitalize the Democratic Party and at least the outlines of deeper political and economic reforms. The reporters, as surrogate agents for Washington's insider sensibilities, blew him off. Dean's big mistake was in not recognizing, up front, that the media are very much part of the existing order and were bound to be hostile to his provocative kind of politics. To be heard, clearly and accurately, he would have had to find another channel.
For the record, reporters and editors deny that this occurred. Privately, they chortle over their accomplishment. At the Washington airport I ran into a bunch of them, including some old friends from long-ago campaigns, on their way to the next contest after Iowa. So, I remarked, you guys saved the Republic from the doctor. Yes, they assented with giggly pleasure, Dean was finished--though one newsmagazine correspondent confided the coverage would become more balanced once they went after Senator Kerry. Only Paul Begala of CNN demurred. "I don't know what you're talking about," Begala said, blank-faced. Nobody here but us gunslingers.
The party establishment, limp as it is, was correct to target Dean with tribal vengeance. From their narrow perspective, he represented a political Antichrist. The unvarnished way he talked. The glint of unfamiliar, breakthrough ideas in his speeches. His lack of customary deference to party elders (and to the media's own cockeyed definition of reality). What the insiders loathed are the same qualities many of us found exhilarating. I already feel nostalgia for his distinctive one-liners:
"Too many of our leaders have made a devil's bargain with corporate and wealthy interests, saying 'I'll keep you in power if you keep me in power.'"
"As long as half the world's population subsists on less than two dollars a day, the US will not be secure.... A world populated by 'hostile have-nots' is not one in which US leadership can be sustained without coercion."
"Over the last thirty years, we have allowed multinational corporations and other special interests to use our nation's government to undermine our nation's promise."
"There is something about human beings that corporations can't deal with and that's our soul, our spirituality, who we are. We need to find a way in this country to understand--and to help each other understand--that there is a tremendous price to be paid for the supposed efficiency of big corporations. The price is losing the sense of who we are as human beings."
"In our nation, the people are sovereign, not the government. It is the people, not the media or the financial system or mega-corporations or the two political parties, who have the power to create change."
Do you not remember those remarks? Dean's best lines--evocative suggestions rather than explicit policy pronouncements--were not widely reported. In his brisk, scattered manner, he was talking about power, inviting people to contemplate the deteriorated condition of our democracy, expressing his solidarity with their skepticism and alienation. Audiences responded, but this sort of talk was too soft and allusive to constitute "news." Dean's style was indeed "hot"--"angry," the reporters said--but they simply couldn't deal with his reflective side; it didn't fit the caricature.
Nor did they take much interest in concrete ideas, unless a rival accused him of heresy. Dean called for a labeling law for mutual funds--full disclosure on the fees they charge investors. He wanted a Fannie Mae for small business. And a national commission on how to restore democracy--no politicians allowed. He wanted to confront the concentration of oversized corporations and break up media conglomerates. In addition to full financial disclosure by corporations, Dean called for full social accounting: "Why shouldn't companies be accountable to investors and the public on other important matters like environmental standards and labor relations? Knowledge is power."
On political reform, he endorsed radical concepts like instant-runoff voting, which would enable third parties with ideas from either left or right to compete against Republicans and--good grief!--Democrats too. He called for a $100 tax credit for citizens who contribute to presidential campaigns--but available only to citizens on the bottom half of the income ladder. He wanted free airtime for "civic broadcasting" in election seasons--paid for by a spectrum fee charged to the broadcasters using our airwaves. These ideas and others perhaps sounded too fanciful, since neither party in Congress would have much enthusiasm for them. The dead hand of the past always feels threatened by a new guy with a different idea of what's possible.
OK, the doctor stuck his chin out, and he got his head knocked off. "Politics is a dirty business," as Hunter Thompson used to say. The Dean campaign--and the candidate himself--failed to define the man and his agenda on his own terms before the media and his rivals defined him, on theirs, as a one-note ranter. (The campaign did try, I know. Back in the fall, when I was invited to contribute ideas, Joe Trippi and others emphasized the need to go way beyond the Iraq war and lay out a far-sighted reform agenda. A few speeches were drafted, but by the time they were delivered the onslaught of attacks by the rivals and daily "gotchas" by the press was already under way, blocking them out.) I am reminded, by contrast, of the great communicator, Ronald Reagan, who early in the 1980 campaign began broadcasting content-rich commercials--the Gipper talking straight into the camera, articulating his views on government, enterprise, the welfare state and other big subjects--educating the public one-on-one, without filters. My hunch, only a hunch, is that Dean and his staff were beguiled by their own press clippings and poll ratings into thinking they would have plenty of time later (after they swept Iowa and New Hampshire) to flesh out their portrait of the man, and what he believes about the country's potential. Never happened.
