DEMOCRATIC CHAIRMAN: Dean rallies crowd for Obama - Dallas Cowboys Forum

zrinkill · 08-21-2008

Even when appearing with a Hollywood actor and a Los Angeles Laker, Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean was the biggest celebrity to about 80 UNLV students and Democratic activists who gathered Wednesday to rally support for presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Dean, himself the standard-bearer for a youth-fired presidential campaign in 2004, told the young audience that they had the ability to determine the course of the election.

"You are more powerful than Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, all those right-wingers," Dean said, to hectoring boos from a small group of Republican protesters gathered in the back of the university's Holbert Hendrix Auditorium.

Dean's hallmark as Democratic chairman has been his "50-state strategy," an effort to make Democrats a force in all areas of the country, even those where they are severely outnumbered.

The strategy has sometimes been controversial within the party, with critics saying resources are wasted in places where Democrats can't possibly prevail. But it dovetails nicely with Obama's strategy, which seeks to put nontraditional states like Virginia and Alaska in play.

Dean told the group the key to states like Nevada would be a combination of rural Americans' disenchantment with the Bush administration and an aggressive, innovative effort to get people to vote.

Under his leadership, Dean said, the Democrats experimented in 2006 with different methods of reaching out to voters, using Virginia as a laboratory. Six "control groups" were set up to try different campaign techniques and see which was most successful in getting people out to vote.

One group got fliers in the mail; another had "college kids knocking on doors for three weeks" before the election; another got automated phone calls. Turnout increased by 1 or 2 percent, he said, except for the group that had "neighbor-to-neighbor" campaigning. Its turnout increased 12 percent, a stunning amount.

That's the technique Democrats hope to use in this election, Dean said. It involves canvassers not merely making an impersonal stop to drop off a pamphlet, but connecting individually with 30 or 40 people and then returning to them three or four times.

"They're going to believe somebody they know and trust before they believe something they see on television," Dean said.

His speech was the kickoff for a voter registration drive, with volunteers fanning out into neighborhoods afterward. He's on a cross-country tour that began in President Bush's hometown of Crawford, Texas, as Democrats try to convince voters that Bush and the Republicans' presumptive nominee, John McCain, are one and the same.

Dean, a physician and former governor of Vermont, was accompanied by actor Kal Penn, of the "Harold and Kumar" movies, and basketball player Derek Fisher, who compared the election to Game 4 of the NBA finals.

With the Lakers up substantially over the Boston Celtics in the fourth quarter, Fisher was benched, and sat on the sidelines "watching the lead continue to evaporate and continue to evaporate," he said.

With two minutes left, he was put back in, but "at that point I wasn't able to do enough to help our team win that particular game," Fisher said. "I should have made my voice heard earlier. ... That moment has now passed me by, and I can't get it back again. Right now is that moment for you. You can't sit on the bench for this election."

University of Nevada, Las Vegas student Medina Mahmoud, 19, came to Wednesday's event to hear Dean and said he motivated her to volunteer in the campaign for the first time.

"A lot of people want to believe Nevada is a conservative state, but I think it's very liberal-minded," she said, citing the "Sin City" attitude of tolerance for gays and minorities.

Mahmoud said Obama has a chance in Nevada as long as McCain does not pick former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as his running mate.

But Matthew Jarzen, 20, was one of a handful of College Republicans who lined the back wall of the auditorium to make the statement that not all students are Democrats.

As Dean talked about ending the Iraq war so that military spending could be redirected for domestic purposes, they hooted, "For welfare?"

"Many young people do want change, but not the kind of change Barack Obama says," Jarzen said. "They don't want to see more government. They don't want to see socialism creep farther and farther into the government."

http://www.lvrj.com/news/27217869.html

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Go Dean !!! Please keep talking.

Doomsday101 · 08-21-2008

It is folks like Dean that make me feel like McCain has a real chance in this election.

bbgun · 08-21-2008

Kiss o' death. Now we just need Gore to pitch in.

Doomsday101 · 08-21-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbgun

Kiss o' death. Now we just need Gore to pitch in.

If not mistaken he will be at the Dems convention as well giving a speech and I would think the speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will be giving one as well. I consider that a good boost for the Republican party.

bbgun · 08-21-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doomsday101

If not mistaken he will be at the Dems convention as well giving a speech and I would think the speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will be giving one as well. I consider that a good boost for the Republican party.

Excellent. One is a shrill, unlikeable woman and the other is Nancy Pelosi.

