I love that he got a barb in while defending himself -- "positions or lack of positions". Hah!
Luke Francl | Email | Homepage | 04.08.03 - 11:10 am | #

Based on your excerpt, Dean handled this exactly right.

(Hopefully, McAuliffe is not trying to muzzle some people in order to give advantage to others.)
viv acia | Email | Homepage | 04.08.03 - 12:03 pm | #

Playing nice has been Terry McAuliffe's SOP, and it screwed us in 2002 mid-terms. Marc Racicot doesn't play nice, George Bush doesn't play nice, and they're running the show now. This is why I give all my money to Dean and NOT the DNC.

Yes, Dean is outspoken and direct, but that's exactly what brought most of us into the fold - it electrifies us when a candidate puts aside the BS double-speak and says what is true! He attacks policy decisions by his opponents, and as he points out, their aides come out and assail his character or call him "not a serious candidate"...which is beginning to look like a threadbare argument. I think the American people, NOT Terry McAulife, will ultimately decide what message they want to hear, and from whom.
Ray MInchew | Email | Homepage | 04.08.03 - 12:07 pm | #

We should be alert to the latest Republican retreat - they no longer claim they are questioning Kerry's and Dean's patriotism, but rather their "judgement".

Read the opinionjournal.com best of the web column for a nice summary of the current Republican party line.

This is, of course, a lie. Tom DeLay's (French name, I mean, FREEDOM name, isn't it?) press release was titled "America before New Hampshire", clearly meant to imply that antiwar remarks are cynical and unAmerican.

This is becoming a very common strategy used by the Republican propaganda machine - they imply something big, such as that Kerry is being unAmerican, couching it in language that implies the charge, but not out-and-out says it. Then, if someone challenges the assertion, they retreat to a banal, much less controversal reading of their own remarks.


SZ | Email | Homepage | 04.08.03 - 3:48 pm | #

"Playing nice has been Terry McAuliffe's SOP, and it screwed us in 2002 mid-terms."

I completely agree. Maybe candidates should just do the opposite of whatever McAuliffe says.
Theresa in Oakland | Email | Homepage | 04.09.03 - 6:02 am | #

I had some sources inside the DNC up until last year, but every last one quit or was fired because they couldn't stomach McAuliffe's incompetence. He's been spending all his time chasing his great white whales (new headquarters, fundraising databases), with almost no time spent on figuring out how to fix the one glaring weakness in the recent Democratic approach to elections, which is of course presenting clear alternatives to the GOP.
LeftLeaner | Email | Homepage | 04.09.03 - 6:54 pm | #