Even had they done so, Dean might still have lost. The freshness of his style appealed to some but frightened others. His governing ideas were far more unconventional--outside Washington, some would say normal--than the caricature allowed. Still, no one should excuse the editors and reporters: Despite the multitude of media outlets, they collectively block out the content that seems disturbingly new, anything that doesn't conform to insider biases about what's possible.
Despite the spectacle of his cratered campaign, Howard Dean did accomplish something real for democracy. First, he confirmed the existence of an energetic, informed dissent within the husk of the Democratic Party. An amorphous force, to be sure, but I do not think it will go away. Don't hold me to the numbers, but one campaign veteran told me 70 percent of the citizens on Dean's much-admired computer list are over 30--a broader base than the stereotype. On the other hand, 25 percent of the money contributed came from people under 30--impressive too. The Dean campaign demonstrated, most dramatically, that people can make their own politics via the Internet and elsewhere by raising lots of money from outsiders, i.e., mere citizens.
This momentous knowledge is liberating--if people figure out how to use it in other places. I can imagine, for instance, insurgent challenges launched by young unknowns against Congressional incumbents, especially in Democratic primaries. Most of these incumbents haven't faced serious opposition in years. At a minimum, it would scare the crap out of them--always healthy for politicians. In my Washington experience, nothing alters voting behavior in Congress like seeing a few of their colleagues taken down by surprise--defeated by an outsider whose ideas they did not take seriously.
What the Dean campaign clearly did not accomplish (in addition to formulating a smart countermedia strategy) was to find ways to develop the flesh-and-blood relationships that can become enduring building blocks in politics--de Tocqueville's "associations" or labor's "collective action." The Meet-Ups are a rough start. MoveOn.org is an impressive organizing engine. We may be witnessing the early stages of small-d democratic renewal, in which people impose new technologies and new social realities on tired old institutions. As Howard Dean's rough ride reminds, established power, including the media, will resist change tenaciously. But the doctor may yet be remembered as the herald of something new.Friday, February 20, 2004
WORST PRESIDENT EVER
Bush Wins Triple Trifecta as Worst President Ever
By Harvey Wasserman
Free Press.org
Monday 16 February 2004
"The worst president in our lifetime" is how many Americans view George W. Bush. But Bush is not merely the worst president in recent memory. He's the worst in all US history. And he's won the distinction not on a weakness or two, but in at least nine separate categories, giving him a triple trifecta.
It's a record unmatched by any previous president.
Let's count the ways:
TRIFECTA ONE: Economy, Environment, Education
Economy:
Until now, Herbert Hoover has been the president most closely associated with economic disaster. He presided over the 1929 stock crash, and choked while the economy collapsed around him.
Bush did not preside over the 2000 Nasdaq crash. But he's turned the biggest federal surplus into history's biggest deficit, which a nervous global banking community sees as a potential weapon of mass fiscal destruction. Bush has lost more jobs than Hoover. A top Bush advisor has called outsourcing "just a new way of doing international trade."
Bush has achieved the economic trifecta by simultaneously collapsing the dollar while gutting the industrial infrastructure and running up gargantuan trade deficits. Even GOP conservatives are petrified over a Bush Blowout that could make the 1930s seem a time of widespread prosperity. With Vice President Dick Cheney saying "deficits don't matter," the administration has introduced a form of "kamikaze economics" entirely new to the American presidency.
Environment:
Bush's "No Tree Left Standing" attack on Mother Earth has transcended even Ronald Reagan's all-out anti-green assault. More people will ultimately die from the resulting climate chaos, toxic emissions and other eco-fallout than from anything Al Queda could imagine.
Simply put, Bush has trashed not only eco-progress dating back to Richard Nixon, but also the achievements of both Roosevelts, scorching the earth all the way back to US Grant and Yellowstone, our first national park, now being Bushwhacked.
Education:
Bush's "No Child Left Behind" scam has imposed massive new costs on state and local school systems with no tangible payback. Even Utah has just said no. Even Reagan's slash and burn of public education has been trumped by an administration for whom the three R's are "Religion, Reaction, and Revelations."