Doomsday101 · 08-21-2008

I do know that Denver plans on issuing an ozone warning during the convention due to all the hot air that will be come from the convention center.

zrinkill · 08-21-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doomsday101

It is folks like Dean that make me feel like McCain has a real chance in this election.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbgun

Kiss o' death. Now we just need Gore to pitch in.

Not Gore ..... but even better

Michael Moore offers his 'Election Guide'

By Craig Wilson, USA TODAY

Michael Moore has never been shy about making a political statement. Now the liberal filmmaker (Sicko, Fahrenheit 9/11), who pleaded with Caroline Kennedy this week to become Barack Obama's running mate, is doing his best to get the Democratic Illinois senator elected with Mike's Election Guide 2008

Q: What's the genesis of this book?

A: Well, probably the last eight years. And not being able to get through another four years of this. I, like millions of other Americans, am expecting something to happen in November that will put the country in a better direction. It was cathartic to write something that was both funny and with a sense of hope that things may change. And anticipating the attacks on Obama, I wanted to jump in and satirize those.

Q: Are you preaching to the choir or hoping for some converts?
A: I'm always hoping to speak to people who are on the fence, people who aren't quite sure. Maybe they're nervous about voting for someone fairly new to them. The choir also needs a song or two every now and then.

Q: You say the Democrats are correct on most of the issues, but they're scared and sleep with night lights. Why do you think they're so frightened?
A: It's partly our fault. We've allowed the timid wing of the Democrat Party to call the shots. I think Americans like Republicans because they actually say what they believe in. They're not afraid to say it. Even when it's crazy! Even when scientific fact proves them wrong. There's something about that that the average American admires. The stick-to-itiveness. If Democrats don't have the guts to fight fire with fire, they'll lose again.

Q: Do you think you have as much fun being Michael Moore as Rush Limbaugh has being Rush Limbaugh?
A: It's a hard question to answer. I enjoy being an American, and it's an interesting and exciting time in which we live. I've been blessed to have this forum. I feel privileged, and I take none of it for granted.

Q: You've given six proposals to fix the election system. Which is the most important? Elections on Saturdays?
A: Yes. I think a lot of people don't make it to the polls because they're working more hours. More people have second and third jobs. I also think the best way to vote is with a piece of paper and a No. 2 pencil. It's the easiest way.
Q: Are you hopeful Obama has a chance?
A: I'm going to feel really good Nov. 4 if it turns out our fellow Americans are willing to take a leap of faith. … It'll be a historic moment.
Q: Are you going to the Democratic convention next week?
A: No. I'm going to stay in Michigan. I'll do whatever I can to deliver Michigan to Obama. I'm going to do what I can to convince fellow white guys with a high school education to consider Obama.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/n...uestions_N.htm

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This should bring many voters to Obama ..... nothing like Michael Moore to sway the minds of average Americans.

Chief · 08-21-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doomsday101

It is folks like Dean that make me feel like McCain has a real chance in this election.

Exactly.

This guy is a joke. His lunatic sound byte from 2004 will live forever.

Howard Dean ....

Chief · 08-21-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbgun

Excellent. One is a shrill, unlikeable woman and the other is Nancy Pelosi.

**trickblue** · 08-21-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by zrinkill

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean was the biggest celebrity to about 80 UNLV students and Democratic activists who gathered Wednesday to rally support for presidential candidate Barack Obama.

--snip--

"You are more powerful than Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, all those right-wingers," Dean said, to hectoring boos from a small group of Republican protesters gathered in the back of the university's Holbert Hendrix Auditorium.

ummm... 80 is a small crowd to begin with... a small group of Republican protestors must have numbered what, 2 or 3?

Holbert Hendrix Auditorium holds 1500 so that must have been an awe inspiring crowd.

**ScipioCowboy** · 08-21-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by zrinkill

Not Gore ..... but even better

Michael Moore offers his 'Election Guide'

Q: You say the Democrats are correct on most of the issues, but they're scared and sleep with night lights. Why do you think they're so frightened?
A: It's partly our fault. We've allowed the timid wing of the Democrat Party to call the shots. I think Americans like Republicans because they actually say what they believe in. They're not afraid to say it. Even when it's crazy! Even when scientific fact proves them wrong. There's something about that that the average American admires.

Oh, the irony.

Few people are wrong more often and more loudly than Michael Moore.

Quote:

The stick-to-itiveness.

Michael, do you mean tenacity?