TRIFECTA TWO: Corruption, Constitution, Global Contempt
Corruption:
Until Bush, the friends of Warren G. Harding were the kings of White House sleaze. Nixon and Reagan's made a serious challenge. But with Enron, Halliburton, Bechtel and other Bush funders profiting from the slaughter in Iraq and the decimation of the electric grid and the natural environment, W has captured the crown of public theft.
Constitution:
Richard Nixon's repressive attack on the Vietnam anti-war movement outstripped even the Red Scare excesses of Woodrow Wilson after World War I and those of John Adams after the Revolution. But Bush and Attorney-General John Ashcroft have shredded the Bill of Rights with unprecedented glee. From the Patriot Act, Homeland Security and an escalated drug war, Bush has become George Orwell's Big Brother, making Nixon look like a civil libertarian.
Global Contempt:
American presidents from Washington to Lincoln to FDR to JFK have been loved around the world. Jimmy Carter, now an ambassador for peace, may have excited the most global contempt by preaching human rights while embracing the brutal Shah of Iran.
But no American president has incited such worldwide hatred as George W. Bush. He has turned the global sympathy from the 9/11 terror attacks into inexpressible rage over the attack on Afghanistan and Iraq, his contempt for the United Nations and his cynical, uncaring arrogance and global ignorance. By blatantly lying to both the United Nations and in the State of the Union, and then unleashing brutal violence, Bush has become the most polarizing president in US history abroad as well as at home.
TRIFECTA THREE: Military madness, Messianic delusion, Macho Matricide
Military Madness:
About a dozen US presidents served in the armed forces. Three---Washington, Grant and Eisenhower---are among history's greatest generals. None ever advocated attacking countries that have not attacked us. All honored the firewall between military and civilian rule by avoiding wearing a military uniform while in office.
Bush trashed that tradition with his infamous flight suit. Bill Clinton occupied the short list of presidents known to have dodged the draft. But with an entire cabinet of chickenhawks, Bush gets the Congressional medal for having used his wealth and connections to avoid military service, for likely having gone AWOL and for lying about having ever been in combat. None has heaped such hypocritical praise on American soldiers while slashing their benefits.
Messianic Delusion:
Presidents from Washington to Lincoln to the Roosevelts to Reagan have invoked the name of God. Only Bush claims to speak directly to Him and for Him. Only Bush claims to have been elected by Him (the American people certainly didn't do it).
At least since the witch trials of Salem in the 1690s, no other president has ever attempted to impose his personal religion on the nation---or world---as has Bush.
Macho Matricide:
Ronald Reagan ostensibly opposed a women's right to choose, but did little about it. Ditto George H.W. Bush.
But W. has launched an unprecedented crusade against women's rights, affirmative action and a whole range of social legislation supporting equality between the races, genders, communities of preference and classes.
Much more could be said. These modest nine points omit Bush's attacks on organized labor, health insurance, retirement benefits, renewable energy and much much more.
But if you ever have a pinge of doubt about Shrub being the worst president ever, just repeat the phrase "Triple Trifecta" three times. Then go out and organize, organize, organize.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/021904I.shtmlThursday, February 19, 2004
THE DECLINE AND FALL OF DEAN
Staffers fill in details of the decline of Dean
By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY
Howard Dean's steep, quick fall is a dramatic lesson in what can go wrong in a presidential bid. The headstrong candidate was convinced the rules of politics did not apply to him. His disorganized campaign lacked solid information about how much money it had and did not do adequate research on his past.
Dean, who appeared headed for the Democratic presidential nomination at the beginning of the year, lost 17 straight primaries and caucuses before ending his candidacy Wednesday in Burlington, Vt.
"I am no longer actively pursuing the presidency," Dean told supporters. "We will, however, continue to build a new organization ... to change our country."
The public witnessed some significant moments during the former Vermont governor's plunge from likely nominee to also-ran, such as his "I have a scream" speech Jan. 19 after placing a weak third in the Iowa caucuses. But interviews with 11 people inside or close to the campaign revealed less public details of a decline that began long before the scream. Only a few agreed to be quoted by name.
Their accounts reveal a chaotic campaign led by a candidate who disregarded advice; a campaign manager, Joe Trippi, who had little control over hiring or spending; and a staff lacking basic information about Dean's past. Among the most serious problems:
• A candidate who was cavalier about preparation and didn't think he needed to connect personally with voters. The results included stumbles, odd performances that confirmed negative impressions and off-putting remarks that revealed what one adviser called tone deafness.
• NBC's report Jan. 8 on old tapes of The Editors, a Canadian public affairs program that regularly featured Dean. Dean was shown saying in one program that caucuses in the Midwest are "dominated by special interests" and "represent the extremes." An internal poll showed Dean sank 12 percentage points in a day. Campaign spokeswoman Tricia Enright says tapes of The Editors were reviewed, but that tape from Jan. 15, 2000, was not among them.
• Periodic miscalculations of cash reserves. Several people inside and close to the campaign said Bob Rogan, the deputy campaign manager Dean entrusted with the budget, supplied inaccurate estimates of cash on hand, based on reports from the campaign accounting department. More than once, the campaign made spending commitments based on estimates that were overstated by up to $4 million.
• Tensions between Dean's national political team and his inner circle. Two holdovers from the Vermont governor's office — Rogan, hired by Dean to handle money and personnel, and travel aide Kate O'Connor, who filtered Dean's contacts and information — saw their job as protecting Dean. They clashed with Dean's national political advisers, who felt thwarted in trying to improve the campaign.
As recently as early January, Dean topped the field in fundraising, national polls and polls of Iowa and New Hampshire, the states with the first two contests. Democrats liked his message, that their party needed to stand up to President Bush and "special interests" on tax cuts, education and the Iraq war.
But many concluded he was the wrong messenger. They were driven away by his hard-edged, gaffe-prone campaign and concerns about who could beat Bush.
"He didn't grow as a candidate," says John Weaver, who was senior strategist for Republican John McCain's 2000 campaign. "Once he became the front-runner, he never understood he was in the making-friends business."
For better and ultimately for worse, Dean set his own course. He refused to get coaching to ready himself for presidential-level speeches and debates. He rarely read debate preparation books.
He ignored advice on speeches. Over aides' protests, he penciled into a foreign policy speech the line that America was not safer after the capture of Saddam Hussein. He tossed his talking points in Iowa and the result was his shouted "concession" speech.
Many advisers urged Dean to relate more personally to voters. Some urged him to talk about senior citizens and children in Vermont who have prescriptions and health care as a result of his policies. Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, a supporter, advised him to tell stories about his medical practice, his family or people he met on the campaign trail. But Dean didn't.
In the final weekend before the caucuses, Harkin's wife, Ruth, made a breakthrough other Dean advisers had sought for months: She persuaded Dean to ask his wife to appear with him. Judy Dean flew in for two rallies the day before the caucuses and appeared on network television with her husband in New Hampshire. He seemed warmer in her presence, but his angry image already was fixed.
Dean had three campaign managers. The first, Rick Ridder, was forced out last spring after questioning O'Connor's role. Trippi, the second, left Jan. 29 when Dean hired Roy Neel to be campaign CEO. Trippi's departure was also related to tensions between Dean's inner and outer circles.
The outer circle, Dean's national advisers, made many proposals. They wanted to get Dean's wife more involved. They wanted a seasoned political pro on the road with Dean at all times, to cut down on gaffes.
As far back as Labor Day, they wanted new hires to bring order to chaotic operations at headquarters. In October, some sensed the Iowa campaign was flagging and recommended fundamental changes. All their suggestions and efforts were ignored or rejected. Trippi did not have the authority to overrule Rogan.
Other critical matters fell through cracks. Canadian TV said it gave Dean a complete set of tapes of The Editors. Yet no one caught Dean's damaging words on the caucus system, nor did he bring up having said them.
So instead of discussing his new appreciation for Iowa's caucuses back in July, he was caught unaware in January — the most damaging moment possible. One adviser called that oversight "unforgivable."
Dean and his team also appeared blindsided when news organizations and rivals dredged up his past support for corporate tax breaks, the North American Free Trade Agreement and changes to Medicare. "Every campaign running against them had more opposition research (on Dean) than they did," says Anita Dunn, a party strategist.
Money management was another sore point. Dean spent like a front-runner and went for knockout punches in Iowa and New Hampshire. After losing both, his treasury was depleted.
Several people inside and close to the campaign said they planned for early losses but based the planning on incorrect cash estimates. The campaign emerged from the Jan. 27 New Hampshire primary $3 million short of what advisers had expected. Dean ended up running no ads for contests Feb. 3.
Rogan declined to comment. Steve McMahon, a senior adviser, said, "Every major strategic and financial decision was made collectively. If mistakes were made, they belong to all of us."
In its ambition and flawed protagonist, Dean's decline approaches classical tragedy. Some compare Dean to Icarus, the mythical Greek figure whose wax wings melted when he flew too close to the sun. Some say the whole team was afflicted with hubris.
"The candidate needed to rise to another level. The campaign needed to rise to another level," Dunn says. But neither did.